Dispute over best way to promote Grayslake District 46 forum

Some parents are upset Grayslake Elementary District 46 won't use its automated calling system to help promote an upcoming community forum featuring give-and-take with board members and administrators.

District 46 has sent e-mails to parents alerting them to the forum at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Grayslake Middle School, at Route 83 and Library Lane. It's billed as a chance to ask questions in an informal setting and help shape children's educational futures with District 46 officials.

Superintendent Ellen Correll said taxpayers' money will be saved by exclusively using e-mail instead of the automated calling system, which most often is enacted when snow days are declared.

"I'm doing what the board decided to do," Correll said Friday. "It was because of cost."

But District 46 parent Shannon Smigielski contends school officials are relying on e-mail because they'd prefer a light turnout for the event. She was among the parents who pushed for the periodic forums that began last year.

Smigielski said most parents who completed written surveys after the previous events indicated they learned about them from District 46's automated calls.

"This (e-mail) decision eliminates 50 percent of the families who have the right to learn of this meeting," Smigielski said. "A phone call is far more tangible of a method in reaching out and ensuring contact to the community."

Smigielski said there is much to talk about with District 46 representatives, such as the recent hiring of Edward Towle as chief school business official while he was in the 14th month of paid leave from a similar job in suburban Milwaukee.

District 46 officials have said neither Towle nor Brown Deer Administrator Deb Kerr told them about his employment status. They said they learned about Towle's leave only after he was hired April 7.

Kerr said last week she had "serious concerns" about Towle's performance as business manager. But Towle's attorney, Robert Shumaker, says Towle did nothing wrong at Brown Deer and has wanted to work after being placed on the paid leave from his $107,449 job in February 2009.

District 46 hosted its first community forum in June 2009. The event was spurred, in part, by parents who questioned the elimination of 29 jobs that year, as well as what the district was spending on consulting services and conventions from South Carolina-based Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Inc.

Neighboring Woodland Elementary District 50 has held forums for more than 10 years. District 50s next forum will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the headquarters building at 1105 N. Hunt Club Road in Gurnee, with the 2010-11 budget, other financial topics, and a general question-and-answer session on the agenda.