From Point A to Point B!

By -- DragonArtz Designs

In a May 10, 2010 online article by the Herald-Advocate,Scores vs. salaries: Survey shows pay outpacing performance, we read --

A study published last month in the Sun-Times showed that some Illinois school districts pay their teachers well but receive mediocre test scores in return. Districts that serve Niles and Park Ridge rank high in both salaries and test scores, with the expenditures sometimes outranking performance.

In each of three districts in the area, test scores trailed to varying degrees behind salaries. Maine High School District 207's salaries ranked eighth out of 483, with an average of $89,356, and its Prairie State Achievement Exam test scores ranked 102nd, with an average of 68.6. Park Ridge-Niles School District 64's salaries ranked 35th out of 769 with an average of $66,323.04, and its Illinois Standards Achievement Test scores ranked 55th with an average of 93.1.

The reporting seems straight-forward and simple enough. So what's the explanation for the discrepancy and apparent lack of teachers' salaries being tied to and based upon performance measures?

District 207 Superintendent Ken Wallace said the simplicity of an approach like the one the Sun-Times took can make its conclusions misleading.

"Part of the problem with some studies is that they make broad generalizations without doing sophisticated statistical inferences to make sense of what all that data means," he said. "We've got rigorous studies showing that among the top high school districts in Illinois we are getting better performance out of our students than many.

"One study shows that we are second among all districts when you factor in whether students are low-income and how many of their parents went to college."

Oh. Now we get it -- the straight-foward approach lacks "sophisticated statistical inferences." The PRU Crew is wondering if that's the school district equivalent of "the fulcrum of the genesis" where the school district is a "synergistic center" of learning?

The PRU Crew sure would like to get a look at those "rigorous studies."

Superintendant Wallace goes on to say --

Wallace pointed out that while some schools in the northern suburbs of Chicago are relatively homogeneous, Maine East High School educates students who speak about 60 different languages in their homes.

Oh. Now we get it -- some kids no speaka da Engrish. Dang furinears!

The PRU Crew did wonder if those "60 different languages" spoken in the homes of those students is to be construed as meaning those students aren't speaking Engrish at school and what percentage of the district's student body isn't speaking Engrish at school. But we're probably lacking "sophisticated...inferences" somewhere in our thinking.

And if anyone ever doubted the old mantra of location, location, location --

District 207 administrators said their high rank in salaries is partly due to location, and partly to timing. Wallace said the district's salaries are competitive with those of other school districts in the northern suburban region.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Mary Kalou said the high salaries were agreed upon at a collective-bargaining agreement in 2007, before the current recession began.

Oh. Now we get it -- being competitive with other school districts in the northern suburban region is fine and dandy, as long as the issue is teacher salaries. But whatever you do, don't even think about comparing salary levels in conjunction with other school districts academic performance. And anyone who suggests consideration of any direct connection between the two is just not very sophisticated!

The article concludes --

"This contract is similar to bargains we have settled in the past. The biggest difference is the downturn in the economy that occurred. Salaries negotiated after the downturn look very different," she said. "When ours expires in 2012, we will look at salaries, and, given the economic situation, where we should go."

Got it. Market forces within and without of the educational arena will be looked at, but there won't be any consideration given to any comparison of district test scores as a measure of teacher performance, which may merit the salaries the union can be expected to demand.

COW 5-10-2010 - Video

Enjoy the show!

COW Pow Wow!

Should our faithful PRU readers have nothing better to do this evening, you may want to attend tonight's Council COW!

Tonight's COW agenda (.pdf) covers Public Safety and Public Works. The two most interesting items on tonight's agenda appear to be the discussions under Public Works -- Land Grades on single family residential properties (.pdf) and Commuter parking in residential and commercial areas (.pdf).

In the second memo about parking, the PRU Crew found the following quote very interesting --

"The basis for this recommendation is to avoid setting a precedent that cannot be fulfilled for other businesses."

Things that make us go hhhmmm...

Thursday PRU Briefs!

1. -- Out with the old!

For those who may have missed the announcement by City Manager Hock, the Director of Community Preservation and Development, Ms. Carrie Davis, enjoyed her last day of gainful employment with the City of Park Ridge last Friday.

It is our understanding the assistant to the City Manager, Ms. Cathy Doczekalski -- bet you can't say that fast, five times! -- will be overseeing the department, at least for the time being.

Good luck to Ms. Davis in her future endeavors.

May the good Lord have mercy on Ms. Doczekalski.


2. -- In with the new!

The new City website is up and running and if you are an obsessive mouse clicker, then has the City got a website for you!

