arch 23, 201S

March 25, 2015

ELECT FRANK SACKS, MBA to

NILES TOWNSHIP DISTRICT 219 HIGH SCHOOL BOARD

TUESDAY APRIL 7, 2015

 

FRANK IS A NEW VOICE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE

VOTE FOR FRANK TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND HELP STOP:

 

• Overspending–District 219 spends almost $50 Million more than Maine Township District 207 ($200 Million vs. $153 million), but serves 1,900 fewer students.

• Mismanagement-District 219 spends fewer instructional dollars than District 207, but spends more dollars on operational /total costs per student ($22, 361 vs. $18,071 per year). 

• Declining Student Achievement- Average ACT scores are below 22.  Over 50% of District 219 students are not college ready in math, science & reading.

• Huge Gap between Spending & Achievement-D219 spending is among the top 3 in Illinois, but Niles West/Niles North are ranked 119th-167th in academics by the Chicago Sun Times.

• Nepotism & Cronyism- In 2012, the Chicago Tribune discovered nepotism in D219, which included hiring of staff and consultants who were relatives of the superintendent, administration, board members, and others with D219 connections.

Frank Sacks has a plan for positive change. 

Vote for honesty, integrity, and accessibility!

 

Vote for Frank Sacks for D219 board on April 7, 2015

March 4, 2015

Illinois High School Spending

According to the Reboot Illinois website, District 219 ranked #4 in the state of Illinois in per pupil spending with $22,360.94 per student. District 219 was the #1 ranked spending high school district in Illinois of schools with  than enrollment of more than 35 students

 

 

Per student spending, poverty and high school test scores

Here are the school districts that spend the most (Highland Park Township 113-Northfield) and the least (Bunker Hill-Paris/Union) per student in Illinois. Click to see the percentage of students meeting or exceeding minimum required scores on the Prairie State Achievement Examination -- which measures math and science skills of high school juniors -- and the percentage of low-income students in each district. 

Operating Expense Per PupilPSAE ScoresPercent Low-Income Students

Twp HSD 113                           $23,183.7

Lake Forest CHSD 115            $22,916.9

Seneca Twp HSD 160             $22,827.81

Niles Twp CHSD 219             $22,062.84

Evanston Twp HSD 202        $22,062.84

Northfield Twp HSD 225      $21,576.92

Bunker Hill CUSD 8             $7,139 

Illini Central CUSD 189        $6,909.35

Paris-Union SD 9                 $6,353.85

 

Illinois High School Rankings 

In 2013, Niles West High ranked 148 and Niles North ranked 167 academically in Illinois of 677 high schools rated by the Chicago Sun Times.  In 2014 Niles West was ranked 119 and Niles North 138 by the Chicago Sun Times. 

School Diigger.com ranks Niles West 140 and Niles North 164 in Illinois.  Education.com ranks both Niles West and Niles North an 8 of 10 on a 1o point scale. New Trier, Glenbrook South, Glenbrook North, Deerfield, and Highland Park High Schools were all rated a 10 of 10 by education.com. 

 

March 23, 2012

More nepotism found in the suburbs

|By Diane Rado, Chicago Tribune reporter

 

•In Niles Township High School District 219, Superintendent Nanciann Gatta's brother and husband are on the payroll. In addition, the district does business with a prominent consulting firm founded by Gatta's father. Her mother and another brother are connected to that firm, now called ECRA-HYA. District spokesman Jim Szczepaniak said Gatta has no interest in the company, which began working in the district in 1994. She came to the district in 1995.

Her husband, a strength and conditioning trainer, has been with the district since 2005, well before he married Gatta, Szczepaniak said. Her brother, an attendance manager, got a job in 2003. Gatta was not a hiring official at that time, but she "put a good word in for him" with the then-assistant superintendent for human resources, Szczepaniak said.

