211's nightmare coming to end

To the editor: District 211 teachers and support staff should celebrate the retirement of the worst superintendent they ever had. Roger Thornton was a blight on our reputation. The experiment of hiring an individual with no high school experience except attending one in Indiana is over. Imagine Kodak's Board of directors hiring a CEO because he owned a camera.

The pride and arrogance of D211's board cost our district dearly. Should we blame them? Yes we should. Thornton's original contract was for three years but he stayed the minimum of five so that he could get pension money from the Illinois Teachers Retirement System.

That was the deal all along. A new law in Illinois is about to end double dipping so he is getting out while the getting is good. It will probably be known as the Thornton Bill and D211 can go down in history like Superintendent Conyers and D15 (they have not been able to pass a referendum since).

All Thornton's tenure brought us was bad publicity and the illusion of priorities. My friends in the art department have to spend money out of their own pockets or charge students fees just to have enough supply funds to teach the curriculum. Students paying for their own supplies, programs cut and teachers all but on strike while the school board throws money at administrators, data consultants and lawyers prove that students, quality programs and educators were only an illusion and never their real priority.

The board was blinded by pride and arrogance if they did not recognize their error in judgment or maybe Thornton was just what they wanted. Be careful of what you want. Soon the public will find our exactly how much this experiment cost them in tax dollars.

Shirley Forpe

Palatine