by John Laesch, posted on Sunday, April 7th, 2013 at 8:03 am
Pam Verner took the time to contact all 18 school districts and ask when the school board planned on voting for or against the K12 Inc. application for a charter school. Thanks to Heather Steans, Stand for Children, and wealthy charter school backers, the law (SB79) requires school districts to vote 30 days after the public hearing.
While the public comments section is officially closed, we are still encouraging people to attend these hearings, add your comments of opposition at the beginning of the meeting and have your voice heard. Here are the dates that school districts said they anticipated a vote:
April 8, Monday
Naperville District 204 @ 7:00 p.m.
Crouse Education Center
780 Shoreline Drive
Aurora, IL 60504
630-375-3000
West Aurora District 129 @ 6:00 P.M.
West Aurora High School
1201 West New York Street
Aurora, IL 60506
– Meeting will be held in the Library.
Closed session first, then “may” vote on K12.
Geneva District 304 @ 7:00 P.M.
Williamsburg Elementary School
1812 Williamsburg Avenue
Geneva, IL 60134
630-463-3010
by John Laesch, posted on Saturday, March 23rd, 2013 at 5:52 pm
K12 Inc., a for-profit virtual learning company is pitching their services to 18 Illinois school districts, attempting to exploit Illinois’ weak charter laws. K12 Inc. executives have handled presentations at 16 of the 18 schools in which they have submitted an application for a virtual charter. Geneva’s school district 304 held a hearing on March 11th and the applicant did not show. The final hearing is in District 365U (Romeoville and Bolingbrook).
Please join Northern Illinois Jobs with Justice (RSVP via this link) at the final public hearing to express your opposition to K12 Inc’s taxpayer rip-off scheme. This Wall Street company is trying to rip-off taxpayers in the amount of $8,000 per customer (students that they sign up).
When: Wednesday, March 27th @ 6:30 p.m.
Where: Valley View D365U School Service Center (755 Dalhart Ave., Romeoville, IL 60446)
The first vote for or against K12’s virtual charter scam is going to be held in East Aurora, District 131. Please join NIJwJ (RSVP via this link) and encourage the board to vote “no.”
When: April 1st @ 7:00 p.m.
Where: School Services Center (417 Fifth St., Aurora, IL 60505)
by John Laesch, posted on Saturday, March 23rd, 2013 at 7:33 am
When the K12 Inc. executive stammered, Dean Fisher, a Yorkville School Board member repeated his question, “defend your profit model.” The questions came after the K12 Inc. corporate executive had made a 20-minute presentation to the board and administrators of Yorkville District 115.
by VideoNewsService, posted on Monday, October 8th, 2012 at 9:58 pm
Members from several groups came together on October 5th at the Elgin, Illinois Walmart to show their support for striking Walmart workers at Walmart’s largest distribution center at Elwood, near Joliet,Illinois.
by VideoNewsService, posted on Wednesday, May 9th, 2012 at 11:15 am
NATO protest organizer Andy Thayer gives reasons to protest the NATO summit at Elgin Community College on April 12, 2012. The summit will be held in Chicago, May 20-21, 2012.
by Ellen McClennan, posted on Sunday, May 6th, 2012 at 10:06 pm
A group of about forty people from Northern Illinois Jobs With Justice gathered in the noon day sun outside Illinois Senator Mike Noland‘s office in Elgin on Friday, May 4th. The people wanted Senator Noland to hear their concerns about the lack of revenue and funding for Illinois teachers’ pensions. Senator Noland is one of four legislators appointed by Quinn to a task force to solve this issue. While earlier State Senator Mike Noland (D-Elgin) had informed the group he would not be present to respond to their rally, he unexpectedly showed up
John Laesch, from NIJWJ, announced the rally was about the group’s concern regarding the State’s lack of funding for teachers’ pensions, but Noland didn’t seem to understand until the end of the rally that the citizens standing before him had not been sent by the Illinois Education Association (IEA) and were instead concerned citizens and workers—about half of whom happened to be teachers.
“This is a workers’ issue. And we are concerned that our legislators have not funded our teachers’ pensions. We have a revenue problem here. This is a concern to all taxpayers and to all people who work for a living,” said Laesch.
