We haven’t had all that many good things to say about Dathan Paterno since he was elected to the School Board of Park Ridge-Niles School District 64 in April 2013 – with our endorsement in which, among other things, we praised his view of referendums “not as last resorts in times of crisis but as proactive educational tools that ‘would afford voters/taxpayers a greater awareness of the financial woes of the district and the policies that contributed to those woes.'”
Unfortunately, he has been a dependable vote for the secretive closed session meetings that have become routine under current Board president Tony Borrelli and his overpaid BFF superintendent.
And for each vote Paterno casts for the District’s taxpayers (e.g., his vote against giving Supt. Laurie Heinz an estimated $20K raise after just one year of unspectacular performance), he seems to cast at least two boneheaded spendthrift ones (e.g., his vote to give Heinz a one-year contract extension worth $250K after that same one year of unspectacular performance; and $500K to provide middle-schoolers with “free” Chromebooks).
Meanwhile, objectively-measurable educational performance at D-64 remains stagnant while costs continue to rise, and Paterno and his colleagues remain silent as church mice.
So despite D-64’s spending around $14,000 per pupil, per year, one of our community’s major growth industries has become tutoring – to compensate for the lack of learning actually taking place in those big-spending schools.
But Paterno appears to have found an acorn with his criticism of the District’s plan to spend $6 million to secure the vestibules of its school buildings, as expressed in his Letter to the Editor in last week’s Park Ridge Herald-Advocate (“$6 million doors just a placebo for District 64,” Nov. 3).
As Paterno correctly points out, events like Sandy Hook are extreme rarities which become hyper-exaggerated primarily by a news media whose credo for too long has been: “If it bleeds, it leads” – and by all those “helicopter parents” who want no expense spared on their children, especially if that expense is paid for primarily with Other People’s Money (“OPM”); i.e., the taxpayers’ money.
Notably, Paterno’s opposition to spending $6 million to secure the schools’ vestibules does not seem to reflect an overall concern with D-64 spending $6 million. Given his record on the Board over the past two years, that means he’s already got one or more other places he’d rather spend it.
But improving education and the students’ performance metrics doesn’t appear to be one of them.
Not surprisingly, we couldn’t glean very much from the last couple of months of sketchy School Board meeting minutes and corresponding “Reports,” but we are hearing that the “vestibule” projects are actually school building additions that will contain and/or accommodate those secured vestibules – and which comprise a substantial portion of those “vestibule” costs.
In other words, it’s not just about “security” – something we would have expected Paterno to have mentioned in his letter if his goal was to play it totally straight with the taxpayers.
Speaking of playing it totally straight with the taxpayers, it looks and sounds like D-64’s Secrecy Patrol has done its typically excellent-but-deplorable job of keeping the taxpayers clueless not only about the building additions aspect of the “vestibule” work but, also, about the Board’s consideration – per “Appendix 3” of it’s November 5, 2015 meeting “Report” – of doing the $15-20 million of 2016 building work without referendum – by pulling $10 million out of the District’s semi-sacrosanct fund balance “and issuing in spring 2016 a small non-referendum bond issue of $5M-$10M.”
In other words, the Borrelli-led D-64 Board is seriously considering a plan that makes sure we taxpayers don’t even get a referendum vote on this first wave of $15-20 Million of spending – before they start dumping the next $12 Million, or $26 Million, of additional planned “health, life, safety” expenditures on us.
And because of his silence about this scheme, we have to question whether Paterno is merely asleep at the wheel or actually a co-conspirator in that scheme.
But asleep or co-conspiring, he nevertheless seems to have gotten it right with his observation that “secure vestibules would not appreciably reduce the risk of violence to our children and staff” because: (a) there appear to be no reports of attacks on American schools that were foiled by secure vestibules, and (b) an assailant bent on harming schoolchildren can find much easier targets on the playgrounds during recess, or walking out the doors at day’s end.
This community’s history demonstrates that school children are more at risk from crossing streets – either on foot or on bicycle – than from armed assailants. This new obsession with secured vestibules, however, reminds us of the anti-O’Hare Chicken Littles who’ve been warning of an imminent plane crash into Maine South for the past couple of decades, if not longer.