 

 

JUNE 15, 2010 AT 2:00 AM 

Does Neil C. Codell deserve a $26 million pension

BY MICHAEL BARONE 

 

Via Tom Elia of the New Editor, here’s a list of the top 100 pensions of Illinois school administrators. The valuations represent the worth of the pension assuming the beneficiary retired at age 56 with a life expectancy of another 29 years. The average value of these pensions is $8.879,257.90. The number one pension goes to Neil C. Codell of Niles Township Community High School District (a suburban area just north of Chicago and just west of the lakefront). Mr. Codell’s salary is $885,327 and his estimated first-year pension is $601,978. The pension is valued at $26,661,604.

As you may imagine, I’ve never heard of Mr. Codell, and for all I know he may be the greatest school administrator of all time. According to this court decision, in 1997 Mr. Codell, then principal of Whitefish Bay High School (an affluent suburb of Milwaukee) he told a woman applying for a job that his wife “’is the best teacher in the world.’ But he also said she made the ‘right decision’ to stay home with their children who are ‘the number 1 priority,’ and who were roughly the same age as [the applicant’s] children.” So perhaps the greatest school administrator of all time is entitled to some compensation for the income foregone by the best teacher in the world when their children were growing up.

 

But somehow, $26,661,604 seems a little much. Or at least Illinois taxpayers, whose taxes Governor Pat Quinn, D, wants to raise to pay for pensions like these, might think so.

 

School Superintendent’s Cavalcade of Greed

February 3, 2009 By Bruno Behrend

The greed of the people in question here is palpable. The corruption behind their secretive contract negotiations is rampant. The only question is whether Illinois’ jaundiced and cynical electorate has the decency to get angry about any of this.

Sadly, WIND’s John and Cisco Show covered this issue as only a toady apologist for public education greed can, with Big John c

the bills are paid,” said the agency’s executive director, Jon Bauman.

Codell topped the list of a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of teacher and administrator compensation at every public school in Illinois last school year, based on records kept by the state Board of Education. As in years past, the analysis found that most of the highest-paid administrators were at or near retirement and saw their final compensation swollen by annuities, bonuses and pension-fattening perks.

Codell, who oversaw Niles North and Niles West high schools, was no exception.

His contract, signed in January 2005, set his base salary at $182,500 with the option of two 20 percent raises before he retired.

Another contract option, for both Codell and his family, committed the district to cover 100 percent of hospitalization and major medical premiums for 10 years after Codell’s retirement. The deal also included, while he was employed, a $500-a-month auto allowance and a term life insurance policy for twice his salary.

These people are beneath contempt.

 

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2011

Niles West H.S. and Niles North H.S. Fatcat Teachers Salaries

Niles West Has The Highest Paid Gym Teacher In the State of Illinois

Posted below are all the salaries of the teachers at Niles West High School and Niles North High School. (Editor's note: When this article was first released only the 2010 salaries were available to the public. The list was updated in 2012 to reflect the latest available 2011 salaries and now on 9/9/13 has been updated once again to reflect the available data on their 2012 salaries.).The Family Taxpayers Network has just released the latest available 2012 salaries for these and all public school teachers throughout Illinois. 

 

Niles Township CHSD 219 spends more lavishly on its teachers and administrators salaries than any high school district in the entire state, save for that of posh, stately Lake Forest. A full 208 of them pull down more than $100 grand a year for their part-time 9 month gigs. On top of that, these big-union money grubbers get gold-plated health care coverage and platinum pension plans that will give them up to 85% of their salaries for the rest of their lives.This puts these unionized government workers, who have learned to game the system, among the economic elite of America. At the same time, senior citizen homeowners in Skokie, Lincolnwood and Morton Grove stand to lose their homes if they can't afford to pay the taxes to support these greedy fatcat teachers. 
 

No wonder a nationwide revolt is spreading against the privileged status of these dissembling clowns.
 

Take a look at their salaries. Their names are listed in alphabetical order and you can find more detailed information on the government employee by clicking on the name.