Martha Ross has been on the school board for seven years (appointed 2001, first elected 2003) and is now starting her second five-year term after being reelected earlier this year. During that time, she ran for vice president of the board three times unsuccessfully. At that time, you had to serve as vice president before you could be considered for president.
Then the board decided in 2006 to change the rules — they took away the requirement that a candidate for president had to have previously served as vice president. That opened the door for David Gorenz (appointed to the board in 2004 to fill Vince Wieland’s seat after Wieland moved to Dunlap, first elected 2005) to run for president, but it also opened the door for four other board members, including Ross. So Ross challenged Gorenz for the presidency. Gorenz won, 5-2. Only Alicia Butler and Martha Ross voted for Ross for president. Then Butler nominated Ross for vice president. Ross won the vice presidency. In 2007, Gorenz and Ross were elected president and vice president, respectively, once again.
So this year, Ross and Gorenz are running for president of the school board for the third time. The election of officers is on the agenda for tonight’s board meeting. So the question is, who’s the better candidate?
My two cents: I’m not impressed with either candidate, frankly.
During Gorenz’s presidency, (a) $877,500 worth of property was purchased on Prospect Road that the district does not need and can ill afford; (b) well over a half million Title I dollars were spent on items disallowed under federal rules; (c) alarming internal control problems brought to light by independent audit reports have gone uncorrected for two years; and (d) in the face of schools not meeting adequate yearly progress (AYP), Gorenz has supported shortening the school day of primary school students. Not a good track record, in my opinion. Despite all these serious problems, Gorenz continues to support Superintendent Hinton and Treasurer Cahill.
Ross, however, is not much better. She votes against every expulsion. She voted in favor of shortening the school day, which will arguably hurt students in her voting district more than any other. She appears to have an entitlement mentality about being president; when she ran for president the first time, she was quoted in the paper as saying (emphasis mine), “I know I’m qualified to be president, and I would do a good job and just feel like, you know, it’s my turn.” She has exhibited a lack of maturity in dealing with conflict. I’ll cite a couple of examples of that last one: (1) When the board voted for Gorenz for president the first time and she was nominated for vice president, she abstained from voting for herself in protest of not being elected president; (2) When the board decided to hire William Salzman as principal of Manual High School in 2004, Ross walked out of the meeting in protest. This doesn’t instill me with much confidence in her ability to lead or manage conflict.
Despite all these shortcomings, and despite my lack of enthusiasm for either candidate, the bottom line is that Ross does have more experience on the board than Gorenz, she is qualified to be president, and Gorenz has not distinguished himself as any more capable to steer the ship than Martha. I think she should get the nod.
UPDATE: As Emtronics pointed out, the purchase of properties on Prospect happened just before Gorenz became president, around the second quarter of 2006. At that time, Alicia Butler was still president. I stand corrected. Even though it wasn’t on his watch as president, it’s worth noting that it was reported at the time that “Board members Dave Gorenz, Garrie Allen and Sean Matheson said they weren’t uncomfortable with the purchases.”
UPDATE 2: Gorenz was elected on a 4-3 vote. Spangler, Stowell, and Wolfmeyer voted for Gorenz. Butler and Parker voted for Ross. Debbie “It’s Not My Job To Meet With My Constituents” Wolfmeyer was unanimously elected vice president.
CJ CJ CJ, your quote from Ross: “I know I’m qualified to be president, and I would do a good job and just feel like, you know, it’s my turn.” Then you said: “She has exhibited a lack of maturity in dealing with conflict.”
This is exactly why she isn’t qualified. This is the way she is in real life and with my dealings with her. She considers this her throne and as a subject of her empire, she doesn’t listen to the people in her own district. Didn’t you guys lambast another board member for not listening to their voters??
Ok, let’s let her have it just because it is her turn on the swing set.
Emtronics, yes, that’s essentially what I’m saying, but only because the alternative isn’t any better. If, say, Paul Vallas were president of the board, and the district were seeing marked improvement in finances and student achievement, I would say vote for him for third, fourth, and fifth consecutive terms as president, regardless of how much longer Ross has been there. But Gorenz’s track record isn’t any better than Ross’s. So what compelling reason is there to not let Ross have a turn in that situation? I couldn’t come up with one.
A little off the subject.. but does anyone want to go see the movie dumb and dumber with me?
Please explain how Ms. Ross is qualified to be President of the School board? Mere presence at meetings does not qualify you for that position-I’m not saying she isn’t qualified, I’m just asking what are her qualifications?
“Any member with one full year of experience on the Board will be eligible to serve as president.”
— District 150 Board of Education Policies 2:110
First CJ you are wrong about Gorenz voting to buy those properties on Prospect. That was done under the leadership of Alicia Butler.