Not surprisingly, the District’s architect of record, FGM Architects, is 100% behind pushing forward with all this new construction. According to a Park Ridge Herald-Advocate story from October 13, 2015 (“Roofs, windows, doors targeted for repairs and upgrades in District 64”), just a preliminary study of these projects will put over $300K in FGM’s pocket. And then there is likely to be a percentage of the total cost of the projects FGM will grab for coordinating and/or overseeing them.
That’s because FGM gets paid for bricks and mortar, not for any improvements to the quality of education within the walls those bricks and mortar comprise.
So we’re grateful for Paterno’s having called attention to the likelihood that spending a whopping $6 million on “secured vestibules” – with or without the building additions he failed to mention – is far from the highest and best use of that money. Whether his silence about the Board’s looting of its own fund balance and its non-referendum borrowing calls into question the motive(s) and validity of his criticism, however, remains to be seen.
But for somebody who has pretty much been lost in the Borrelli’s/Heinz closed-session funhouse for the last two years, getting anything right deserves at least a qualified kudo.
Now, if only he can stay awake and attentive for the remaining two years of his term.
UPDATE (11.13.15) This week’s Park Ridge Herald-Advocate is reporting (“District 64 board divided on $6 million secure doors,” Nov. 10) that Paterno was taken to task by at least a couple of his fellow Board members at the Nov. 5 Board meeting. And, not surprisingly, secrecy-uber-alles Board president Tony Borrelli was one of them.
“ ‘When these things are crafted, you have to be very careful,’ said Borrelli. ‘Any time after tonight would have been perfect.’ ”
Translation: When D-64 orchestrates a process to achieve a particular result, don’t screw up the orchestration! Or at least don’t screw it up until the fat lady’s done singing.
And Board member Bob Johnson didn’t seem to like the way Paterno took his case directly to the people rather than confining it to a Board meeting:
“I think that a much better forum for what had been written would be here,” Johnson is reported to have said.
Translation: If you only say it at a Board meeting, D-64’s propaganda minister, Bernadette Tramm, can have a chance to spin it, and maybe even keep it out of the newspaper so the public isn’t the wiser.
But we need to note that Board member Tom Sotos, himself not all that impressive since his election last April, appears to have stood up for Paterno and the transparency his comments added to the issue:
“I think actually [Paterno] stepped in the right direction….”
Exactly.
Now let’s see if Paterno can do that on other topics – and if Sotos starts stepping in the right direction himself.
To read or post comments, click on title.
42 comments so far
This school board under your guy Borrelli is far worse than the old board under your enemy Heyde. When are you going to finally eat crow and admit that you don’t know jack about the people you recommend to the voters?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Whether it’s “far worse,” “worse,” or marginally better, is a coin flip. But Borrelli has been a huge disappointment not only when it comes to transparency but, also, when it comes to grabbing his ankles for Heinz, her fellow bureaucrats, and teachers who want top dollar even though they can’t seem to move the needle even a notch when it comes to matching up against comparable districts – and we don’t mean Des Plaines, Niles, and Elmwood Park,
We do the best we can with the limited resources available to us. Was Borrelli a better candidate than the guy endorsed by PREA whose wife is a D-64 teacher? Maybe, maybe not. But he’s going to have to work to be worse.
Unfortunately, he seems to be tryig to do just that.
Well, Watch-puppy, you have tipped your hand. Since no voter who actually cares about the taxpayer would ever vote you onto the D64 Board, you nip at D64 Board member heels while trying to leverage your appointed position to a relatively meaningless Board at PRPL to try – desperately and pathetically — to drive your own agenda at D64. How sad. You have become a caricature of your own powerlessness.
A true defender of the taxpayer would advocate for the ban of every for-profit enterprise at the PRPL, not just the tutors. Although, admittedly, I liked the originality of the idea of charging the $10 per hour fee to all free-loaders, not just the tutors. How mercenary of you! Might close some budget gaps. Or cause everyone to vacate the Library, and then your Board could lay off most of the Library staff, which has the same happy result of “benefiting” the taxpayer by reducing payroll).
But by exempting everyone who is not a tutor, you would rather leave money on the table and betray the taxpayer in order to take shots at tutors, which your readers now see is an impotent swipe at the D64 Board and administration. Reading back into some of the archives on your blog, you have been consistent only in your animus toward D64 & D207. If you had any consistency at all, you would ban all free-loaders (not just tutors) or charge all free-loaders (not just tutors), including real estate professionals, attorneys, accountants, day traders and nannies.
