Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner, his temp employee Chief of Staff Bob Vaughan and greedy developer Perry Bigelow used and exploited education funding in their scam to kill the drive-in theater for financial benefit, claiming they wanted to help East Aurora School District 131 and how the district was financially-strapped compared to the West Aurora School District 129. East has significant less money than West is basically how it goes.
For those of you brand new to this blog (welcome!), we have a banner at the Openline Studios that reads:
"Anything Tom Weisner or Bob Vaughan says should be assumed to be false, misleading and/or deceptive unless proven otherwise by verified facts."
The average person in the Aurora area has been led to believe the East Aurora School District needs more money and district officials point to their low assessed value of properties within the district as the reasons for raising taxes and why there has been poor academic performance compared to their counterparts in West Aurora School District 129. Both districts have similar numbers of students and schools.
Leaving aside our $5 million gift we've offered to the East Aurora School District, we wanted to focus on REVENUE and check facts.
All figures are FY05 (ending June 30, 2005) and based upon the Kane County Regional Board of Education's numbers.
EAST AURORA 131 Revenue
>State/Federal..................$60,825,650
>Local...............................$29,306,050
WEST AURORA 129 Revenue
>State/Federal..................$34,034,949
>Local...............................$56,480,460
TOTAL REVENUE
>East Aurora......................$90,131,700
>West Aurora.....................$90,515,409
Ca-ching!
For those of you brand new to this blog (welcome!), we have a banner at the Openline Studios that reads:
"Anything Tom Weisner or Bob Vaughan says should be assumed to be false, misleading and/or deceptive unless proven otherwise by verified facts."
The average person in the Aurora area has been led to believe the East Aurora School District needs more money and district officials point to their low assessed value of properties within the district as the reasons for raising taxes and why there has been poor academic performance compared to their counterparts in West Aurora School District 129. Both districts have similar numbers of students and schools.
Leaving aside our $5 million gift we've offered to the East Aurora School District, we wanted to focus on REVENUE and check facts.
All figures are FY05 (ending June 30, 2005) and based upon the Kane County Regional Board of Education's numbers.
EAST AURORA 131 Revenue
>State/Federal..................$60,825,650
>Local...............................$29,306,050
WEST AURORA 129 Revenue
>State/Federal..................$34,034,949
>Local...............................$56,480,460
TOTAL REVENUE
>East Aurora......................$90,131,700
>West Aurora.....................$90,515,409
Ca-ching!
18 comments:
That blows away what I thought! If you believe the myths, District 131 has significantly less MONEY than District 129. I have never seen this information published in the newspaper. Thank you!
Very interesting. I had no idea they were so close in revenue. I guess it makes me more concerned than ever about how mismanaged D131 has been. Something is terribly wrong.
So, if the revenue is similar, then what is D131's excuse? They are spending more money per student, so what is going on?
Can you say Corruption boys and girls? I knew you could! Mr. Rogers on District #131
The whole School Board needs to be removed. At the last board meeting I attended they all whined about how dist 131 was just so under funded and oh woowies me.
What a bunch of knobs to have the gall to say that when the facts are they are the 3rd highest spender per student in Kane county and they get almost no results.
Instead of the students protest on imigration reform they should all boycott their crappy educators.
I applaud openline for their continued efforts on this issue. The myths unfortunately have become truths to some and I believe some on the Board of Education. Now is the time to start stating reality and facts.
If you look at the minutes (board bits) of the last school board meeting, Mr. Jerome Roberts requested that a "fact" sheet be compiled and distributed to residents to help pass the upcoming referendum.
The Board is suppose to have a public hearing in August on this matter. I would start talking to any and every person you know about attending this hearing and letting the Board know that enough is enough and no longer will we be subjected to incompetence.
As for the removal of the school board. I agree most need to be removed and I believe a State takeover is what is needed. I urge you to call the Kane Regional School office and the Illinois State Board of Education.
We can Bit%& all we want on this blog, but the county and state need to know we mean business.
I would still like to know why alderman kifowit thinks that a tax increase is a good thing for this district.
She stated this at the city council meeting when the drive-in was killed.
Probably because she is a democrat and that is the only way democrats know how to fix a problem throw money at it.
I have hope for her though at least she listens to what the people want and Tom hates her, anybody Tom hates is a friend of mine.
I for one would not vote for a tax increase. When you see the numbers did you notice that as the tax base went up the state gives less? There are tools out there to benchmark schools to see how the ones doing well handle things. They will also work with schools to help them.
I think Alderman Kifowit wants to see the best for the STUDENTS of the district. This isn't a Democrat or Republican thing. She and Rick Lawrence and have been trying to save taxpayers from Weisner's crazy tax increases. So-called Republicans like Whitey Petesr and Chris Beykirch have supported massive tax increases.
