Taxes, Teachers Union Pay and High or Low Education Standards
There are very different choices in this school board election
in District 158.
1. My initiatives as a board member (with much persuasion and persistence)
have resulted in some remarkable improvements. I have a record of positive
accomplishments, will present some of them here, and hopefully will earn your
reelection vote.
2. Mr. Skala was voted out of office in the last election. As Board President
he pushed a large tax hike using a series of financial "deceptions"
(that's the term the Daily Herald used) to increase everyone's property taxes.
He voted for enormous teachers union raises and had no measureable goals for
educating our students.
I stand for the best education we can afford, insisting on high professional
and educational standards (not just talking about them come election time).
I have had more initiatives adopted than any other board member (by a huge
margin). They are literally saving our District millions of dollars and have
resulted in significantly higher ACT scores.
Mr. Skala's public track record is spend-and-tax politics: voting for enormous
teachers union pay raises, providing no accountability in education and management,
voting for deficit and wasteful spending and then increasing everyone's taxes
to repeat the cycle.
I am an effective check and balance, valuable voice and financial watchdog
on our Board. When Mr. Skala ran our district as Board President with a rubber
stamp Board, deceptions, scandals, cover-ups and corrupt practices were business
as usual.
The challenge I face in this election is typical of what residents faced when
Mr. Skala ran his tax hike campaign that amounted to consumer fraud: his politics
of deceiving voters by twisting, not telling, and distorting the truth.
After increasing everyone's property taxes, today Mr. Skala
has the audacity to write
on his web site: "Mike has also been an advocate for District 158 taxpayers."
Really? This shows Mr. Skala's willingness to mislead and trick voters. Outrageous
and typical.
I half expect him to say he trusted administrators too much who put this on
his web site. In terms of value added, as a professional, I do my homework
and bring professional initiatives and solutions to our Board.
A good case can be made how, with Mrs. Kim Skaja on our Board, Mr. Skala is
redundant.
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The Good
I insisted we spend our money wisely to positively impact our students'
education. My initiatives literally save D-158 millions of dollars. For 4
years I worked, proposal after proposal, getting too-expensive contracts rebid
and better solutions put in place. We were paying ridiculous costs on contracts
Mr. Skala publicly praised, (e.g. photocopier leases).
After analyzing budget details, I made sure we ended an unnecessary / expensive
energy consulting contract Mr. Skala kept secret. (no info. to full Board)
We no longer have a former board member as our health insurance broker. I
insisted on a self-insurance program (like other large districts) be handled
by a better professional organization.
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The Bad
Since 2005, Mr. Skala increased your property taxes, (extra) by over $2,000,
on a modestly assessed home.
In 2002, he brazenly voted for a teachers' contract where his wife, a D-158
teacher and union official, got over a 50% pay raise over four years. To pay
for this incredibly expensive contract, he then voted for deficit spending
and selling off our buses, replacing them with expensive leases.
To pay for his next too-expensive teachers' contract, Mr. Skala's tax hike
scheme used a series of financial deceptions, amounting to the equivalent
of consumer fraud. As Board President, Mr. Skala had complete access to our
lawyers' advice and how Illinois consumer fraud laws don't apply to referendum
tax increase campaigns. Anyone who opposed his tax increase was labeled "anti-education."
During his tax hike campaign, Mr. Skala could have truthfully told voters
about:
• 5 million dollars he made sure was not budgeted.
• 9 million of the 13 million of debt that got parked, unused, into a
money market account.
• There was no financial crisis; 4 new schools could open with more new
teachers and staff.
Many residents, including myself at the time, asked Mr. Skala to get his facts
straight. He refused.
He / his tax hiking friends now praise "his integrity", as if he
should be canonized "Saint Skala".
After Mr. Skala refused to listen and consider the facts I put in front of him, I publicly showed how his tax increase campaign was based on a fictional financial crisis. It did not exist.
Education and Management Issues
Superintendent Burkey agreed with me in calling our ACT scores "unacceptable". They were. For years Mr. Skala did nothing to improve them. I pushed for, and got adopted, specific measurable ACT, other test scores, and management goals. Mr. Skala argued against them. We now have significantly better ACT scores. Mr. Skala's politics were bragging how every student was receiving a "great" education while, in fact, he knew ACT scores were below State averages.
In our suburban district, I believe most parents/grandparents want their children to have a real opportunity to attend a good college. I advocated an academic goal for the percentage of students who are accepted / go on to a four year college. Mr. Skala opposed having any goal, at all (regardless of what the goal would be). We can do far better than Mr. Skala's que sera sera approach to our education goals.
Our Superintendent recommended hiring, as Curriculum Director, a friend of board members, with no curriculum experience. Several board members praised this recommendation. I took exception. I proposed a specific solution to find an experienced individual and persuaded the Board. The result? We hired and have an experienced Curriculum Director.
Rather than agreeably disagreeing on issues, Mr. Skala / his friends use character attacks, trying to create a negative public image of me as a board member. As in Mr. Skala's tax hike campaign, they insist their "facts" are correct and make distorted, exaggerated and false statements, going so far as to call me a "terrorist". Mr. Skala introduced winning-at-any-cost political tactics that viciously called good people "anti-education." We videotape our board meetings. Take a look. My professional behavior is respectful and a matter of record.
I know I am an imperfect human being. I remind myself of this when I pray
to God every day. But as a board member, I am effective and bring a depth
of positive contributions and experience. I stand up for doing what's right
for our taxpayers and students. Vote for Larry Snow on April 7th for more
positive accomplishments. It will also prevent Mr. increase-your-taxes Skala
from ruining our District.
May I have your support?
Larry Snow
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