As I have posted before, Scott Coffey is dangerous to the proper functioning of a school district. As a member of the District 26 school board, he advocated for the closing of schools and the axing of programs. Balancing budgets on the backs of kids is NOT what fiscal responsibility is.
And now he wants to do that to District 155. He even stated on McHenry County Blog that "it is completely clear that one of the buildings needs to be closed." Make no mistake: Scott Coffey and his ilk are bent on destroying public education in the name of balancing budgets and "fiscal responsibility."
And Meghan Tillson has aligned with Scott Coffey in that aim. Although she recently commented on a Facebook post that she would not vote to close a school, her alliance to and support of Scott Coffey tends to point otherwise. Before becoming a school board candidate, Meghan Tillson posted under the name "Meg Deb," and regurgitated Scott Coffey talking points. That profile has since been deleted. All references to "Meg Deb" have been scrubbed.
Having these two on the school board will be detrimental to District 155.
It's election season again, and people who should not be anywhere near a school board are running to get a seat on the District 155 school board.
Here's what I can tell you. I am not a fan of Scott Coffey. I was involved in the debacle at District 26 years ago. During that time, the Cary schools were attacked and the education of our kids suffered.
Art classes were eliminated
Music classes were eliminated
PE teachers were let go, forcing classroom teachers to teach "gym"
Class sizes were s high as 35 kids
Parents were angry. I talked to so many parents that were thinking about leaving Cary altogether. Many took their kids out of d26, actually.
It was a debacle. And Scott Coffey had a hand in it.
My oldest was in the Cary schools at that time. And, as many parents, I was so concerned about the lack of specials. As a result, parents volunteered their time to come in and teach lessons on art to Cary students.
I did that. I took personal time to teach my son art in his elementary school classroom.
All because some people are confused about fiscal responsibility. In any school board, the responsibility FIRST should be the kids. And this was not what happened.
Specials are back in d26. But the stain of this remains. Justified or not, people do not look to the Cary schools like they did before. Teacher retention is low. It takes a long time to recover from such mismanagement.
And now Scott Coffey is comparing the situation in d155 to d26, echoing the same rhetoric from a decade ago. And it is simply not true.
And the effects of a Coffey-led agenda would be devastating on d155.
To be honest, I do not know anything about Meghan Tillson and Jacob Justen. However, since they have aligned themselves with Coffey tells me that they, too, should be avoided at all costs.
I know, I know. Some people are going to look at this and say, "Well, he's a teacher and he's biased." I am a teacher.
And I am biased in favor of public education. As a taxpayer I believe that our schools are our biggest asset. And any attempt to balance budgets on the backs of kids is the wrong way to go about managing school budgets in a responsible way.