But your real issue isn’t with free-loaders, it’s with anyone in education. You have framed the lie that you are “defending the taxpayer” (what a laugh) while you’re really trying to manipulate the D64 Board via your discriminatory actions on the PRPL Board and this flowing river of bullying drivel you call a blog. Congratulations: you have clearly tricked some of your readers into thinking your actions are motivated by an altruistic purpose, whining about how hard your work and commending yourself on what a good person you are to accept the tremendous burden of a Board seat. Heck, even I was initially fooled by your bluster.
Gee, if only someone had had the foresight to argue that your actions to single-out the tutors would only give them a defensive position to fight back and protect all the free-loaders. Wait – didn’t I say exactly that?
Yes, I did!
Perhaps you will recall our exchange in the comments to your 8-28-15 posting. You know: the one where I had to teach you what the legal definition of in loco parentis means?
Remember that I attacked your position as weak and inconsistent? Well, now all your readers are clear as to why. You don’t give a whit about the taxpayers of Park Ridge; you just want to further your personal agenda to try to achieve the slightest degree of relevancy with the D64 Board (a long time since 1997, eh?). Again, how sad.
If you had just kept on-point, as I urged you to do, some tangible progress in support of the taxpayer might have been made. But you had to argue for, and to wheedle your fellow PRPL Board members into supporting, a policy that is clearly so discriminatory that the City’s outside counsel had to step in and provide some adult supervision to you and the other the children of the Board. Now your acolytes on the Board are in revolt, concerned about outside counsel’s comments, while you sit churlishly and vote against them.
And the only citizen who would share a beer with you was so disgusted with your conversation that he called for your resignation at the very next meeting. Well, maybe at least you got a beer out of it.
Which is more progress than you will ever achieve on behalf of the taxpayers. But then, defending the taxpayer never was your true goal. And now everyone knows, by your own admission.
But I’m probably wasting my time; I figure it’s 70/30 that you lack the courage to post this.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ah, more tough talk from the anonymous wimp du jour – likely a “freeloader” or “parasite” tutor – whom we previously dubbed “never in doubt” in our response to your belated 09.17.15, 2:23 PM comment to our 08.28.15 post.
Sadly, the current D-64 Board appears to be as inept – who could have thought that possible? – as its predecessor, so there’s no reason even to try “to achieve the slightest degree of relevancy” with it. But we feel duty-bound to critique its newest preoccupation: creating a diversion such as fortifying the schools against ISIS, Al Qaeda and Taliban assaults so that the taxpayers won’t focus on the District’s stagnant (or is it declining?) academic performance and achievement.
Too bad your handicapping ability (“I figure it’s 70/30 that you lack the courage to post this.”) is almost as inept as the thought processes reflected in your comments.
So once again, Never In Doubt, the only lack of “courage” is your own.
“Chicken Littles” is right. The sky is always falling on people who are afraid of their own shadows, or who want things that can’t be delivered other than on somebody else’s dime.
As the doors are now they just buzz you in and ask you to walk unattended to the office. Couldn’t each school just have a person there to escort you as you are buzzed in, kinda security guard like from a contracted firm. How long would it take to pay 1 person in each school to total over 6M?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Just ballparking it, 1 “security guard” inside the main LOCKED entrance at each of 7 District schools for 8 hours/day = 56 hours/day x 200 school days = 11,200 hours/year x $25/hour = $280,000/year.
At $280K/year, the District could buy 21.4 years of door-based security.
Or at $50/hour, 10.7 years.
Architects are like the proverbial hammer to whom everything looks like a nail.
The more building the better for them, both because of the design work and the costruction fees on $46 million of projects they’re talking about. But as you point out, educational value is zero.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Which is why so many firms want to be a governmental body’s “architect of record.”
Thanks for directing my attention to Paterno’s letter and to the other issues that it did not discuss. It is difficult enough to keep track of this because of the way the papers report/don’t report on it. Our school board officials seem to do whatever the administrators tell them.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Can you say “rubber-stamps”? Or “bobbleheads”?
Paterno in his herald advocate piece said he only knew of two incidents of assailants breaking into schools since 1996. This is a valid reason not to take security measures even if those measures are expensive.
