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Archive for the ‘220’ Category

District 220 declared today to be “an e-learning day”

Posted in 220, Girlie man, Politics, School Districts on February 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

“The National Weather Service is predicting significant snowfall for our area tomorrow with increasingly difficult travel conditions as the day progresses. To ensure the safety of students and staff, Barrington 220 will implement an e-learning day on Wednesday, February 12.

Students will have access to assignments by 9 a.m. through the usual communication method from their teachers (Seesaw, Schoology, etc.), and teachers will be available throughout the day to assist students with learning activities.

All after-school events, activities and athletic practices/games at all levels for Wednesday, February 12 are canceled. All aftercare programs will be closed as well.

We acknowledge the inconvenience closing school may cause and we appreciate your understanding of our need to put the safety of students and staff first.”

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District 220 clarifies kindergarten guidelines amid parent backlash

Posted in 220, Board of Education, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Politics, Property Taxes, School Districts, What the Ficke (Bradford)? on February 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

By | Daily Herald

Barrington Area Unit District 220 officials are working with parents to allay concerns about kindergarten eligibility policies.

Parents were alarmed by a district policy implying they couldn’t delay their child’s entry into kindergarten.

The policy states a child must turn 5 years old on or before Sept. 1 of the enrollment year to be eligible for kindergarten. Children who turn 6 on or before Sept. 1 would be eligible for first grade.

School board member Erin Chan Ding said during a Feb. 4 board meeting that she received communications from parents worried a child who had turned 6 before Sept. 1 could be forced to go right from preschool to first grade.

The district also received numerous emails about the issue, while parents have vented their frustrations on social media over what they see as a lack of communication from district officials.

Superintendent Craig Winkelman clarified the district’s policy at the Feb. 4 school board meeting.

The policy is taken from the Illinois School Code, according to the Illinois State Board of Education, and gives school districts discretion to assess a child’s readiness and make a determination based on factors such as developmental level and prior educational experiences.

Read more here.

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Barrington District 220 School Board Candidate Forum

Posted in 220, Aunt Blabby, Barrington Area Library, Barrington Education Association, Board of Education, Community Alerts, Deception, District 220 referendum, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, Elections, Ethics, Immigration, Look For The Union Label, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Real Estate, School Districts, Taxes, Transparency, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)? on February 9, 2025| 3 Comments »

Wednesday, March 12, 2025, 9:30AM-11:30AM

Location

Barrington Area Library
505 N Northwest Hwy
Barrington, IL
847.382.1300
Directions

Price: Free—Free Event – First Come First Serve Basis 

Description

Barrington 220 School Board Candidates’ Forum: Wednesday, March 12th, 2025: The District 220 PTO Presidents’ Council extends an invitation to the Barrington 220 community of voters to attend its School Board Candidates’ Forum on Wednesday, March 12th from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM at the Barrington Area Library.

There are six school board candidates running for four seats on the School Board in the upcoming April 1st election. The six candidates include:

  • Erin Chan Ding (incumbent)
  • Sandra Ficke-Bradford (incumbent)
  • Katie Karam (incumbent)
  • Harathi K. Srivastava
  • Deanna Stern
  • Steve Wang (incumbent)

The event will start with a short period of introduction by each candidate, followed by a question-and-answer session using questions from the audience and questions submitted in advance online.

The forum is open to all District 220 voters and is free of charge. All interested community members are encouraged to attend. Seating is limited and will be first come first serve.

