Why am I running for schools board of Peru Community Schools?
Changes need to be made for the safety and well-being of our children and grandchildren.
For far too long, children have been silenced, bullied, discriminated against, and neglected in public schools, by the administrators.
Parents have been intimidated, threatened, and retaliated against, by the administrators.
Good teachers have been fired for standing up for the safety of students, when the administration would not!
Teen and pre-teen suicides have been increasing, and likely will not end until we fix this problem.
Administrators (including the superintendent) NEED oversight and accountability.
The current board members are not providing the oversight and accountability needed.
(PCS has 2 or 3 good board members, but the other 4 snub-nose them, and always outvote them. And you saw that happen with the Roxy Deal, when 2 board members voted for what is right and what the community wanted, while the other 4 just gave the superintendent what he wanted.)
The current superintendent says, “We have effective policies that work.”, but that is not true.
And the policies they do have are not being used.
I really didn’t want this added responsibility.
But I don’t have a choice.
I see the harm being done to our children and grandchildren, and the great teachers are powerless to do anything about it.
This has to change.
Parents are being shut out of the schools and buildings.
Why?
An institution that is supposed to serve the community wants nothing to do with parents and doesn’t want parents involved??
You have to ask yourself why?
DCS/CPS (Department of Child Services or Child Protective Services) is being used as a weapon to retaliate against parents that speak out against wrong-doings by the school administrators.
The administrators make false reports against parents out of retaliation.
This is a crime.
But the administrators hide behind the school umbrella, and the laws that protect schools.
Somewhere along the line, schools have forgotten why they exist.
I am going to remind the administrators why they have jobs.
There will be no more sweeping incidents under the rug.
There will be no more hiding behind attorneys because the administrators didn’t do their jobs.
There will be no more refusing the help students or parents (or teachers) because administrators don’t want to do the work.
There will be no more secret back-room deals that are hidden from the community.
I will be the champion for Students, Parents, and Teachers!
Students and Student SAFETY WILL BE number 1 priority!
There WILL BE transparency!
There WILL BE accountability!
There WILL BE oversight!
And there WILL BE a Bullying and Neglect Administrative Oversight Committee that operates outside of the authority of the superintendent and principals, and answers only to the school board and the parents in the community.
There are many things a school board can do to help a school and community thrive.
But until we fix Student Safety and Administrator Oversight, none of it would matter.
Fix the urgent topics first, and the rest will work themselves out.