Let’s think back to early September 2001 – cock pit doors were not locked or fortified, screening of passengers was minimal and potentially dangerous items were allowed on carry on bags.
At that point in our nations history there were NO prior incidents of planes being used as weapons to perpetrate a horrific tragedy.
If paterno were asked in August 2001 if money should be spent on security measures we now have on planes and at airports -based on his logic- he would have said “to justify such a massive outlay, the risk would need to be substantial and the solution sufficient”
It only took one incident for the government to implement security measures relating to planes -though maybe not sufficient they certainly help reduce the risk- paterno wants to ignore 2 tragic prior events since 1996. Penny wise pound foolish. He continues to not impress me and many others with his actions on the school board.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We haven’t read that D-64 is proposing these “secured vestibules” to protect school kids from Islamic terrorists. Did we miss that part of the story?
Or are you just that whacked out?
The school doors are locked, you have a to ring a bell to be buzzed in during school hours. Why isn’t that sufficient for the chuckleheads at D64? 6 Million for “secure vestibules”? What a total waste of taxpayer funds.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Good question.
Will the “secured vestibules” come equipped with metal detectors that that the visitor will need to walk through while being held inside a kind of “sally port”? (No wonder our local constabulary reportedly LOVES the idea of “secured vestibules”!)
Otherwise, what’s the point?
I have to say the exiting security at D64, lax as it apparently seems to some, is a hell of a lot better then MS. At the end of the day back by the field house the doors are normally wide open due to sports practices. Anyone can go into the building with no questions asked. A few times I have had to drop things off for my kid and just walked in. Teachers and school employees who had no idea who I was just said hello. I was not wearing a badge or anything to identify myself and not a word was said.
Paterno is right. How are secure vestibules above the list than putting a fence around playgrounds like Roosevelt?
However! There is an option: There should be a vote, if a school wants super safe vestibules, then they can buy them themselves.
Ahhhh, but public schools are free, thanks to the dollar fairies that grant them $14k/kid/year.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Don’t forget the guard towers around the perimeter, and the missile batteries on the roofs in case al-Qaeda pilots target our schools for 9/11-style kamikaze attacks.
Are you saying that the domestic lunatics who shoot up movie theaters and schools are any less dangerous or unpredictable than those that perpetrated 911? If so take a look in mirror to see who is “whacked”.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Let’s look at the numbers (perps excluded):
2012 Aurora, CO theater attack: 12 fatalities;
2012 Sandy Hook, CT school attack: 26 fatalities; and
1999 Columbine CO school attack: 13 fatalities.
9/11 United Flight 93 (Pennsylvania): 44 fatalities;
9/11 American Flight 77 (Pentagon): 184 fatalities; and
9/11 WTC: 2,977 fatalities.
“[A]ny less dangerous”? Yes, 3,205 to 51.
So don’t skip your medication again.
Guess a few dead kids is ok in your mind in order to lessen or at least not raise your tax dollars. You and paterno deserve each other.
EDITOR’S NOTE: If you care so much about “a few dead kids” how can you possibly allow ANY of the D-64 kids to be exposed to the imminent threat of drive-by machine-gunning – by ISIS, al-Qaeda, or Taliban assassins, or by Gangster Disciples or Latin Kings shooters?
Why waste $6 million on some puny “secured vestibules” when spending $30 or $40 million could get us “secured playgrounds” surrounded with 10-foot high bullet-proof walls (razor-wire topping optional)?
159 school shootings since 2013.
Take a look at the graphic
http://everytownresearch.org/school-shootings/
Less dangerous indeed pubdog. You aren’t on medicine either apparently but probably smoking something?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Read your own favorite anti-gun propaganda and you can’t even tell from “the graphic” exactly how many total fatalities resulted from those “159 school shootings since 2013” – or even the exact number of injured. Many shots hit nothing.
And how callous and/or stupid must you be to content yourself with puny “secured vestibules” when our schools’ open playgrounds basically paint targets on the backs of every single kid every single day?
http://www.westword.com/news/columbine-to-oregons-umpqua-college-tragic-list-of-school-shootings-since-99-5844141
You and paterno are right. No need to fear. It will never happen in our back yard. Just wish for the best – and count the tax dollars your saving to give you comfort while listening to the news reports of the senseless violence that occurs in schools. Paternity said only 2 incidents? What rock does he live under? Probably same one pubdog crawled out from under to discount the deaths of students and mock the safety of students by saying Islamic extremists are not targeting our schools. The psychos that are should apparently be ignored.