Ross didn’t vote either way on that issue. She told Board members she was too stressed to vote.
My rather lenghty opinion is on my blog as of 10 minutes ago.
The historical precedent is that the individual elected Vice President was to be nominated for President the following year. UNTIL it came time for Garrie Allen to be nominated for President and then the BOE suddenly changed their minds as to the progression to the Presidency.
Eventually, Allen did attain the position – after protests, demonstrations, and a general hue and cry from many of our fellow citizens.
Now, we see history repeating itself. In an effort to preclude Ross from attaining the Presidency of the BOE, the BOE changed their rules and allowed an individual to hold the office for consecutive terms.
Does anyone notice an apparent pattern here?
And today, suddenly we have rumors flying around Peoria – allegedly spread by a sitting BOE member – casting aspersions on Ross’s integrity, leadership capability, intelligence, voting record, and overall performance.
I pray this isn’t true. If it is, it terrifies me that we have an elected official attempting to deny another elected official their right to free speech, and deliberately undertaking to impugn their character to prevent them from holding the office of President.
Is this the lesson we want the children of Peoria to learn?
I find her obnoxious and self important BUT maybe we should give her enough rope to hang herself. Could she fark up 150 any more than what it is?
And PC, considering the state of 150, the students don’t learn many lessons at all much less about their school board.
Boy oh boy, This isn’t rocket science. Now it is a race issue? Vonster, do you think we, in District 150, should allow Ross the time to screw up? I say we don’t need anymore screw ups. No one, on the Board or otherwise, IMO, is trying to stop Ross form having a voice while a member of the Board. Trouble is, too many times, Ross hasn’t used her voice. She has sat in silence.
Vonster, all the more reason the status quo isn’t working and it is time for a change.
Having watched Gorenz’ televised performance as president, it is my opinion that he is rude, condescending, arrogant and controlling – especially to those wishing to address the Board.
We are so due for a change . . .
Oh, one more thing. Have any of you noticed that Gorenz allows some speakers to have their full 5 minutes (as allowed by BOE policy) and others are cut off after 4 minutes? I have – I’ve timed it. And don’t tell me to get a life – I already have a very full one.
BTW, thank you CJ for the UPDATE. Even though those Board members you pointed out weren’t uncomfortable with the Prospect purchases, I saw nothing wrong with that issue. Watch what happens when this same District tries to buy land for the new Glen Oak. Let the fleecing begin unless of course the Board uses eminent domain, then watching the complaining here and on the other blogs. Big bad District.
PrairieCelt: The District secretary uses a timer. I trust hers over yours. Sorry. Gorenz doesn’t time any comments.
And a timer can’t be mis-set? My stop watch is pretty reliable . . .
In defense of prairie celt, I know for a fact that the timer has been set for a shorter period of time!
Thank you, k.power.
Ok, there is yet another conspiracy.
No, not a conspiracy – just an observation that has been checked out.
Just in case the word has not gotten out the convenient seemingly malfunction loss of audio at D150’s meeting tonight is ALL being recorded by Beth Akeson for later posting. BRAVO Beth!
Oh no, yet another conspiracy! No audio.
Neither Ross or Gorenz are the right choice. We need a new Board of Education.
What happened to the sign language interpreters that usually work the BOE meetings? They were missing tonight, too.
yo Emtronics…
did it ever occur to you that not only was the audio missing during the majority of the meeting where the critical parts were discussed tonight “they” even happened to “forget” to include the usual signers for the hearing impaired in this meeting so there could have been another record.
Let me see if I have this straight.. At the end of tonight’s meeting Ross wants to make a statement about how things went down today and how her peers were talking about her, which apparently is against a code of conduct they all sign when they take a board position. Then she is interrupted by Stowell, then Hinton interrupts Stowell.. then Gorentz closes the meeting before Ross can finish what she is trying to say????
Did anyone catch all of what she was saying? Hopefully Beth will have a transcript… Thanks Beth, from those of us who stayed home and missed the sound bites!!!
Update about the video-
Tonight, I tuned in to the School Board meeting and discovered the audio was missing. I made a few phone calls and determined it might not be fixed, so I drove to the district office and taped the meeting. I must admit, I am tired of watching and listening to dysfunction and bad grammar. Tonight was no exception.
If you are a member of the administration you must use proper English. As an administrator of a public school system you are representing the highest level of education. This is especially important in a district struggling to improve literacy scores and public reputation. Perhaps our administrators should be required to review the tapes of the school board meetings? Football players do, why not school administrators? They would learn a lot.