Event Contact:

Barrington 220 PTO Presidents’ Council
Rena Slovick
linesptoinfo@gmail.com
847.624.0908

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District 220 Board of Education meets this evening

Posted in 220, Agendas, BACOG, Barrington Education Association, Board of Education, Deception, District 220 referendum, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, EJ&E/Canadian National, Elections, Ethics, His Master's Voice, Illinois State Board of Elections, Look For The Union Label, Organizations, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Real Estate, School Districts, Unions, Video Streaming, What the Ficke (Bradford)? on February 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The District 220 Board of Education meets this evening at 6:00 PM at the District Administration Center, 515 W. Main Street. Items on their agenda include:

  • FOIA Reports
  • Minutes
  • Finance
  • Revised Personnel Report
  • Consideration to Approve the Destruction of Closed Session Recordings
  • Consideration to Approve the Release of Confidentiality of Closed Session Minutes
  • Consideration to Approve Student Fees
  • Consideration to Approve BHS Piping Replacement Bid Recommendation
  • Consideration to Approve a Resolution Authorizing Non-Renewal of Non-Tenured Teacher Other Than Final-Year Probationary Teacher
  • Instructional Materials Report for 2025-26

A copy of the agenda can be viewed here. The meeting will be live-streamed on the district YouTube channel.

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Nation’s Report Card results are in: Illinoisans spend billions more on education, yet 2024 reading results are still below 2019 levels

Posted in 220, 300, Barrington Education Association, ComEd Four, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Economy, Education, Look For The Union Label, New Normal?, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Real Estate, School Districts, Springfield, Taxes, Transparency, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)?, Wirepoints on January 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »

By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints

The Nation’s Report Card that measures how well kids across the country are learning has just been released for 2024. The results for Illinois aren’t good. Here are some top level findings:

  • Just 9% of black 8th-grade students are proficient in math.
  • Only 20% of Hispanic 4th-graders are proficient in math.
  • Just 37% of white 4th-graders are proficient in reading.
  • Overall reading and math proficiencies statewide in both 4th and 8th grades were either the same or down compared to pre-covid 2019.
  • Statewide 4th-grade reading proficiency for all students is down to just 30%, five percentage points lower than in 2019.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, tests children across the country every two years to assess their reading and math skills. It’s the best apples-to-apples test for comparing education results across states. Nationwide, reading and math results continued to decline in 2024.

Illinois’ NAEP results are yet another indicator that the state’s education system is failing students. Illinois is pouring billions more into education than before the pandemic – $44 billion in 2024 vs. $35 billion in 2019 – yet all the evidence points to that money being wasted. Fewer Illinois students can read proficiently today than could five years ago.

The Illinois State Board of Education downplayed the state’s poor NAEP outcomes by pointing out that Illinois’ 2024 results were slightly up compared to 2022, and that the state’s proficiencies are largely in line with the rest of the country.

But while both are true, what the state board doesn’t mention is just how poor those results continue to be, or that Illinois’ reading and math proficiencies still haven’t returned to their pre-covid levels. Overall, only about a third of Illinois students are proficient in reading and math.

Illinois’ results are even worse than they appear considering just how much more the state spends on education compared to most of the nation. 2022 Census data shows Illinois spent about $21,700 (local, state and federal dollars) on education per student – the 10th-most in the country.

Illinois spends $2,000 to $8,000 more per student than all other Midwestern states, yet its 4th-grade reading results aren’t any better than theirs. Take Indiana for example. 34% of 4th graders in the Hoosier State are proficient in reading, yet the state only spends $14,900 per student, nearly $7,000 less than what Illinois spends.

Illinois’ excessive spending is one of the major reasons why its residents pay the nation’s highest property taxes and one of the country’s biggest overall tax rates. Judging by the educational results of other states, Illinois could return billions of dollars to taxpayers without negatively impacting reading scores.

Read more here.

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Barrington Area Council of Governments meets tonight

Posted in 220, BACOG, Barrington Hills Park District, BCFPD, Clown Car, Deception, Ethics, FUBAR, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Look For The Union Label, Mad Cows, Meeting Minutes, OP/Ed, Politics, Property Taxes, Public Safety, School Districts, SNAFU, South Barrington, Taxes, TRAC, Transparency, Village Government, Village President on January 28, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The Barrington Area Council of Governments (BACOG) is scheduled to have multiple meetings today beginning at 5:30 PM at the Village of Barrington Hills, 112 Algonquin Road. Those meetings include:

  • 5:30 – Connectivity
  • 6:30 – Legislative
  • 7:00 – Executive Board

As expected, no meeting agendas are posted by BACOG.  Further, BACOG has ceased posting minutes from their meetings, and they now appear to have removed all previously posted minutes from their website, which now states:

“Copies of approved minutes for BACOG committee and executive board meetings are available upon request. Please submit requests by email to bacog@bacog.org.”

