School District News: Rumors swirl around Sheffield departure
Superintendent Dr. LaVonne Sheffield (File Photo by Jim Hagerty)
By Jim Hagerty
Online Editor
According to sources close to the Rockford Board of Education, Superintendent Dr. LaVonne M. Sheffield is parting ways with District 205.
While it has not been confirmed whether Sheffield has resigned, sources say a release announcing her departure is expected by Tuesday, April 5.
In an attempt to confirm the report, The Rock River Times spoke to Sub District C school board member Alice Saudargas and Board of Education President David Kelley.
As of Saturday afternoon, Saudargas was not aware that Sheffield may be leaving the district.
However, the superintendent’s removal was discussed Tuesday, March 29 when the board met in closed session before the weekly school board meeting.
“We discussed it briefly,” Saudargas said. “But, we didn’t get that far with it.”
Saudargas also said the board used the session to mull grievances Jude Makulec (Sub District D) had with The Rock River Times.
Makulec did not return phone calls regarding the matter.
Monday, March 28, The Rock River Times attempted to follow-up on reports that Makulec was meeting with a group of teachers about complaints against a District 205 administrator. Makuelc told The Rock River Times she could not discuss the alleged complaint because it was a personnel matter involving a child.
She also said she did not meet with the teachers because the the matter was leaked to the press.
As for Sheffield’s departure, Kelley said a decision to terminate the superintendent has not been made. A resignation, Kelley said, would be something he would inquire about with Sheffield.
“It would not surprise me if she wanted to leave,” Kelley said. “There are certain people in town who want to serve LaVonne’s head on a platter.
“This is not the first media inquiry I have gotten on this today. I have nothing to say other than, ‘I had better call LaVonne to see if there is any truth to it.’”
As of this report, the Facebook group, Wanting a Resignation of LaVonne Sheffield has 3,240 members. Petitions calling for Sheffield’s ouster contain more than 1,450 signatures.
Attempts to reach Sheffield were unsuccessful.
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33 Comments
We can onlyhope it is not a rumor but a fact and this community can begin to heal from the wounds she has inflicted on the children of the Rockford School District
Ditto to what Dawn said and I hope to someday read that Superintendent XXXX has turned 205 around and we read a lot of positive news.
The head of the BLOODSUCKER will soon be removed. Time to dismantle and burn the BODY.
Add me to the list of people wanting Sheffields head on a platter, along with those Board members who have supported and enabled her reign of terror. The final straw is the re-classification of 50 plus administrators and the terminating of not just un-tenured teachers, but yesterdays termination of tenured 5 year teachers as well.
I must admit that as I become older, I have become apathetic towards the public school system. Our child will graduate from Auburn High School this year and through all the turmoil caused by the current Superintendant and her misguided policies, my wife & I have done nothing more than thank God that we will no longer have a child in this school system. The two reasons for our apathy are:
1) Since our child will graduate this year. If you are going to continue to support the destruction of the school system, so be it, as you no longer will have the ability to screw up my kids. They have managed to succeed in spite of the Superintendant’s poor leadership abilities, questionable character and misguided policies all aided by you, the Board of Education. Please feel free to take a moment to bask in your part in this.
2) Based on the Superintendant’s prior history of demoting, firing and slandering any and all who dare to oppose her, I have held my tongue, as my wife is a secretary at Riverdahl Elementary School. By writing this letter, I have little doubt that she will face the wrath of the Superintendant and will quite possibly lose her job.
But the actions taken by the Superintendant this week are so reprehensible that I can no longer remain quiet. While I cannot speak to all of the demotions that she announced yesterday, I can speak about one, the Principal at Riverdahl, Mrs. Teresa Schneider. But first let me give you a few facts about Riverdahl. I feel that I need to include these facts because in the 4 years that my wife has worked at Riverdahl, today, 3/22/11, is the first time that any member of the Board of Education has visited the school. Thank you to Mr. Mitchell for coming by. As for the rest of the Board, don’t feel bad as you are in “good” company, as the current Superintendant hasn’t bothered to stop by either.
Riverdahl Elementary School is home to almost 600 students in grades pre-K through second grade. This makes Riverdahl the second highest capacity elementary school in the district. Riverdahl is also the number one requested school in the district and has been for a number of years.
The first two years Teresa was a principal at Riverdahl, the school was a state “Spotlight” School. This is an award given to high achieving, high poverty schools. However, since Riverdahl only goes up to 2nd grade, we have no ISAT results. The state stopped paying for second graders to be tested in 2007. Without the ISAT tests results, Riverdahl is no longer eligible to win this award.