Additionally, decision making is a skill not a talent. This notion seems to have escaped the majority of the board members and administration. They have made, and are making, decisions without necessary information and without complete plans. If you disagree, I would love to hear your rebuttal.
My video could have been better. It is difficult to get good quality video without a professional camera and the sound is hampered by soft voices and board members /administrators who do not speak directly into their microphones I will ask them to speak into their microphones the next time I video.
Why is it necessary to expend this effort in Peoria? Go figure.
Anyway I am in the process of uploading the video to my You Tube account. I will post a link when they are available for viewing. In the mean time I applaud General Parker, Linda Millen and Terry Knapp for speaking this evening- you are an inspiration.
Segment One of Eleven
http://www.youtube.com/user/Akesonb
Imaswede: I recorded the meeting. Will try to transcribe the end of the meeting and post later.
Ross is already attributing her loss to race.
Of course it couldn’t be because she is an obnoxious, entitlement-minded, porcine piece of….
Some solace that we can take in Debbie “its not my job to meet with constituents” Wolfmeyer being VP – obviously that does not ENTITLE you to the Presidency as Ms. Ross can attest.
Where is Gary Sandberg when we need him? He would run that meeting like it should be and everyone would get a piece of the conversation no matter how controversial. He wouldn’t vote yah just because everyone else did.
It is quite interesting that Gorenz continues to be president and the district continues to go down hill. Aside from that, when it comes to voting on the president position the board either changes the rule to eliminate some one, always an African American, or the votes come down to Afican Americans voting for African Americans and Whites voting for whites. What would any one expect to believe.
The board has not ran well under Gorenz and it will not run well under the present officers. It is a shame because the children are the ones that suffer.
The only thing we can hope for is that the “house of cards” fall and there is an entire new direction for our children.They sure aren’t learning under regiem.
The following is a transcript of the Martha Ross presentation to the BOE last evening. A few “uhmms” and “uhhhs” have been omitted for readability, but I did my best to make this as accurate as possible, and any omissions or errors there may be are not intentional. If any errors are found, please post them so the transcript may be corrected.
Ross: I have a few words to say to the Board and the public – whatever public there might be, it really does not matter. I am going to name this “It Is Time.”
It is time to come together around what it going to take place and how we are going to move forward in educating our children in this district.
It is time that I came to terms with the fact that there is always going to be a divide based on black and white in this community. Nobody wants to talk about race but that is what it is about – it is about race. We know that because it was set up over 300 years ago.
And it is time also, that I realize that making all the Board meetings and making all my committee meetings over the last seven going on eight years, going to all the Board meetings and doing what I am supposed to do, is not going to make a difference in the way I get treated, and I feel I have been really slighted by some of my colleagues in giving me the opportunity to serve. It would not matter – it is not because I don’t have the education because I think I have more formal education than many of my colleagues and it is not because I don’t have the abilities to fulfill the presidency, particularly because I have served on local, state and national boards, sometimes in the presidency role or the chair of the committee role.
So I say it is time, in my opinion, for African Americans especially to realize that this plan to divide us has been put into place over 300 years ago. And we have to look at this and come to terms with this and see how we are going to address this.
A few of us have been provided privileges, meaning African Americans have been provided privileges, to get ahead, and what did it cost us to get there?
For my tenure on this board, I have expressed over and over why I don’t vote for expelling children, yet my colleagues choose to denigrate me in public because I voted the way that I voted.
And you have a Code of Conduct that talks about each person’s vote should be respected – I would think that would include me.
During my tenure on the board, I have voted based on how I felt about the issues relating to the students in this district based on information I have received from the administration and research I have done myself.
During my tenure on this board, I have tried to ask questions at the board meetings that would inform the public. Some people say they are stupid questions or dumb questions or silly questions however you want to term that. But I have tried to ask questions so that it gave the public information about our business which is their business – the taxpayers.
I am unclear why members of the board find it necessary to attempt to degrade or deface my character to make themselves feel good about their own free-will decisions because whatever you decide to vote on is your free will.
I don’t think you have to – and I brought this up last year – I don’t think you have to degrade another person to justify the decisions you make.
I am not happy with people doing that – you don’t have the right, it is not fair – again, you do not have the right to do that. That, to me, could be illegal or at least unethical.
But people who say that this is not about race – I can’t think of it being any other way except that it is about race. We can cover it up, we can avoid it but when you tell people that these are the reasons why I am not going to vote for this person, I think you are degrading my character and I don’t appreciate it.
I am fully capable of being president and maybe you, Dr. Gorenz, don’t want to be in a team role – maybe the only way you can function is in a leadership role – I don’t know. I don’t know what the reasons that many people think that I am not capable of leading this board are, but I am capable and nothing anyone is going to say is going to make me feel that I am not capable.