We’ve long questioned the need for BACOG. This is the latest example of why.

It appears BACOG now makes the Barrington Hills Park District/Riding Club and the Barrington Countrywide Fire Protection District seem transparent by comparison, and that’s truly disappointing.

Related: “Anybody heard from BACOG lately?,” “Fuhgeddaboudit,” “Barrington Area Council of Governments meets today”

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Police, school investigating after fake school cancelation email sent to parents in Barrington

Posted in 220, Barrington High School, FUBAR, School Districts on January 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »

By Sam Borcia |Lake & McHenry County Scanner

Police and school officials are investigating after a fake email was sent out to parents claiming class was canceled at schools in the Barrington area due to weather.

The Barrington School District 220 sent out an email to parents on Monday saying that in-person classes would be held on Tuesday, January 21, despite the severe cold weather.

Around 10:15 p.m. that evening, parents received another email saying, “Attention Barrington Parents, This is an update to our email from earlier today: Barrington 220 will now be closed Tuesday, January 21st due to cold weather conditions. Enjoy the day off and stay warm!”

The email was listed as being sent by Barrington School District 220.

The district then sent out an email to parents saying that the email about schools being closed, which was sent out to “many Barrington 220 families,” was false and that schools would indeed remain open on Tuesday.

The school district said the fake email was sent by someone posing as the district; however, the district later canceled in-person classes on Tuesday morning.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Craig Winkelman sent a letter to the school community about the situation.

“I sincerely apologize for the delayed delivery of our district communications this morning, and acknowledge the inconvenience caused by the decision to shift to e-learning,” Winkelman said.

“We fell short of our own expectations in this instance, and are examining our procedures to ensure future communications are distributed in a timely and effective manner,” Winkelman said.

More here.

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Open borders and sanctuaries are driving Illinois’ migrant chaos, not Trump’s deportations

Posted in 220, Barbarian Migrants in Busses at the Gate, Board of Education, Crime, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Economy, His Master's Voice, Immigration, One Barrington Hills, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, School Districts, Taxes, What the Ficke (Bradford)?, Wirepoints on January 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints

“Chaos and confusion.” That’s what Gov. J.B. Pritzker claims President Trump is creating as he plans to deport from America illegal immigrants with criminal records. Some 530,000 illegal immigrants reside in Illinois, the nation’s fifth-most according to the Center for Immigration Studies. Pritzker says Trump might initially target as many as 2,000 immigrants in Illinois for deportation.

Many Illinoisans will be surprised by Pritzker’s claim given the chaos he’s created with his own staunch support of open borders and Illinois’ sanctuary status. It’s been nearly three years of daily disorder in Illinois, largely in Chicago. Streams of incoming buses, full of illegal immigrants. Overrun police stations. Immigrant camps. Disenfranchised residents. Public confrontations between the mayor and the governor. Even more crime. It’s been ugly.

Then there are the costs of Pritzker and his Democratic supermajorities’ support for sanctuary policies. It will be some time before we can properly account for all the spending, but it, too, contributes heavily to the chaos. Billions are being siphoned away from Illinois’ actual residents and directed toward migrants. That’s money that could have gone to more services for Illinois’ most vulnerable citizens, or to lower taxes, or to smaller budget deficits.

Take spending on immigrant healthcare alone. A Wirepoints review of IDHFS’ most recent reports shows the state has spent a cumulative $1.5 billion since 2022 on the approximately 42,000 illegal immigrants who’ve enrolled in state-funded programs called Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors (HBIS) and Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults (HBIA). Those programs don’t qualify for a federal Medicaid match, so the full cost is borne by Illinois taxpayers.