Our PRU.TECH adds -- and not a lick of drupal in the source code to be found. Then again, why bother with free open source code when you've got a local company eager to copy and license their own CMS? It's not like the City of Park Ridge could afford either one or another of the web designers at Blue State Digital.

We hope the geeks in the crowd -- we mean that in the nicest way -- have a good time figuring that out.


3. -- Rudyard Kipling and FOIA -- Part deux!

As promised, the Butterly on Education blog has posted another installment of FOIA Fun! The latest piece offers "A few points to keep in mind on your way to becoming a FOIA maven." As well as providing step-by-step strategy instructions --

Butterly's five steps for FOIA requests.

1. Pick your target.
2. Determine who to send the FOIA to.
3. Perfect your question.
4. Send via e-mail.
5. Await your answer.

4. -- Happy Mother's Day!



Or if you prefer --



And there's always --



Enjoy the weekend!

Freshman Year Is Over!

One year ago, Mayor Dave Schmidtkrieg took the oath of office and was seated as the freshman Mayor of Park Ridge, IL. And now Mayor Schmidtzkrieg's freshman year is over -- time for final grades!

Math Skills -- C

We had hoped your final budget veto exam would have produced a better final grade. But your math is a bit fuzzy, you failed to show your work, and you failed to complete some equations. We understand why you chose to estimate next year's budget projections based upon last year's budget projections, but we feel you could have done a much better job of formulating your answers.

We also found your class participation, over the ten session budget course you signed up for, rather disappointing. We note the rules of participation for the Mayor's engagement in discussion and debate were changed during your tenure as an Alderman -- while the Council has failed to follow the rules it voted to institute, consistent practice has allowed the Mayor to engage in discussion and debate to the heart's content, and you have not taken advantage of the opportunity.

One of your best attempts at problem solving occurred when you undertook to formulate a workable solution to the water fund deficit -- however, your budget veto address seemed to call into question, if not contradict, your own calculations about the projections of the water fund balance.

Your other best attempt at problem solving was your overall, general attempt to work with positive numbers. Calling for a balanced budget -- a correction to your two previous year's work as an Alderman engaged in the manipulation of negative numbers -- was an excellent effort which has some potential to produce the only balanced city budget in the black since the Spring of 2006-2007, right before you were seated as an Alderman.

Language Arts -- D

You began the year with a strong showing -- the PRU Crew appreciated many of your well-worded press releases and emails to supporters. However, over the last half of the year, you seemed to become distracted and your dissertations on issues seemed rushed, shallow, and plaintive. You failed to properly correct misinformation in the public domain and you failed to properly elucidate the fine points of issues and your positions. Additionally, while we don't have access to your fraternity's files, we believe the work you've submitted for review is not necessarily your own.

Your lack of communication and attention to the commissions and task forces you created left a vacuum of balancing opinion and thought and now you are faced with both policy and political problems which will undermine your good government agenda and goals. The PROAC and Flood Control Task Force, both of which you created and populated with your appointees, are prime examples of bodies with which you have failed to adequately communicate through attendance and participation at their open forums.

We're not fans of social media such as Face Book, but we understand there are plenty of people who are -- and you are one of them. We understand your desire to reach out in an informal way to supporters and friends. However, if you are using your Face Book account for the creation and maintenance of personal friendships we strongly suggest you remove your personal Face Book account from your official campaign/Mayoral website. Or if you are using your Face Book account for political promotion, and we believe you are since it was originally created and placed on your electdaveschmidt.com website, then we strongly urge you not to limit access to readers. We note, as far as we know and have found through a cursory search, you are the only politician with a Face Book account who does not provide unfettered access to constituent readers.

We strongly encourage you to refrain from any and all discussion of city business on any social media account you may hold -- and when anyone, especially one of your task force appointees, on your friends list (Dick Barton? Chris Provenzano? Seriously?) attempts to open up such a discussion you immediately nip it in the bud and removing the comment would be advisable.

Science -- D

Leadership is not only an art, it's also a science. A leader must understand the way in which instruments can be used and the correct scientific method for their use. We find your employment of the instruments at your disposal, and the methods you use, to be rather lacking.

The biggest test you faced as a leader was when you tried to use the ethics ordinance instrument at your disposal. Your method of employing this instrument and the way in which you treated this instrument earned you a failing grade on one of the biggest tests any leader can face -- choosing enforcement of the law and prosecution of a wrong above any other consideration. The wasted time, energy, and resources was nothing less than gross mismanagement and manipulation of the instruments at your disposal.

What has kept you from earning a total failing grade in this subject area is the leadership effort you've made in the subject area of math -- taking responsibility to course-correct past errors in the overall, general approach you've taken on seeking a balanced budget.