There has always been a division and will always be a division and no matter how many hoops you jump through or how good you are, you will always going to have that divide.
But somehow – if we sign a Code of Conduct or an agreement – we should at least look at that agreement and say, okay, let’s live by it – not just on paper.
So I don’t need to be in a president’s or a vice president’s role to do what I do or what I have been doing all these years, whether you think what I have been doing is valued or not, I think it is valued. I spend my time.
And, again, I just wanted to make that statement that I really don’t appreciate it and it is not fair and I will not accept it.
Gorenz: Any other comments? Mr. Stowell.
Stowell: Well I have to take exception because if she is saying her colleagues have done – I certainly don’t feel as I have done anything. I chose tonight the best leader who I thought was for this board. I meant no personal affront to it Mrs. Ross and I meant nothing, there is not a thing in me that made race an issue in this, and you smirk.
Ross: Yeah.
Stowell: There is no thing at all that I brought into this . . .
Hinton: Let me say this right now. Let me say this right now
Ross: Excuse me . . .
Hinton: Well wait. Let me finish, let me finish.
This is – I need to refocus us, everybody has their right to make their comments and say what is in their hearts and in their minds. But there is an outside entity that would love to see this board and this effort be fractionalized and I returned to this district to see to it that that did not take place because this is about the children. This is about the children.
I am so proud of this board in the sense that so much effort and focus has come about because this board being willing and more than able to stand up and make some changes and do what needs to be done for the children.
Now the only way, the only – where – this place where this conversation is going to go is a place where it becomes a controversy for the next 6 months, which is going to take us away from our focus and our direction.
We have overcome major obstacles. Tonight we heard about Skills U.S.A. Today or tonight Mrs. Spangler made the suggestion that is going to save some kid’s life that we talk about drug testing for athletes.
Tonight we’ve talked about starting a new program, a Math Science Technology Academy that will prepare many of our kids for the future.
Tonight we have talked about major entities like the Ag Lab and universities working with us and collaborating and going forward.
The comments have been made, the statements have been made, and if we need to say anything else then we need to say what is good for our kids, what is good for this district, what is good for this community.
Now it is time to go forward and we are going forward and this does not need to be, so I am very proud and very pleased that the strength and the courage that is in this board to stand up and do some great things.
Now I am just going to close by saying there are some very big highlights that I consider a part of my career and being able to serve kids, parents and teachers tonight is one of those nights in the sense that it does not seem like it is a big thing as far as providing time for teachers to get better at what they do, but I will tell you without a doubt you have improved the lives of thousands of kids and hundreds teachers. That’s what you guys do. That is what you do.
We don’t denigrate and we don’t become contentious, that is not what we are about. We are about doing what is right in this community and for this district.
So with that being said, I mean if there are other comments they can be held until a later date.
Gorenz: I would accept a motion to adjourn.
Stowell: Second
Gorenz: Thank you
PrairieCelt, Thank you!!!
I have to say, I believe she is right!
ImaSwede:
She’s right? She’s right in assuming it’s about race? It can’t simply be that the members voted their conscience? She’s right in putting her ego in front of an opportunity to set an example for students of losing with a modicum of grace? She’s right in setting an example that your default mode should be to throw the race card rather than accept the results of a democratic vote? What is she right about?
PrairieCelt:
Thanks for your considerable effort.
I think more will come out regarding the vote and things that were said before the vote. It is my personal opinion she should have been elected president. I was watching the board meeting with 5 other white people. Everyone of them agreed with her, that in this instance, it was about race.
She asks questions that the public wants answers to and she makes administration nervous. I was also disappointed that Jim Stowell did not support her.
ImaSwede: You are wrong. It is about race now. Mrs. Ross didn’t deserve to be President plain and simple. It seems all you do is troll these blogs. I know, your opinion is “it” and mine is nothing. You rode me before so as long as you are riding, at least pull my hair. What exactly in your opinion qualifies Mrs. Ross to be President? Because it is simply her turn? She stood silent on the 45 minute issue, an issue that probably would affect your district more than others. She walks out on meetings and she thought Royster should have sued the District into bankruptcy. Now there’s leadership skills.
After 7 years, what?? Her statement says it all. You copy words right out of other posts and then use them. Example: “She asks questions that the public wants answers to..” Gee where did you get that? Didn’t you accuse me of doing the same someplace on some blog somewhere?
I live in Mrs. Ross’ district and she has yet to ask a question I would want to hear. In fact, most of the time she is silent. Who is “everyone” that agreed with her? Your little group? I have heard from a few people and I find that qualifcations not race was the issue so I didn’t see anyone agree with her. Fords and Chevys…blacks and whites…how narrow.