That’s on top of the healthcare spending on “asylum seekers” who are separately eligible for Medicaid. Wirepoints was not able to obtain those costs.

(Click on image to enlarge)

There’s also spending on housing, transportation, legal services and more for the asylum seekers. We estimated those costs earlier last year and they add up to hundreds of millions more.

Read more here.

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District 220 plays “chicken” with parents and loses

Posted in 220, Board of Education, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Property Taxes, School Districts, What the Ficke (Bradford)? on January 21, 2025| 1 Comment »

“Overnight at 3:30 a.m. the National Weather Service updated the weather status for our area to an Extreme Cold Warning. Therefore, following our severe cold guidelines all Barrington Schools will be closed today, Tuesday, January 21, 2025, and we will utilize an e-learning day.

Teachers will check their usual electronic communication methods throughout the day during regular school hours to support students. All students will have access to their assignments through their teacher’s usual electronic communication method of Seesaw or Schoology by 9 a.m. Additionally, students will receive assignments for Specials (art, music, physical education, library, and STEM) that they would typically have for the day from their teachers.

We acknowledge the inconvenience closing school may cause and we appreciate your understanding.”

220’s 7AM Tuesday Facebook post.

Related: “District 220 posts ‘Cold Action Day’ statement”

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Illinois badly needs disruption. Trump will deliver some, but most must come from everyday Illinoisans

Posted in 220, 300, Clown Car, ComEd Four, Commodius Maximus, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, Elections, Fat Bastard, Immigration, Look For The Union Label, OP/Ed, Perjury, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, Saint Anne Parish School, School Districts, Springfield, Taxes, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)?, Wirepoints on January 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »

By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints

Love Trump or hate him, he won on an agenda to disrupt the country’s broken border, the economy, and how Washington itself works. But even as many Trump detractors soften their stance against him, agreeing that too much has gone too far in America, Illinois is going the other way. Gov. J.B. Pritzker and leaders of the Democratic party are working hard to Trump-proof Illinois. They, their public sector union allies and a friendly media don’t want any disruption of their ironclad control over Illinois, never mind the continuing decline of the state.

Now, we’re not arguing for Trump to come and directly target Illinois for disruption, though we’ll benefit from much of what the president does at the federal level. Disruption at the border, great. We’ll happily accept the relief. Disruption of the massive, distortionary green energy subsidies, also great. Illinoisans’ energy costs have been jumping of late. Disruption of the rules and actions that limit free speech and force feed DEI on our institutions. Absolutely. Good riddance to the cancel culture of the past few years.

But the real disruption Illinois needs is local and Illinois-specific. We don’t need Trump for that. We don’t need the feds. We don’t need outsiders. What we need is for us to do it ourselves. Ordinary Illinoisans disrupting what’s wrong with our state. Dismantling the laws that now make Illinois an extreme outlier on the many fiscal, economic and demographic issues that matter most.

That disruption starts with clawing back the extreme powers that state legislators have given the public sector unions over the last few decades – in exchange for support at the ballot box. There’s perhaps no other state in the country where the politicians and the public unions are more intertwined than Illinois. Take Chicago, where the unions and the politicians have become one and the same: Brandon Johnson is a CTU boss, the head of Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago mayor all in one.

It’s gotten so bad that Illinoisans are now subservient to their public servants.

How about disruption at Illinois’ failed schools, where 1.1 million of the state’s public school children can’t read at grade level? We’ve written ad nauseam about how Illinois’ education system gave up long ago on ensuring kids learn how to read and do math. It’s not an exaggeration, as we wrote recently in Fresh data: Illinois officials graduate record 88% of students despite tragic literacy, numeracy rates.

The disruption must be 100% universal school choice, like what’s happening all around Illinois. Universal choice means any family – of any race and any means – that wants to send their kid to a school of their choice can access an $8,000-$10,000 voucher or an education savings account. Imagine a single mom in Decatur being able to take her kid out of the Decatur Public Schools, where just 10% of all kids read at grade level, and to try instead a private school obsessed with reading and learning.

Read more here.

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