Last year, the current Superintendant classified Riverdahl as an ENI school – one of the lowest performing schools in the district. The Superintendant based this classification not on Riverdahl’s test results (remember, the state no longer pays for these tests for pre-K to 2nd grade) but because the students from Riverdahl go to Nashold for third through sixth grades and Nashold’s ISAT scores were lacking. After one year of intense scrutiny by the ENI consultants, Riverdahl was dropped from the list of ENI schools. The consultants from ENI couldn’t find anything to say to improve on what Teresa and the rest of the excellent staff at Riverdahl was already doing.
Teresa has implemented a character building program called “The Morning 5 Minutes”. This program includes a patriotic song sung while students whose birthday it is carry in the flag. It also includes monthly character words (respect, responsibility & so on) that the kids learn through songs written by the music teacher. Another very popular program Teresa started is the school bookstore and book swap program. This puts many more books in to the hands of our impoverished students.
As one of only two reading specialist principals in the district, Teresa often does staff development herself on reading methods and materials. She is able to evaluate and model reading best practices in her classrooms.
In the past two years, there have been no grievances filed by the union against Teresa, a testament to her ability to work hand in hand with her staff to create a fun, fair and non- threatening workplace. This is a lesson that the current Superintendant would be wise to learn.
In her entire time as a principal in RPS 205, Teresa has never received a below average or poor evaluation, never appeared at professional conferences as a RPS 205 representative and made a fool out of herself and putting RPS 205 in a bad light. When tough decisions need to be made at Riverdahl, Teresa has never put that burden on her underlings and gone on vacation. Can you say the same of our current Superintendant? No, not a chance.
Please, take the time to review the records of all the people on the Superintendant’s hit list, but especially Teresa’s. Take the time to go to the schools, talk to the staff, the students, and the parents before making any decisions. Please do not take the Superintendant’s word concerning these Principals as gospel; she has not earned that privilege by any stretch of the imagination. Ask yourself why Sheffield wants to re-assign administrators like Mrs. Schneider while at the same time she also allows other Principals stay even with DCFS charges against them.
Respectfully,
Brian Frayne
I hope this is true. We need her to leave and a board to come in an reinstate all the closed schools and have a new board come in and start cutting from the top!! Get rid of some of the butt kissers this district has and the lying sob’s we have as well!!! Maybe all the truth spoken at the board meetings are finally getting to her. Or she is trying to leave town before we find out that she drained money of our district like she has others.
It is OUTRAGEOUS that board members allowed Mrs. Makulec to discuss her “grievances” with the Rock River Times in closed session. This is a VIOLATION OF THE ILLINOIS OPEN MEETINGS ACT, and I sure hope the Rock River Times pursues this with the same vigor as the Patrick Hardy letter !!!!
Firestarter, that is NOT what the article said. Get your facts right! And Brian I commend you and your wife for your bravery. If more people had stepped forward sooner this HITLER like Superintendent could have possibly been stopped sooner. Lastly, Thank god The Rock River Times and Hagerty have the balls to write/print something other then the district’s press release
Sheffield and cabinet were seen whooping it up in Giovanni’s on Friday night. Was it a farewell party?
Bet she’s packing and on her way down to join Vallas in Haiti. That $200 Mil. under watched budget down there is just calling her name!
This would be good news for sure, IF, in fact, it is true. WEE has been hearing this rumor for weeks now…and often it stems from Alice Saudargus, who is desperate to get votes on April 5th. So…we have learned to take the rumblings with a grain of salt! Please do remember though…if this is true and she rides out of town on her broom, it is just the tip of the iceberg. We can celebrate for a minute and then we have to get back to work and clean house…many of her underlings also need to get on their broom. They maybe don’t really subscribe to her deploring agenda, but they sure haven’t spoken up…I, quite frankly don’t know how they look in the mirror every morning before they go to work. As Noel Hammatt said so eloquently, “sometimes you have to lose your job to do what’s right”. We also have to be diligent about watching the “big wigs” in town…those who want to privitize public education and bring in lots of charter schools.
I also would like to take a minute to applaud Brian Frayne for speaking up! That IS what it takes and hopefully more folks will crawl out of the woodwork and tell their stories as well. We have to do whatever it takes to avoid this ever happening again to our city.
I don’t know what to think about this whole mess, but I must say that what “RPS PARENT” commented was pretty sick & twisted. I hate to think some “parents” can say such a thing!
Take CFO Cedric Lewis with her!
Lewis is currently attending the The District Administration Leadership Institute superintendent summit in place of Sheffield. When the board asked Lewis about the trip he claimed it was an all expense paid event Sheffield had been ‘invited’ to attend.
