Wheaton Warrenville school board to release records, Illinois S...

I dare every school district to publish their superintendent contract online. We would be shock to see all the perks that add up to thousand of dollars hidden from the taxpayers!
Many of these contracts have perks that last way beyond the length of employment.

I know this is gonna be tough on the school board. But maybe, just maybe, they will realize who they work for. If they don't, off with their heads. Then we'll see how well they eat cake.

Why are they hiding just about every thing about what they are doing with our money.

That guy should be required to pay for the school's legal fees. And what is the deal with Madigan wanting the power to settle records disputes? You know that will end up being non-transparent. "Oh sorry, the AG settled the case, we only need to disclose the salary, and nothing else". The court has set clear precedent here, public officials' contracts are public record and cannot be withheld from disclosure. Let's see if the Daley people will continue their non-dislosure policies.

nosey goo-goos

Hmm wrote:

That guy should be required to pay for the school's legal fees. And what is the deal with Madigan wanting the power to settle records disputes? You know that will end up being non-transparent. "Oh sorry, the AG settled the case, we only need to disclose the salary, and nothing else". The court has set clear precedent here, public officials' contracts are public record and cannot be withheld from disclosure. Let's see if the Daley people will continue their non-dislosure policies.

Its not only Chicago its the whole darn state.

Just try to find out how much your congressman gets in federal perks.

It is the whole government.

The Crooks In DC wrote:

<quoted text>
Its not only Chicago its the whole darn state.

Taxpayer wrote:

Just try to find out how much your congressman gets in federal perks.
It is the whole government.
<quoted text>

Please understand, it's 95% of the politicians that give the rest of them a bad name.

I think that the $62,000+ should be divided by the school board members and reimbursed to the Wheaton taxpayers. It was an outrageous abuse of power, yet they were all re-elected! So it goes, politics as usual in our fair city. You'd think we were in Cook County!

Going Home2 wrote:

I dare every school district to publish their superintendent contract online. We would be shock to see all the perks that add up to thousand of dollars hidden from the taxpayers!
Many of these contracts have perks that last way beyond the length of employment.

Actually all PUBLIC schools DO publish the salaries of everyone-- teachers, principals, superintendents etc. Just go on the school website and look at the school board minutes. Because public schools are funded by public monies salaries are public knowledge. so if people wanted they can go to the school board minutes and see how much every employee of the school makes..

nothing is "hidden"

LIZ wrote:

<quoted text>
Actually all PUBLIC schools DO publish the salaries of everyone-- teachers, principals, superintendents etc. Just go on the school website and look at the school board minutes. Because public schools are funded by public monies salaries are public knowledge. so if people wanted they can go to the school board minutes and see how much every employee of the school makes..
nothing is "hidden"

This was more than just his salary; the entire employment contract was being sought. Interesting note: the Tribune itself requested access to this document under the current law and was told it could indeed get it. I believe the issue was that a gadfly wanted it and was turned down and successfully sued.

An invasion of privacy for a public servants contract? Make him renegotiate for private funding. These judges are living on another planet.

Commentator #1 is correct, there are many perks of public employment that don't make it into the official "salary" of public employees. Since it is taxpayer money, taxpayers have a right to know where the money is going.

Charge the school board members the $65,000 legal fee or make them resign.

For Liz:
Superintendents have a variety of perks not covered by the salary base. The superintendent in our district had the district pay family insurance for ten years after retiring, and then at age 65 it will be converted to individual coverage for life. You can imagine the cost of this perk! The district could be paying for a perk for over thirty years after retiring!

LIZ wrote:

<quoted text>
Actually all PUBLIC schools DO publish the salaries of everyone-- teachers, principals, superintendents etc. Just go on the school website and look at the school board minutes. Because public schools are funded by public monies salaries are public knowledge. so if people wanted they can go to the school board minutes and see how much every employee of the school makes..
nothing is "hidden"

I spent a few years writing for a suburban newspaper after college, and you wouldn't believe how some of these administrator contracts get larded up with expensive perks that no one ever hears about. "Housing stipends" and "moving expenses" were my personal favorites-- basically, the district would buy the superintendent a house in district, while also making continued payments on the house they left in their last district.

And a lot of districts are surprisingly difficult about sharing information-- I found that the bad ones never gave up anything until they were threatened with a lawsuit.

Man, Catalani is maxing out like a bandit! All from humble beginnings as the Principal of Thornwood, 4 years, then Superintendent of Thornton's D205. Then he hit the bigtime at Wheaton-Warrenville at $305,000/year.

He retired from there, and he's now working out in Scottsdale, Arizona at 195,000/year. Guess one big fat pension wasn't enough.

Man this guy is big p1mpin from day one!

Taxpayer wrote:

Just try to find out how much your congressman gets in federal perks.
It is the whole government.
<quoted text>

Agree

I believe that all salaries and employment contracts of anyone who works for or contracts for any level of government should be a matter of public record. So should disciplinary records and performance reviews. Teachers, Superintendents, Police Officers, Firemen, Carpenters, Garbage Truck Drivers, Mayors, Attorneys General - all of them. When you work for the government at any level, you are a representative of the people at large, and thus you should be ready to answer to the people about any and all actions. If you work for the government, you should have no expectation of privacy for anything you do while you're on the clock.

Too many people in the public sphere in Illinois hide incompetence and corruption behind outdated privacy laws.

The Voice of Reason wrote:

I don't have anything to add reagrding this article but since he Tribune saw fit not to have a comment section for the article on the remains found along the Des Plaines River I would like to say:
Given the hype about the blue barrell found near the remains if the body turns out to be Lisa Stebic I am sure that Drew will be blamed for her murder as well.
Just my 2 cents.

The Trib did have a message board on that topic, but had to disable it due to the high number of dimwits making inappropriate comments. It happens sometimes.