Social Studies - F

Where to begin?

During your freshman year as Mayor, you demonstrated far too much fraternity and far too little egalite.

Your refusal to consider your own campaign rhetoric in the area of social needs services, your failure to demand evidence of the accusations being made about certain community groups, and your equivocating position on special event cost reviews leave us scratching our heads.

We find your lack of demand for total accountability from each of the community groups and private organizations which have come under scrutiny to be a failing of one of your most foundational campaign positions -- transparency. We're also very well aware of your failure to provide total transparency in other areas of public policy consideration, but those assignments remain incomplete, so we have not factored them into your grade.

Your seeming abandonment of your campaign rhetoric about preserving Park Ridge as a bedroom community in light of your silence on the newest liquor license is strange. We understand Mr. Ed Berry was one of your campaign contributors, and that you consider him and Mr. Declan Stapleton to be your friends, and so you disclosed the economic relationship and recused yourself from the public discussions. However, we believe you should also understand that disclosure does not require recusal from discussion. We believe you chose recusal on the subject as a way of providing yourself with political cover. We are not opposed to changes in the environment of Park Ridge, especially if a seeming majority of residents favor some changes, but we aren't willing to accept a representative's silence on any subject under the guise of ethical conduct when we strongly suspect political expediency as the motivation.

Finally, in the subject area of social studies -- lay off the goddamn beer. And for added strength of character, you may want to review a recent court settlement from Des Plaines -- and we don't mean the billboard case.

Your final average grade for your freshman year as the Mayor of Park Ridge, IL. is a D. You have not met your potential. We hope for a better showing during your sophomore year -- try not to be sophomoric about it.

2010 Budget -- Mayor's Veto Message -- and Video

2010MAYORVETOMSG

And the video of last night's meeting is done processing --

A Really Big Shoo Tonight!

It's a really big shoo set to take place at 505 Butler Place! The agenda (.pdf) for tonight's City Council meeting includes the long anticipated Budget Veto Message from Mayor Schmidtzkrieg. And as we expected, Mayor Schmidtzkrieg intends to pass the hot potato budget buck back to the City Council -- our expectations were confirmed in an email Mayor Schmidtzkrieg sent out last week.

From: "Dave Schmidt" dave@parkridgemayor.com
To: supporters@electdaveschmidt.com

Good evening-

Most of you know that the City Council passed a budget resolution on April 17 which I termed as "hopelessly flawed." On the surface it appears to be balanced, but I have analyzed the projected revenue figures and believe they are overstated, perhaps by as much as $1.2million, possibly even more. Meanwhile, the budget which was adopted will result in the layoffs of six police department personnel and members of the fire and public works departments. Additionally, the City's non-union staff has been cut, and those who remain will have their salaries frozen for a second year in a row.

Against that backdrop, the Council voted to spend over $350,000 on contributions to community groups and to fund the fight against O'Hare expansion. I have received many phone calls and e-mails from residents who have implored me to leave those expenditures in the budget, and even more calls and messages insisting that they be removed. I have also received much advice on whether I should veto the entire budget or simply veto those parts of the budget that I feel are unnecessary or unwise expenditures. Some believe that the latter course of action is the only way I can exhibit "leadership" on the budget issue.

I have given the matter a lot of thought and consulted with the City Attorney on the extent of my powers. I have also played out different scenarios in my mind, and I have concluded that the best course of action is to veto the entire budget and try again. I plan to explain the basis for my projected revenue concerns and the reasons for the veto in greater detail on Monday evening, but for now I can summarize my thought process as follows:

First, I cannot line item veto inflated revenue projections, only expenditures. The City Council needs to take a much harder look at those projections and adopt a far more conservative approach than it has to date. Once those revenue projections have been revised, then the Council needs to decide how to increase revenues and further cut expenditures to achieve an actual balanced budget.

I will recommend that the aldermen start with the O'Hare and community group expenditures. The aldermen should also consider additional staff reductions and/or furlough days to reduce the City's overall personnel expense, something I also cannot do by way of a line item veto. The Council also needs to look once more at the library's budget. I do believe that the library is an essential part of the fabric of our town, but not every program offered by the library is, itself, essential.

I know the aldermen do not relish more budget discussions, but we were all elected to do a job, and it is essential to the financial survival of the City that we do the job right. It is my hope that the aldermen will recognize their obligation to the citizens and sustain my veto.

We're looking forward to hearing Mayor Schmidtzkrieg's analysis of City Manager Hock's projected revenues, and we cannot wait to hear Mayor Schmidtzkrieg's recommendations for cuts to community group expenditures and additional staff reductions.

It promises to be one helluva really big shoo tonight!