EDITOR’S NOTE: So we can put you down for the $30-40 million for bullet-proof enclosures around all the school playgrounds? Oh, wait, we can’t put you down for that because you aren’t willing to identify yourself with your crackpot arguments.
School shootings just this year alone:
https://www.rt.com/usa/318169-school-shootings-statistics-year/
Paterno needs to check his numbers.
EDITOR’S NOTE: So you’re also in for the $30-40 million worth of bullet-proof enclosed playgrounds?
C’mon, let your fellow taxpayers know which of their neigbhors is so concerned and caring.
For a more clear picture on the how D. P would want to solve potential school violence one need only take a gander at his twitter feed.
“The solution to societal violence: societal awakening–spiritual & relational. Emotional/behavioral change would follow”.
So how exactly do we bring about this spiritual awakening??
But these two give us a real clear snap shot of where his head is at:
“There is nothing more asinine than a “gun-free zone”…….and…..”Wake-up call to Christians: GET THEE TO A GUNNERY”.
EDITOR’S NOTE: So is that also a “yes” for the $30-40 million to turn all the school playgrounds into bullet-proof compounds in order to prevent the imminent ISIS/al-Qaeda/Taliban/Gangster Disciples/Latin Kings drive-by shootings?
Just in case something tragic occurred he already has figured out who to blame.
“Liberal ideology is an accessory to today’s murders”.
Seriously folks. Ya gotta to take 30 min and read his twitter feed!! It is really something!!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Seriously, “anon,” are you a “yes” for the $30-40 million bullet-proof compounds around all the D-64 playgrounds?
Which gangster disciple shot up sandy hook? Must have missed that in the news report.
Let’s all just Pray like Paterno encourages. That will solve all the problems. And how stupid is saying our kids aren’t safe at recess so why lock the doors or make the entry more secure?! With that logic your blog is becoming as crazy as bible thumping paterno Twitter feed. Twitter feed?! Is he twelve?
EDITOR’S NOTE: The same one that shot up Roosevelt School. Or was that Emerson? No…uh…Field?
So by what passes for your anonymous “logic,” someone who wants to murder school children will insist on doing it inside the school rather than outside?
And what about the psychos who want to shoot up theaters? Have you stopped taking your kid(s) to the Pickwick until Dino Vlahakis installs a “secured vestibule.”
PD:
I believe my college logic professor would say you are guilty of the fallacy “Appeal to Extremes”.
I mean essentially you are saying we should never spend any money on security because we will never be 100% secure.
EDITOR’S NOTE: If so, then your college logic professor was a bonehead – otherwise he would understand our argument for protection proportional to the actual threat.
Accordingly, in a place like Park Ridge only a fool would regularly leave his household doors unlocked; and only a bigger fool would surround his house with a bomb-proof fence topped with razor wire.
But we suspect this distinction is way too subtle for you.
Give your college prof a call.
Are theaters entrusted with our children for 186 days a year and 6.5 hours per day? No comparison. And you wanting to argue that kids outside of school are unsafe during recess so why fortify the entryway is like saying since a robber can steal my money on the way in or out of the bank why bother locking up the money in the first place.
Btw. Just checked out the Twitter feed by paterno- wow.
EDITOR’S NOTE: And kids are “entrusted” to their parents’ homes for MORE than 6.5 hours per day…EVERY DAY! Do you have “secured vestibules” for all your household doors?
If yes, you’re a Chicken Little with too much money and minimal judgment. If no, then you’re argument is total horsebleep (and you know it) so you’re just another typical spendthrift freeloader trying to bubble-wrap your kid on Other People’s Money.
By the way PD, I am NOT a yes for this imaginary 30-40 million you have come up with. Frankly, I would need to know a great deal more about the actual costs of these vestibules (why on earth 6 million??) before I even considered them. As you pointed out, Dr. P was not completely clear in his letter to the editor. I would like to see what these other additions are and how these vestibules fit in that overall cost.
