IPA, TRRT file suit against District 205, LaVonne Sheffield
By Joe McGehee
Staff Writer
The Illinois Press Association, The Rock River Times (TRRT) and TRRT Staff Writer Joe McGehee are plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed Nov. 3 against Rockford Public School District 205 and District 205 Superintendent Dr. LaVonne M. Sheffield.
The lawsuit stems from the district’s refusal to release an unflattering letter written by former Rockford Auburn High School Principal and current Freeport High School Principal Dr. Patrick Hardy. The letter was written by Hardy in response to District 205 Superintendent Dr. LaVonne M. Sheffield’s letter titled “Separation of Employment,” dated June 17, 2010.
According to the complaint: “The School District willfully and intentionally failed to comply with the FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] in relying on a series of baseless exemptions, one after another, in an effort to avoid compliance with the FOIA and eventually abandoning those exemptions only to cite further inapplicable exemptions.”
The complaint also asserts that “In alleging those baseless exemptions of the FOIA, the School District acted in bad faith.”
The plaintiffs are represented by Donald M. Craven and Esther J. Seitz of Donald M. Craven, P.C., of Springfield, Ill.
To view the official complaint filed Nov. 3, click here.
To view the press release about the case distributed statewide by the IPA, click here.
Following are links to TRRT’s coverage of its attempts to obtain the letter:
• District 205 battles to keep unflattering letter private, Oct. 6-12, 2010, issue of TRRT
• District 205 challenges Public Access Council’s ruling, continues battle to keep unflattering letter from public, Oct. 13-19, 2010, issue of TRRT
• District 205 yet to release unflattering letter, Oct. 20-26, 2010, issue of TTRT
• Board of Education says little about battle over unflattering letter, Nov. 3-9, 2010, issue of TRRT
• Editorial: Public must take stand in battle for unflattering letter, Nov. 3-9, 2010, issue of TRRT
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14 Comments
Thank you Illinois Press Association, The Rock River Times and Staff Writer Joe McGehee for taking this to the next level.
RPS205 should not be allowed to use our tax dollars to keep information hidden form the community!
I also have been denied an FOIA by Lavonne Sheffield’s legal team in reference to an incident I had with District #205. I thought it would not be beneficial to fight them in fear of them totally destroying my daughter’s experience, even well being at at school. I hope you succeed and expose District #205.
District 205: Are you going to step up and play by the rules now??
Good work
I am so, so proud of you guys…for doing the hard stuff. You stayed the course, took abuse and perservered! My kind of reporters! I love having your paper delivered right to the front door. All teachers should switch allegiance…drop the RRStar and sign up for the RRTimes…they are the ones that understand your cause.
Apparently this newspaper doesn’t know who they are dealing with. She is Sheffield and she is above the law. Do you not know who she is? You have a school board that has given her free rein of our tax dollars without and real over sight. They have created this monster and now we all have to live with her decisions. If we don’t we are part of the crazy people out there.
No government official is above the law-even in Illinois! Hopefully more people will follow TRRT’s lead and stop letting Sheffield walk all over the school board and the taxpayers.
VeryModest’s comments are all too true, but hopefully people who think that we “have to live with her decisions” will begin to realize that we do not-and will do something about her actions and belief that she is above the law.
Criminal and abusive, that is what she is
I suggest a Facebook viral internet whuppin’ of Lavonne Sheffield performed the same way as the very recent Cooks Source fiasco that broke out yesterday:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cooks-Source-Magazine/196994196748
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2010/11/cooks_source_masters_new_recip.html
These are just a couple of examples out there now. I would encourage another get rid of Sheffield Facebook page–maybe a get rid of the schoolboard page.
This crap has gone on too long!!!!!
By the way–this fiasco went viral in under 24 hours!!!! It is now a new internet meme.
Sheffield and Bonne are both sloppy drunks–and Sheffield is a DOCUMENTED thief! This needs to get out there!
The RPS205 board members, as elected officials, need to direct the administration to release the letter. It should not be the decision of Dr. Sheffield or anyone in her administration.
At the Tuesday September 28th School Board Meeting, Colleen Cyrus presented a PowerPoint presentation entitled ‘Rockford Public Schools Discipline Report’ that she admitted contained errors. The report was presented to the board and broadcast over the public airwaves on Comcast Channel 20. I made a FOIA request to ensure the correct information was available for the breakdown of suspensions as listed below:
2008-2009 Incident distribution by offense for both the quantity of students & number of suspensions
2009-2010 Incident distribution by offense for both the quantity of students & number of suspensions
The request was approved, but I as a tax paying citizen, requesting to ensure the public had the correct information was told I needed to $221.50 to receive that information. It appears in violation of the Freedom of Information Act, and absurd amount to provide information that would have been necessary for the initial report preparation.
What appears to be happening is a volition of the law in an attempt to delay and prevent the public from information regarding the Rockford Public Schools.
Release the letter!
Anyone that comes for the Rally needs to stay for the public comments portion of the Tuesday school board meeting. It WILL make a difference.
Tuesday November 9th
7:00 PM
201 S. Madison Street.
Hoping to see you there,
Doug Clayburg
Rally info:
http://educationunited.net/id51.html
I am a student at Guilford High School, and there is talk of getting rid of honors classes, and now even some sports and leaving only Football, Basketball, Swimming, and Track because of money issues. Now, I think thats a bunch of bull, why should I have to suffer because the district doesnt know how to handle their money? I run Cross Country, I love it, if that was taken away on top of honors classes, school will lose all of the little amounts of enjoyability it has left. Mabye Obama could get into this? It is the state he comes from right? He also said he wants students to succeed, well all of this nonscence is making is a lot harder. I want to go to school to learn and not be treated as a little helpless ant getting stepped on by the big human bully.
I am also a sophmore. I’d like a functional school district, not Nazi Germany.