I am currently a candidate for the Urbana School Board from Sub-District #7. I would very much like to hear comments/questions from voters regarding their concerns going into the April 17th election. I have my own thoughts and ideas about what we can do to improve our schools, but your comments and questions will be of great use to me as I continue to refine my own thinking.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Promoted to the front page, and time-stamp edited to bump it to the top.
Welcome to the blog, and I hope you get some great feedback.
I do have one question: If elected to the School Board, what policies should the Board enact in order to ensure anything like the allegatiosn facing Mr. White won't happen again?
It seems that my original reply to this question might have been lost during the server switch-over, so I will re-post.
1) Judging from comments I heard at the Thomas Paine Parents meeting, Mr. White's references from Normal may not have been checked. Often reference checks are left to chronically overworked school principals, so I suggest that Central Office take over responsibility for all reference checks to ensure they are done properly.
2) We must be sure that all school personnel understand that "Mandated Reporter" means just that. Urbana personnel should not do "internal investigations" because they are not trained investigators. If you have a suspicion or concern, call DCFS. You are not required to be able to prove your allegations; that task is the job of trained personnel at DCFS.
3) It seems like the procedures for supervising students may need some clarification, and this is certainly a task the School Board should take on to ensure everyone understands what should and should not be done in terms of supervision during the school day and after school.
Andrew Wilk
Just an update on the Thomas Paine situation if you have not heard: Jon White was recommended for non-renewal of his contract at last night's Board of Education meeting. Hopefully, this will help some parents and their children rest easier
Andrew Wilk
"Just an update on the Thomas Paine situation if you have not heard: Jon White was recommended for non-renewal of his contract at last night's Board of Education meeting."
Geez. I would hope so. I can't believe renewing his contract was even an option.
Andrew--I'm a Daily Illini reporter and we're trying to put together a comprehensive list of school board candidates, interviewing as many as possible. I'd like to talk to you sometime before this weekend. You can use the email that I provided in this comment to get in touch with me.
Thanks.
Sorry I missed your email until today. Email me at my home email if you still want to talk.
amwilk01@insightbb.com
Andrew Wilk
I'm going to leave this blog up for now to see if people might post regarding their questions about the Urbana Schools. I ran hoping to start a dialogue. Let's see if we can move the process along :)
Andrew Wilk