Letter to School District 3 School Board

This is the text of a letter to the Board that Amy and I wrote after the last meeting, specifically to address the reaction we have gotten in response to some of the questions and comments we have brought. It is an effort to make our group's intentions clear, and to promote understanding and cooperation. I am posting it here and to the e-mail group, so that people can view and comment on it.

Steve


Fox River Grove School District 3
Board of Education
403 Orchard St.
Fox River Grove, IL 60021

Dear Mrs. President, Members of the Board, and District 3 Administrators:

Over the past few months, we have attended School Board meetings on behalf of the people of Fox River Grove associated with Partnership for Schools. During these meetings, we have gathered and brought to your attention questions and concerns from people who have asked us to bring these to your attention. We have also made note of your answers, and of decisions and discussions made by the Board. We have published summaries of these notes to an e-mail group of Fox River Grove citizens, and to our website, www.PartnershipForSchools.org. We have worked to foster discussion, understanding, and ideas about issues and topics raised by the Board.

We have noticed that the questions and concerns we raise during the Public Comment portion of the Board meetings have been met with wariness, and in some instances, disdain. It occurred to me that perhaps you are unclear about what Partnership for Schools is. After all, we entered the scene rather quickly after the referendum vote, and we never formally introduced ourselves. I would like to take this opportunity to explain what Partnership for Schools is, and what it is not.

Partnership for Schools was born in the wake of the April referendum vote. After the referendum passed, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Daily Herald asking questions of the District pertaining to the structure of the District administrative positions. For weeks after the letter was published, members of the community came to me, on the streets, at the library, at my church, all saying that they had been asking themselves the same questions. In addition, many expressed a desire to be involved, to do something, and asked me what they could do. I really didn’t know, so I set about to find out.

I thought the most direct thing people could do to get involved was to attend School Board meetings, so I began attending them. What I found was, yes, this is the most direct way for people to become informed on the issues in the District and to ask questions of and make comments to the Board. Sadly, however, this option was not open to everyone who wanted to take advantage of it. Some people cannot attend meetings because of work, commuting to and from work, or because of other previous obligations, such as their children’s activities. These people have questions and comments, and have a desire to be more informed and involved in the issues facing the District, but because of their schedule, they are unable to involve themselves.

That’s where Partnership for Schools came in. We work to provide a means to involvement for many people in Fox River Grove. We are neither pro-referendum nor anti-referendum, nor do we come bearing the torch for any particular political agenda; rather, we hope to inform and amplify the voices of all of the people of Fox River Grove, many of whom you have not had the opportunity to hear. We believe that, despite all of our differences – pro-referendum, anti-referendum, parents, teachers, retirees, homeowners, renters, people with children in the District and people without children in the District – we all share some common goals: to keep the District adequately funded and fiscally sound, and to provide the best education to our children. We may disagree on the best way to accomplish these goals, and it is in our differences we find our strength. From our different opinions we generate discussion and ideas. We ask questions and seek answers. We talk about what’s important to us, and listen to what’s important to our neighbors. From our different points-of-view, we can find understanding.

Through our website, www.PartnershipForSchools.org, we try to provide a portal of information relevant to the District. On the website, you can find links to organizations concerned with District 3 or with education issues. Other pages provide general information about Partnership for Schools, a place to contact us for further information, or to submit questions or comments, and a weblog, or blog, where news, Board Meeting summaries, and other information is posted for people to read and comment on whenever they have the time. We also provide an e-mail list, so people can begin or further conversations about issues in District 3. Our goal is inform and involve without agenda, or rather, with many agendas. We invite participation from all points-of-view, with the idea that no one person or organization has all of the answers, but together, we can find the most effective approaches to the challenges we face.

Though our questions and comments may seem uninformed to Board members and District administrators who deal with education issues day-to-day, they are all questions and comments from residents in the community. We hope the School Board will take the opportunity during these Public Comment portions of the meetings to provide information and understanding, and to listen to members of the community whose voices have gone largely unheard. After all, we are all in this together.

Thank you for your time and your service to the community. We hope that in the coming months and years, we can continue to find partnership with you in making District 3 the very best it can be.

Sincerely,


Stephen Pickering
Amy Dawson


Partnership for Schools