WILL THE GAZETTE

The compelling contents herein depict the corrupt mess into which the C. R. school district was mismanaged—and how superintendent Benson now wants to sneak out of it and run and hide in the $41 million administrator’s Taj Mahal, as the kids, parents, neighborhoods and the city suffer horribly from unneeded school closings.

Will the Gazette and school board stand up for the kids, or bow to corruption and blindly back the superintendent, as he selfishly closes schools in a manner that blames parents and others having integrity, on the doomed-from-the-start “Committee”, for school closings—and leaves more money for his and teacher union pay raises?

The superintendent and the duped school board banned the “Committee” from considering options to keep all schools open!! The Gazette hid and said nothing about the ban—to date. On website http://www.iowalive.net/poormanagement.htm , Iowalive shows how to bypass the ban and keep all schools open!

The numbers herein show the Cedar Rapids school district to be very sick. Honest parents and students are victims of extremely poor school management. It’s very obvious why school officials won’t listen to Judy Hintz, who routinely teaches kids the district fails to teach—or to anyone outside of the district’s corrupt core.

To try to distance themselves from committee findings, district officials and district representatives will likely claim they were not on the “Committee”, as listed in the following table—which was supposedly comprised of 23 members. Iowalive does not buy that phony claim—if officials try to make it.

PARTICIPATION INTEGRITY LEVELS OF Enrollment/Facilities Advisory Committee MEMBERS VARIED GREATLY.
9 OF THE TOP 16 INTEGRITY RANKED COMMITTEE MEMBERS ARE PARENTS. SCHOOL OFFICIALS OFTEN BLAME PARENTS FOR SCHOOL FAILURES. 12 OF THE 17 BOTTOM RANKED COMMITTEE MEMBERS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH THE SCHOOL DISTRICT.
INTEGRITY RANK	Committee Member		Representing	AVG. INTEGRITY INDEX LEVEL, ON A SCALE OF 0 TO 1,000 TOPS.
1	Shellie	Pike	City PTA	605
2	Rob	Riley	Parent	600
3	Candy	Jacobson	Parent	550
4	Elaine	Jordan	Parent	520
5	Ryan	Schlader	Community	520
6	Sorina	Abernathy	Parent	510
7	Jen	Neumann	Parent	510
8	Karl	Cassell	Local Government	505
9	Marcia	Hughes	Note taker / District Resource	505
10	Jim	Craig	Parent	500
11	Dave	Smith	Teacher	500
12	Michelle	Bumpus	Parent	420
13	PJ	Wyatt	Teacher	420
14	Kim	Malcolm	Parent	415
15	Jen	Phelan	Teacher	405
16	Bryan	Johnson	Parent	350
17	Karen	Knox	Parent
18	Ralph	Russell	Chamber
19	George	Kanz	District Consultant
20	Mary Ellen	Maske	District Resource
21	Chuck	McDonnell	Administrator
22	Gary	Hatfield	Administrator
23	Jim	Bryant	Teacher
24	Ellen	Daye-Williams	Administrator
25	Rob	Schwartz	District Consultant
26	Sheila	Lehman	District Resource
27	Steve	Graham	District Resource
28	Julie	Grotewold	Facilitator
29	Sue	Clapp	CREA
30	Greg	Reed	Community
31	Sandy	Stephen	District Resource
SIGNIFICANT INTEGRITY STARTS AT LEVEL 300. ANYONE CLAIMING TO HAVE BETTER NUMBERS IS ASKED TO PROVIDE THEM
Integrity derivation methods are posted on website: http://www.iowalive.net/archives2.htm
PARTICIPATION INTEGRITY LEVELS OF OTHERS INVOLVED OR AFFECTED WITH SCHOOL CLOSINGS.
1	Cedar Rapids Free Press			810
2	Parents of Students on Closing List			720
3	Students in Schools On List for Closing			620
4	Students in Other Schools			530
5	Gazette Reporting			340
6	Administrators in Schools on List for Closing
7	Gazette Columns and Editorials
8	Teachers in Schools On List for Closing
9	Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce
10	Administrators in Other Schools
11	School Board
12	Superintendent Dave Benson
13	Teachers in Other Schools
SIGNIFICANT INTEGRITY STARTS AT LEVEL 300. ANYONE CLAIMING TO HAVE BETTER NUMBERS IS ASKED TO PROVIDE THEM
Integrity derivation methods are posted on website: http://www.iowalive.net/archives2.htm

The table above serves as justification for the numbers in the following table, that show the results of the committee’s efforts, touted by Supt. Benson. The committee was doomed from the start. District officials created the mess. The slick superintendent then picked parents to be part of a stacked-deck committee perpetrating a terrible, hopeless, non-solution to the mess. The committee suffered from garbage in from the district representatives etc. and were doomed to supposal (the superintendent’s devious word) garbage out.

