STOP CEDAR RAPIDS SCHOOL DISTRICT FROM BILKING IOWA TAXPAYERS OF $12.6 MILLION ANNUALLY

Greetings, Cedar Rapids School Board and all:

This following strong appeal to the Cedar Rapids Community School District School Board is made on behalf of Mr. Dick Fredericks—and is made at this time when related complaints are being prepared for submittal to several public authorities.   Your timely and appropriate action can prevent the release and full pursuit of those complaints.

APPEAL TO CEDAR RAPIDS SCHOOL BOARD TO STOP DISTRICT MISREPRESENTATIONS

1.    1. Immediately prevent or stop Superintendent Dr.  Dave Benson from knowingly  misrepresenting approximately 700 non-passing students, as passing students, by arbitrarily raising a failing grade of F to a passing grade of D-, and promoting failing students on to the next grade level—and getting approximately $8.4 million in annual state financial aid, including special ed. compensation, a total of $12.6 million annually for doing so.

a.    School district official, Dr. Sandy  Stephens, fully described the superintendent’s behavior—to Mr. Dick Fredericks.

2.   2. Immediately stop Superintendent Dr. Dave Benson from knowingly misrepresenting , and the district being over compensated for, approximately 500 ‘high school’ students enrolled and attending  Metro High school for at most half-days, and at most 4 days per week—as full time enrolled students worthy of full time state financial aid---plus approximate state aid multiplication factors of  1.5, for being classified as special education students.  The district is being over paid approximately $4.2 million annually for this practice. 

a.    Pervious school superintendent Dr. Lew Finch described the half day, 4 days per week student attendance practice to Mr. Dick Fredericks. 

3.     Please respond to the above appeals within 30 days.

DISCUSSION

Integrity is defined as adherence to moral and ethics principles.   Evil, is the antonym of integrity.  Fraud is defined as an act of deceiving or misrepresenting.   The above cited misrepresentations have substantial appearances of both evil and fraud.   Beyond that, they were preceded by the following actions taken by Cedar Rapids school district officials. 

1.   1. The school district routinely excluded approximately 700 low test scores from school district performance reports, and blamed their exclusion on the Iowa Testing Program.

a.    A public forum was held in which an Iowa Testing Program official proved the school district’s allegation against Iowa Testing Program was false.

2.   2. A state audit showed district officials overstated the free and reduced lunch student count by 10%.

3.   3. District officials seriously considered, and might have in fact broken the law in making a tax increase in 2004.   The Cedar Rapids Gazette editorially addressed the matter by telling district officials to “ Go ahead and break the law”.   No district official complained of such awful advice.

4.   4. Similarly, the Des Moines Register editorially told all state school officials to “dumb the test and keep two sets of school books to make schools look better than they are.”  No Cedar Rapids school officials complained of such awful advice.    

5.   5. The district and its officials had to be sued by district citizens to achieve district compliance with the Open Records Law—and provision of requested records.

6.   6. The district is now ranked 228^th in the state in 11^th grade math,  of  327 schools, as posted on website: http://www.iowalive.net/math%20ranking%202010%202011.htm   .  The entire district and most of its schools are on the NCLB In Need of Assistance and Iowa Watch Lists, for chronic academic failures.. 

7.    Here are the lists of Cedar Rapids schools suffering chronic academic failures, with no hope for honest improvement.  There could be more.

ALL OF THE FOLLOWING SCHOOLS ARE IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE FOR ACADEMIC FAILURES

SNIA-7 MEANS THE SCHOOL HAS BEEN IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE FOR 7  CONSECUTIVE YEARS. 

 

THE ENTIRE DISTRICT AND 21 OF CEDAR RAPIDS 32 SCHOOLS CITED FOR NCLB ACADEMIC FAILURE FOR UP TO 7 YEARS IN READING AND MATH.  Source:  2010 Dept of Ed Report

Cedar Rapids Thomas Jefferson HS SINA-4 SINA-4

Cedar Rapids John F Kennedy HS SINA-3

Cedar Rapids George Washington HS SINA-5 SINA-5

Cedar Rapids Metro HS SINA-7 SINA-7 SINA-4 SINA-4

Cedar Rapids Franklin MS SINA-2 SINA-5

Cedar Rapids Harding MS SINA-2 SINA-2

Cedar Rapids McKinley MS SINA-2 SINA-6

Cedar Rapids Roosevelt MS SINA-5 SINA-5

Cedar Rapids Taft MS SINA-3 SINA-3

Cedar Rapids Wilson MS SINA-2 SINA-2

Cedar Rapids Cleveland ES SINA-2

Cedar Rapids Garfield ES SINA-1

Cedar Rapids Grant Wood ES Delay-1 SINA-2

Cedar Rapids Harrison ES Delay-1 SINA-2

Cedar Rapids Hiawatha ES Delay-1

Cedar Rapids Hoover ES Delay-1

Cedar Rapids Johnson ES SINA-4 SINA-4

Cedar Rapids Madison ES SINA-1 SINA-1

Cedar Rapids Polk ES Delay-1 Delay-1

Cedar Rapids Van Buren ES SINA-1 Delay-1

Cedar Rapids Wilson ES

CEDAR RAPIDS SCHOOLS ON IOWA WATCH LIST FOR ACADEMIC FAILURES

EACH X = ACADEMIC FAILURE IN A SUBJECT