Here is how that organization suggests superintendents get the boards permission to pay for this: “Sometimes school boards resist paying for superintendents to attend events such as the Leadership Institute’s Superintendents Summits. Professional fees directed to an organization that has identified you as an outstanding superintendent are easier for them to accept. I am glad to send a letter of invitation to your board chair as a way of recognizing your selection and accomplishments”.
“Membership Agreement: Upon submission of this membership application, I/my District will be billed for an annual membership fee of $2,650 by the District Administration Leadership Institute. Membership will renew annually unless I/my District representative cancels membership upon receipt of annual invoice”.
So it would appear the free event costs $2,650 for a subscription to their magazine and a ‘free’ trip to Arizona.. Is this just another example of Lewis’s challenges with performing simple math? Per Lewis we are facing a $50 million dollar shortfall.
Obviously it is our budget crisis not his.
John Penn nice investigative skills. Ask yourself how does this conference benefit Lewis and why would he go in Sheffield’s place? Why would district Principal, Evan Caine alo attend? While some board members believe there is no prior history between Sheffield, Caine and Lewis, would it suprise you to know that Caine and Lewis attended the same college in Mississippi in the same time frame, both went on to Louisiana and both ended up here with Dr. Sheffield? Wonder if it is Caine who is sleeping in the 2nd bedroom of Lewis’ 2 bedroom suite while attending the conference? Wonder if Caine found the “grown and sexy crowd” (he was looking for on facebook)while in attendance at an educational conference. Lastly, the cost of the $2,650. falls under the $10,000 amount required for board approval.
I can only hope that this is true. I also hope that the interim superintendent will release every single one of her minions who have to be the rudest, most unprofessional people I have ever encountered. As Mary Jo said, we can celebrate for a minute, but then we need to come together and get back to work to heal this city.We have sustained horrible damage from this woman and her less than credible ideas on how best to educate our children. Good riddance.
As a student, I am so excited to see that Sheffeild is leaving. She has done nothing but destory our schools and make all our kids miserable. AMEN!
out sheffield–do you have a learning disability? the article quotes mrs. saudargas as saying the Board used the closed session “to mull grievances Jude Makulec (Sub District D) had with The Rock River Times.” how is that not a violation of the Open Meetings Act?
Hey everyone, ask Cedric about his trip to Arizona, also ask him about the principal that went with him. Here is his email lewisc@rps205.com
Dr. Sheffield and Cedric Lewis seem to go through jobs about every two years. Perhaps they are looking for a new home before the deck of cards collapses?
The Office of Inspector General recently found that during Dr. Sheffield’s tenure in Philadelphia their school district had $138 million dollars in grants that turned out to be unallowable or inadequately supported. http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/auditreports/fy2010/a03h0010.pdf
The OIG is asking for $17,678,079 to be returned. Ouch. Considering Dr. Sheffield seems comfortable spending $2,650 for a free trip for her CFO…what do you expect the OIG will find when RPS205 gets audited? Is this the reason Dr. Sheffield and CFO Lewis don’t want to allow a further review of our budget?
I hope the dirtbag biddy takes her entire entourage WITH her when she goes. Nothing but immoral & illegal, self-loving trash, all of them. Why can’t we hire from WITHIN our community? We need to dump the school board members also, all of them. They apparently cannot choose a good super.
These are the 5 points of issue the audit revealed in Philadelphia. Thank you John Penn for sharing. Watch out Rockford this is our future with Sheffield/Lewis at helm.
FINDING NO. 1 – PSD Needed Stronger Controls over Personnel
Expenditures Charged to Federal Grants
FINDING NO. 2 – Supplanting of Federal Funds…FINDING NO. 3 – PSD Did Not Have Adequate Controls in Place to Ensure Non-Payroll Expenditures Met Federal
Regulations and Grant Provisions
FINDING NO. 4 – Policies and Procedures Were Not Adequate and/or enforced
FINDING NO. 5 – PSD Did Not Have Written Policies And Procedures For Various Fiscal Processes
You people are amazing. Now who would want to come to a city with such a “lynch mob” mentality that has existed since the woman first set foot in Rockford? Doesn’t speak well of the citizenry of our town, does it. And you can bet anyone looking for a superintendent job has watched this unfold. Let’s bring back Linda Hernandez so she can continue to line her husbands pockets; and of course, loser Dennis Thompson is available because the district he dumped Rockford for gave him the boot because they found out he wasn’t what they thought he was. So Rockford, you get what you deserve next time around. The school district was going down in flames long before Lavonne Sheffield got to town. Hang your heads in shame Rockfordians because whether she was right or wrong in her actions, it was horrendous the way this woman was HOUNDED during her tenure in Rockford.
