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Thursday, November 7, 2013

11-7-13 Fred Klonsky Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:



Wishing Diane a speedy recovery.
Bad News from Me Dear Friends, I wanted to share some not very good news about my health. This week, my hyperactivity and age caught up with me. It turns out I am not Wonder Woman but mortal me. I have been in a hospital for teo days in Brooklyn, where they determined I have blood clots in one leg and walking pneumonia. Doctors’ orders: rest. That means I cannot fly to Chicago or Madison this wee

The in box. Ingram meeting provides little in the way of answers to our Medicare Advantage questions.
Fred, I talked with two friends who attended yesterday’s meeting at Andrew High School in Tinley Park that was hosted by Dick Ingram. According to my friends, the place was packed to the max. They were both frustrated by the inability to get answers to some general concerns and specific questions. They were encouraged to contact CMS for those issues even though several other people stated at the
Illinois veto session ends. No pension action. But retiree health insurance remains a confusing mess.
The Illinois General Assembly adjourned today taking no action on pensions. Here is the IEA statement: End of session report – Nov. 7, 2013 November 7, 2013 By IEA Government Relations Legislative Update – Nov 7 2013 Lawmakers have adjourned and are not scheduled to return to Springfield this year. IEA Director of Government Relations Jim Reed reports that while no pension bills impacting IEA me
Note to IEA Retired members on voting.
When casting your IEA Retired ballot be careful to follow the directions exactly. Otherwise your vote will be discarded. After marking the ballot it must be placed in the smaller envelope that has the directions but no name on it. Place that envelope in the one marked, IEA RA RETIRED DELEGATE BALLOT RETURN ENVELOPE. IEA does this so that who you vote for will remain a secret once the smaller envel


Know your fingerprinted: Peggy Critchfield.
  Peggy Critchfield, President of Accurate Biometrics. A little more about the $650,000 contract that CPS, allegedly without bothering with board approval, gave to Accurate Biometrics. Accurate Biometrics will set up four locations where every CPS parent volunteer will be required to go to get fingerprinted. A condition of the contract with Accurate Biometrics is that they will hold all the data


Running for our pensions.
Trying to get recognized at an IEA Representative Assembly. I’ve never campaigned to be a delegate to the IEA Representative Assembly before, although I have been a delegate for all but one of the last twenty or so. My old local, the Park Ridge Education Association, could send five delegates. And frankly it was good if most years we had five people willing to spend three days in a large hotel co


Life in Rahm’s Chicago. Every CPS parent volunteer will be fingerprinted.
Data driven? All the research suggests that the greater the parental involvement in their children’s school the better the students perform. So CPS is requiring every parent school volunteer to be fingerprinted. And local neighborhood parents will need to travel to one of four distant locations to go through the fingerprinting process. Accurate Biometrics will be paid $650,000 a year through 2014



11-6-13 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.
Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: Bridgeport voters fire Paul Vallas.  Bridgeport, Connecticut school superintendent, Paul Vallas. Before Arne Duncan there was Paul Vallas. When Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley the second was handed mayoral control of the public schools, he handed them over to Paul Vallas. When Vallas’ vision of corporat