You can click on the blue underlined items in the table to view them on the District’s website. The superintendent claims these are the only documents the school district has on this subject. We find that claim very hard to believe, due to the secrecy he practiced.

SCHOOL DISTRICT OFFICIALS PLACED STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND MAKING BETTER USE OF EXISTING FUNDING TO KEEP NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS OPEN--FAR OFF THE LIST OF THINGS THE COMMITTEE WAS ALLOWED TO CONSIDER.
Evaluation & Integrity Report on C. R. District Enrollment/Facilities Advisory Committee Results. 23 People Worked on the Committee for 4 Months. Source: Iowalive Network 12-23-11
Yellow Hi-Lites Show Map Proposals Approved and Forwarded by the Committee. Only 16 of 40 Items Have Significant Integrity--300 or Higher. The Average Integrity Level is Only 198. There Was No Intent, Consideration or Attempt to Reduce Waste in Other Areas to Keep Schools Open! Only One Meeting Map Proposal Had Significant Integrity, and it Was Rejected. The Committee Was Condemned to Failure by the Inaccurate Facilities Study Report. Committee Meeting Summaries Consistently Hid, or Failed to Include, Some Public Sensitive Meeting Proceedings and Information. Report Out Considerations Excluded Many Major Issues and Data. The Committee Results are a Dismal Failure.
Committee Meeting Notes Posted on School Website: http://www.cr.k12.ia.us/FacilitiesStudy/index.html Cited by Supt. Benson	AVG. INTEGRITY INDEX LEVEL, ON A SCALE OF 0 TO 1,000 TOPS. SIGNIFICANT INTEGRITY STARTS AT 300.
20-Dec-11
December 20 - Meeting Summary	190
December 20 - Power Point Presentation	3
Meeting Map proposals
High School
#3	3
#3A	16
#4	12
#4A	5
6-Dec-11
December 6 - Meeting Summary	310
December 6 - Power Point Presentation	180
December 6 - Public Input Survey Results	505
Meeting Map proposals
Elementary
#1	125
#2	135
Middle School
#1	105
High School
#1	315
#2	30
8-Nov-11

November 8 - Meeting Summary	307
November 8 - Power Point Presentation	180
November 8 - Possible Projects Handout	215
Meeting Map proposals
Elementary
#1	125
Middle School
#1	105
#2	3
High School
#1	315
#2	30
#3	3
18-Oct-11
October 18 - Meeting Summary	320
October 18 - Power Point Presentation	4
Elementary Space Utilization Spreadsheet	35
4-Oct-11
October 4 - Meeting Summary	410
October 4 - Power Point Presentation	305
20-Sep-11
September 20 - Meeting Summary	300
September 20 - Power Point Presentation	240
Facilities Study Executive Summary	410
6-Sep-11
September 6 - Meeting Summary	410
September 6 - Power Point Presentation	210
Elementary Space Utilization Spreadsheet	2
23-Aug-11
August 23 - Meeting Summary	330
August 23 - Power Point Presentation	505
Facilities Study Report to Board of Education - June, 2011	25
Enrollment Study Report to Board of Education – May, 2011	410
9-Aug-11
August 9, 2011 Meeting Summary	305
Comprehensive Enrollment Study Process	500
Elementary and Middle School Report Out Considerations Only Included: facility upgrade costs, flood recovery concern, relocation of special programming, building capacities, socio-economic balance, and projected enrollment/residential growth over time in various areas. They ignored student achievement, reallocation and more efficient use of wasted budgets to keep schools open, salvage and scrap values, and employee terminations--to name a few.
Anyone Claiming to Have Better Numbers is Asked to Provide them.

To their credit, the newly formed Cedar Rapids Free Press is very interested in school closings etc. It is doubtful the Gazette will ever blow the whistle on the corrupt school district and the officials, soon to be residing in the $41 million Taj Mahal—as they try to distance themselves as they call for hurtful school closings!!

Comments or suggestions before this is released river-to-river—and posted on the website? What a way for Cedar Rapids to start the New Year. L

The cost to have capable professionals investigate, evaluate and prepare the above tables is at least $3.2 million. It would involve nothing new. The government routinely investigates and evaluates applicants for security clearances. The American Productivity and Quality Center and DeLoitte and Touche, to name but two, certainly know how to evaluate a committee’s performance. The District’s NCLB Report Card shows 19 schools on the In Need of Assistance List for academic failures—after receiving money to improve, for at least 10 years. Sick!!

Iowalive strongly recommends the Gazette and School Board to make New Year’s resolutions to greatly improve their integrity, back the kids! and keep all schools open!! Help make it honest for Iowalive to display the following road sign, for all to see.