Ms S- I like many supported Dr. LaVonne Sheffield when she came to Rockford. There was no lynch mob mentality I am aware of that existed upon her arrival.
In her introductory letter she claimed: “So we must transform Rockford Public Schools into a student-centered organization committed to ensuring that every student succeeds. You will see an open-door policy that welcomes parents, makes an urgent effort to involve them and adults throughout the community in our classrooms.”…”The transformation of Rockford Public Schools depends on true partnerships with parents and the community. Our journey will be challenging and rewarding. If we work together, we can deliver a world-class public education that prepares Rockford students to compete in the ever-changing global workplace.”
It is my opinion she has not delivered upon these promises. Instead she worked to have them removed as goals from her review. Had I witnessed a sincere attempt to accomplish those goals I would still be standing beside her as likely many of her current detractors would. My concerns are not imaginary or rumor based.
There is no better time for Dr. Sheffield to redeem her self on the promises she made to Rockford than today. The ball is in her court. Words are of little value, but how she proceeds going forward, her actions, will define her and determine my opinion of this period in Rockford educational system, as you are free to do yourself. But to claim that most in Rockford did not welcome Dr. Sheffield needs proof.
Ms. S…I totally agree with Doug. What has see done to insure our children are getting a better education? Closed a good performing school like New Milford? Spotlight school for the last 4 years!!! Hired a $700 a day wonder that hasn’t helped improve scores. Bought reading materials for our district which in turn she got a cruise out of the deal and the district supposedly paid for the airfare. Started to privatize our school system by opening charter schools, which OUR district pays for the busing. If we can pay for that busing, then we shouldn’t have opened them and we could pay for the busing for the students at New Milford!! Where did she trim the cost from the administration? She didn’t trim anything from down town. It was principals and teachers she trimmed from the budget. And the board continues to allow this to happen. Two cowards that can’t vote on a topic and the rest that don’t have a back bone to defend the education of our children. Closing schools and shoving kids into other schools, leading to increase class sizes, yep that’s the way to get better results. Schools with children that are fighting to keep their head above water, need to have smaller class sizes for more teacher involvement. Had we kept open all of our schools, we could have spread the children out and made smaller class sizes and gave them the more individualized attention they NEED. But instead she choose to make sure the already money greedy administration didn’t loose anything in their pockets. So Ms. S were did she put the children first? All the community is asking out of a super is a better education for our children. Until we can see that out of someone, each one that walks through the door will have their “head on a platter”!
I was excited when I heard she was coming to town. She could have had a lot of support, but the constant attack on our community and the poor decision making changed my mind. I did think the attacks on her personal life were completely unwarranted.
The bottom line is we as a school district need someone who cares about kids, has a goal of giving EVERY student a great education, expecting them all to follow rules and hold them to that, respects people who work for them, respects parents, knows how to live in a reasonable budget and most important is honest. We also need a school board who enforces that they are the top boss not the super.
So where was Dr. Sheffield when the board met last week? Recouperating from her cruise of the week before? She was at a local event Friday and overheard talking about her cruise, the pearls that her husband gave her, etc. And to think that she is firing willy-nilly with no thought of who she is affecting as long as she and her inner circle are okay.
Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by a grandiose manner, lack of empathy and a need for admiration from others. Those with this diagnosis often have a deep-seated insecurity and are impatient if not the center of attention.
What is a narcissistic sociopath?
A person with this diagnosis would not understand nor care that he or she is violating the rights of others and would do so for personal gain, most likely through manipulation and charm.
Manipulation yes, charm? Not so much.
Agreed Ann…read “The Sociopath Next Door”…scary! She definitely fits the profile.
New BOE to-do list:
1) Put resource officers back in secondary schools.
2) Revisit expulsions for students who have assaulted staff.
3) Re-implement truancy initiative in schools: in the halls? you get a ticket!
4) Put recording on downtown phone system for parents calling to complain to Lavonne: Dr. Sheffield is no longer in to take your calls. Whatever problem you are experiencing with the administrator or teacher in your student’s building, please call them back, make nice, and work it out. She is no longer here to undermine the authority of the staff of this district.
5) …. Please feel free to add to the list….
John Penn – excellent work. Do we know if the school board has seen this?
sooooooooo where’s this big announcement?
Wasn’t this a foredrawn conclusion,deja vu all over again. Thank god we do not have a ‘race’problem.
In addition to the Philadelphia philandering, don’t forget Sheffield’s other problems in Louisiana, and Detroit.
How she got hired in the first place has more to do with her connections to Paul Vallas and Arnie Duncan than her actual qualifications and accomplishments.