I thought people should read some of his “tweets” to be clear what he has said in this area. I think he only made half his argument in his letter, that being don’t spend the money. The second half appears to be reflected in his twitter comments.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Frankly, you’re various posts suggest that you’re a typical freeloader – albeit with some strange-kinky fixation on Paterno to the point that you’re tracking his Twitter feeds. GFL with that.
No more strange or kinky than you following the PR homeowners page to quote that lady or than people reading your blog to see what you have written
Dr. P publishes his thoughts on twitter. While not a user, the site is public and I pop in from time to time to read what he has written. I thought you wanted folks to stay informed about their elected officials.
EDITOR’S NOTE: How is Paterno’s Christian Conservatism (or whatever he calls it) that he expresses on his Twitter account (or anywhere outside the D-64 Board room) relevant to any vote he has cast on the D-64 Board, considering that virtually every one of his votes was consistent with those of the other Board members who presumably aren’t Christian Conservatives?
Face it, you’re obsessed with him.
Pervert!
And kids are “entrusted” to their parents’ homes for MORE than 6.5 hours per day…EVERY DAY! Do you have “secured vestibules” for all your household doors?
You are either stupid or dishonest by trying to analogize a residence (most of which have a type of secure vestibule -cameras,a front door,a peep hole and ADT system with a panic button) with a school where hundreds of minors are entrusted to a 22:1 ratio of adults and where numerous people have some ostensible reason to be entering and exiting the building in which they sit for 6.5 hours. No one tries to enter my home saying they are johnnys dad and I need to drop off his medicine or his lunch and a person in an office 30 feet away buzzes them into the building where they can walk straight down the hallway and into the numerous unlocked rooms bypassing the office altogether. I looked at the architectural models and it redesigns entry ways so that the person getting buzzed in must walk through the office before getting access to the hallways and classrooms. Not unreasonable. They also want to put a teller type window where the person can pass an ID before being allowed into the office area and where if the person isn’t really little johnnys dad would have to wait until an alert office staff can call the police. Sandy hook was in a quiet neighborhood too – you can’t just sit back and hope it doesn’t happen in our quiet neighborhood.
Or we can follow mr Christianity paterno and allow conceal carry on schools which his Twitter posts say would be most effective in discouraging shootings in school. But I’d be careful during parent teacher conferences not to argue too much about little Johnny getting a D in math less his heat packing teacher get offended.
You and paterno are so selfish and greedy looking after your own interests in keeping money in your pockets that you are blinded to what would be more safe. If it prevents one death it is worth it. If it discourages one lunatic it is worth it. Instead the two of you seem to think 32 deaths of children ain’t that bad if the alternative is you need to dig deeper into your greedy little sad pockets.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This editor will match his intelligence and honesty against yours any day – but oh, wait…he can’t do that because you don’t have the guts to sign your name to your crackpot comments.
Is there “a 22:1 ratio of adults” to students at all times on the playgrounds during recess, or during outdoor gym classes? Even if there is, so what – wacky mass murderers haven’t been reluctant to pop adults as well as kids. Or aren’t you worried about that because those kids outdoors are moving targets and harder to hit than when indoors?
Chicken Littles such as yourself can shout “Sandy Hook!” as loudly and as often as they want, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are so many alternatives that “would be more safe” than your pound-foolish $6 million “secured vestibules” – including $30-40 million bullet-proof walls around the playgrounds, armored school buses, and even Kevlar school uniforms (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/26/us-bulletproof-uniforms-gun-control) – that only fools and profiteers looking to make a quick buck would tout such easily-avoided “secured vestibules” with the kind of faux-panic you’re trying to incite.
http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ct/newtown/sandy-hook/
Quiet suburban neighborhood similar type homes demographics as a Chicago suburb we all love – guess nothing serious could happen in such a quiet low crime area. And even if it does it’s only a dozen or so young lives over many years -money is more important than that negligible risk. I’m convinced. Thanks for your brave blog and paternos braver article. Our city is better with you in it. 🙁
EDITOR’S NOTE: Your bleating of “Sandy Hook” like that reminds us of the sheep in “Animal Farm” mindlessly bleating “Four legs good, two legs bad” to drown out any speech in opposition to Napolean the pig.
And by your continued anonymity you’ve proved just how “brave” you are.
