To the Editor: Fights at schools being suppressed in the news
We are taxpayers and retired teachers from District 205 with nearly 70 years of teaching service. Our own children received excellent educations through the school system. We care about the future of this system, and we are troubled by what we are seeing and hearing since the hiring of Dr. LaVonne Sheffield. Although there has been turmoil in the past, including strikes, we have never seen such low morale as there is this year. Early May, there was another incident on one of our campuses: they were on lock-down most of the day, several fights broke out, including food fights, several adults were assaulted, kids broke off combination locks and used them as weapons, the police were eventually called as well as the security personnel, some parents came and were as unruly as the students. This isn’t an isolated incident; it’s just the most recent one. And yet, to read the Rockford Register Star, one would surmise that things are wonderful. We wonder…who benefits from painting this rosy picture? Isn’t it time to be honest? Isn’t it time to expose the truth? The hiring of LaVonne Sheffield was a grave mistake, and those of us who will be here long after she packs her bags, will be picking up the pieces for years to come.
Chuck and Mary Jo Powers
Rockford
From the June 2-8, 2010 issue
Print This Article
2 Comments
Absolutely true! In addition to RRStar’s continual cover-up regarding the regular violence within the schools, they are also crafty in their cover-up of Sheffield’s spending sprees. Why have they not reported the excessive hiring of highly paid administrators who do not directly work with students? The lack of qualification of some of these administrators (Cedric Lewis, for example)? Her driver and bodyguards (who is paying for this)? The monthly administrator dinners at Giovanni’s restaurant? An administrator’s reception at Forest Hill’s Country Club? The dismantling of the Title 1 program– eliminating all Reading teachers within the elementary schools?
Where are all of the reporters–oh, I forgot, they have agreed to make only positive reports to the public regarding Sheffield. Where is the truth????
I’ve wondered for years why this school board engages in nationwide searchs for administrators when many highly educated, well experienced, competent local people are more capable of doing the job because they belong to the community. Outsiders are interested in money. Why doesn’t the Board pay attention to their track records in other communities as well?