You can reach Dr. Clem Mejia (the regional superintendent for Kane County Schools) thru their web site at www.kane.k12.il.us/. Let him know how you feel about these situations. It is his responsibility to watch over the local school boards. Perhaps with enough emails, calls, and letters he will investigate, finally, what's going on in this district.
It is irrevelent where this money comes from, locally thru taxes or from the state, it is OUR MONEY. We the tax payers in the state of Illinois. The funds have been mismanaged for years and the students are the real losers here. We as tax payers have been made fools of but the kids have been short changed on the education we promised them. They are told to work hard, study, ask questions, get involved and we will be there to support you. But the administration and board of this district has robbed them.
Together we can put a stop to this. Write Dr. Mejia, contact the regional school board from this website. Tell them what you know, how you feel, and to do what they have been put in office to do.
Thank you all for your comments. To clarify, at council I stated that the revenue from the Drive In will not help D131. I stated that the problem is a State Funding issue. Right now the funding most needed for school D131 is for people to vote in the referendum in the fall.
District 131 thinks it needs the money. My point with that statement was really geared at the fact that the concerned Bigelow people will not help with the referendum, even though they stated they were concerned for money for the schools. They did nothing for the School Bus referendum when I worked three months straight with the committee of mostly East High parents, and did almost all of the fundraising for it. So, maybe this wasn't conveyed in the matter which I had hoped.
I think people need to make up their own minds on whether to support the referendum or not. It is important to be an informed voter, and I think openline is doing a pretty good job at getting the ball rolling. However, I would not rely on Openline for all your information. The school information is public knowledge, it is published on their website, and I encourage everyone to do their own homework. You can even e-mail the district and request information. It is all public information.
Thanks again to everyone for their support!!
We consider the East Aurora School District in CRISIS with many factors related to this situation.
There are various problems, some related to certain members of the district's board, management and policies. Money is part of the puzzle.
Our goal is to stop the cycle of darkness about these issues, help identify the problems and FIND SOLUTIONS. We strongly encourage people to seek information, ask questions, attend meetings and get involved in this issue.
We also note Alderman Kifowit has worked hard for the best interests of the school district. The Bigelow agents have worked hard ONLY for their own selfish interests and against the best interets of the community.
I agree the referendum is important and will have a positive influence for the kids. But the referendum will fail. Tommie beat them to the punch and raised taxes already. People are sick and tired of having their taxes raised...bad news for dist 131 to have to compete with a city that now is trapped in a downward spiral of tax-spend- borrow and screw tomorrow.
This referendum is DOA. Sorry 131 you will have to be creative and all the high paid administrators are going to work REEEEEEAl hard for their salary this next decade.
The bottom line is the school board is incompitent and unresponsable and needs to resign. The fact is all the money is wasted on administration cost and the education quality is some of the worst out there.
I think we should all jsut stop paying our taxes so that can't misspend our money anymore.
I mean if they can act to irresponsibly with our money lets take it away from them. They have already spent 5 Million more than they have and we are expected to just sti back and take it?
Screw them!
THought I would share this from the 'Fishwrap'
No praise, just fix problems
I don't really understand why an entire page was devoted to Mr. Vaughan retiring ("From teacher to principal to administrator," June 26)? The article did not represent any of the individual school results, yet it proclaimed he "shaped education on Aurora's East Side for 35 years." I have a serious problem when our schools are failing the basic skills tests, mandatory dress codes are in place and metal detectors are at the doors. What results can he be satisfied with? I am not satisfied that the property taxes continue to rise and that the school needs to try and pass referendums. What are the East Siders paying for? I don't think we need the state to place us on yet another probation period; we need to see real results from our administrators and teachers.
I do not think Mr. Vaughan isn't a thoughtful or caring person, but for him to say, "I'm very satisfied," leaves a lot to say for our school system. I'm sure he along with all the other Aurora citizens want only the best for our future leaders. I feel that so much needs to be done for the children that we should not praise until we fix our problems.
Scott Martin
Aurora
07/04/06
I am upset also with our State Government. All this $!@& about improving schools with No Child Left Behind. I guess if it were one child they might get involved but since it is thousands, entire district, there are no answers. This district should have been taken over years ago by the State if they had been following their own rules. Instead there are no schools to take on the students that are failing. AFter all we only have one high school. Waubonsee or West isn't taking on our challenges. All three junior highs are in trouble so where do you send those kids? There are a few options for the grade schools but why try when they get to junior high they will just fail again. We have been left out in the cold by the administration and the state.
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