Animal Farm
EDITOR’S NOTE: Yes, thanks.
So you are ok with a few deaths of it saves 6milliom in tax payer dollars?
And you don’t really want to have people post their names so you could try and match your half wit -you want posters to give you their names because your computer blog program records IP addresses and you want to keep a Nixon -like record of everyone.
Not animal farm -more like orwells 1984. Am I right “big brother” Nixon?
EDITOR’S NOTE: We’re okay with NO deaths – the number we’ve had for the last 20-30-40 years, WITHOUT “secured vestibules” and all the other paranoic palliatives you Chicken Littles are foolishly demanding as mindless dupes of the panic peddlers of faux-“security.”
And we have no desire to “keep a Nixon-like record” of anyone: We just want folks like you to post your names so that the entire community can appreciate just what thoughtful individuals – or total nitwits – you are.
But you already know that answer, which is why you insist on cowering in your closets.
3:38
To PW’s point, we’ve never had a shooting, bombing, etc., so how much spending is enough?
If one life is worth $6 million for vestibules, why isn’t it also worth the additional $30 million for walls around the playgrounds? And armored busses? And teams of security guards patrolling the schools?
Paris
We live in dangerous times.
EDITOR’S NOTE: So hang a white surrender flag over your front door and go hide under your bed until you croak.
But not until you demand that D-64 turn every school into an impervious bunker; and demand that The Pickwick install “secured vestibules.”
So you deny tracing IP addresses?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Absolutely.
Because if we did, we would have outed your cowardly idiotic keister long ago.
5:08
Because secure vestibules is reasonable under the circumstances.
Why spend 2000 for a home security system as opposed to 40,000 for a home security system. Or fire alarm system. We haven’t had a fire at a school either. Maybe we can pull out all fire alarm and suppression systems from our schools given our stellar record of no fires. Hell let’s disband the fire department Come on goof balls. Your own logic back fires with stupid arguments you put forth to save yourselves some money.
EDITOR’S NOTE: “Reasonable” to a cowardly anonymous idiot. Or to a cowardly anonymous idiot Board member? Or to a cowardly anonymous FGM representative looking to pick up a quick $300-600K in fees?
We’d hazard a guess that the overwhelming majority of Park Ridge residents rely on deadbolt locks for their home security, not a $2,000 “home security system.” Just like the schools have successfully relied on locked doors and buzzers for security over the past 10-20-30 years.
But forget about your lame simpleton “Sandy Hook” chant and start stampeding the Chicken Littles and weak-minded with an even scarier chant: “Paris!” Because when an ISIS terror squad shows up at Washington or Emerson with AK-47s and RPGs, “secured vestibules” won’t be worth squat.
You do “out ” people by tracing IP for those that do it from a consistent and recognizable IP address. You dont out those you can’t figure out. You ain’t that honorable.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We only “out” cowards like you who make multiple idiotic comments anonymously so that (a) they can’t be held personally accountable for them; and (b) it looks like those idiotic comments are coming from multiple people rather than just the same kook.
If the pic wick business was such that currently had a locked door with a buzzer (like a jewelry shop) then a secure vestibule upgrade might be reasonable. But again you know the stupidity of your analogy already. Or maybe you don’t?
EDITOR’S NOTE: So “secured vestibules” can only work on buildings with “a locked door with a buzzer”? Brilliant!
So back to the point of the original post: Borrelli gets caught again trying to stage-manage board of ed. discussions?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Pretty much.
Or maybe Heinz is the “brains” of the outfit and Borrelli’s simply her stooge. Or, given how determined he was to give her a raise and a contract extension worth $250K+ – while keeping all the important discussions about it in closed sessions – maybe she’s got him hypnotized.
My takeaway from this is that secured vestibules is a “Look, there goes Elvis” tactic to shift attention that should be directed to the district’s high-cost education failings to sham “security” concerns. And as someone familiar with how architects get paid, $6 million spent on secured vestibules could get FGM $300-600K.
I agree with hour response to Anonymous on 11.10.15 at 11:03 pm that an armed security guard at the entry of all 7 schools for 10 or 20 years is a far better way to spend $6 million than secured vestibules.
make multiple idiotic comments anonymously so that (a) they can’t be held personally accountable for them; and (b) it looks like those idiotic comments are coming from multiple people rather than just the same kook.
AH HA!
Lol
So you do track IP addresses or else how do you know anonymous posts are coming from multiple addresses to seem like multiple people MR NIXON?!!!
EDITOR’S NOTE: We said we didn’t trace them, otherwise we would know that you’re a D-64 board member, or a D-64 administrator, or an FGM spokesperson arguing for the waste of more taxpayer money on a frivolous project for the company’s enrichment.
So while we don’t know who you are, we can track the IP address to know that you posted on 11/11 @ 12:50, 6:04, 6:45, 7:15, 7:58 and 8:29 pm; on 11/12 @ 10:10 am, and on 11:13 @ 8:44 am and 3:38, 5:33, 5:35, 5:52 and 5:59 pm.
S NOTE: So “secured vestibules” can only work on buildings with “a locked door with a buzzer”? Brilliant!
Pay attention Francis. YES
The locked door buzzer currently is too far away from the office. So when someone gets buzzed in they don’t walk into the office. Instead they are right where the children are. Brilliant positioning of office from years ago that needs to be corrected.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Two words: “security cameras.”
Or two other words: “security guards.”
I agree with hour response to Anonymous on 11.10.15 at 11:03 pm that an armed security guard at the entry of all 7 schools for 10 or 20 years is a far better way to spend $6 million than secured vestibules.
BY ANONYMOUS ON 11.14.15 12:57 PM
Had that been suggested pubdogs greed would have forced him to write a blog about how unfair to taxpayers that salary pension etc would be. Boo hoo hoo my social security check is not enough to pay for my geritol so I need to short change the children and drive away the families we want to encourage to come and stay in town.
EDITOR’S NOTE: But that wasn’t suggested by the District’s architects because they can’t make any money on security guards – unless they get to design guardhouses for them.
Hey pubdog. Was at your condo complex today. What a surprise. Before I could head up to see my friend and get access to your building (even though unlike classrooms each individual condo is locked) I have to….wait for it…wait in a vestibule between glass doors before getting buzzed in. Wow. Interesting. Maybe your condo assessments would go down if you got rid of the buzzer and vestibule. Why have such waste of money to maintain such things.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Why spend $6 million new dollars on a “vestibule”?
Why should any rational person believe there is any likelihood of a mass murderer invading any of our schools and killing anybody? On the other hand, peddling panic has become a profitable business.
A locked door has worked just fine and will continue to work just fine if it is properly monitored and security protocols enforced. But that’s not what the helicopter parents and the school board members who bow to their wishes want to hear.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Don’t forget the architects, FGM, who are driving this boondoggle because that’s how they make their money.
Trace … Track … Tomatoe …tomato. You have similar personality issues like tricky Dicky the way you obsess over trying to find out who is behind posts. We know that you have researched certain IP addresses and your own posts admits you keep track.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We don’t “obsess” about tracking your IP address nearly as much as you obsess about hiding in the closet so that nobody knows the identity of the source of your crackpot views.
Obviously some of these Nervous Nellies must never have heard of FDR’s “we have nothing to fear but fear itself,” because they seem to be afraid of their own shadows. Or as somebody else pointed out, maybe they are just dupes for the architects looking to make some big bucks by peddling panic and then prescribing secured vestibules as the solution.
It’s not about the extra tax money I’m going to have to pay, which will be nominal. It’s about the waste of $6 million on a problem we don’t have just because of the minuscule chance (7 out of 140,000 public and private elementary and secondary schools in the U.S.) that it might occur.
We have become a society of cowardly sheep, afraid of everything and easily led.
So while we don’t know who you are, we can track the IP address to know that you posted on 11/11 @ 12:50, 6:04, 6:45, 7:15, 7:58 and 8:29 pm; on 11/12 @ 10:10 am, and on 11:13 @ 8:44 am and 3:38, 5:33, 5:35, 5:52 and 5:59 pm.
You missed two thanks to CyberGhost 😉
My point is – you try to figure out who is posting even though they want to remain anonymous. You have issues.
EDITOR’S NOTE: My, aren’t you the clever coward.
No, we don’t “try to figure out who is posting.” We simply try to figure out how many, and which, comments a coward like you is posting anonymously in order to make it look like many people have your same crackpot ideas.
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