Time for a Change WAUKEGAN!
Time for a Change WAUKEGAN!
Fred Flannigan
4/15/07
When you walk into that voting booth in Waukegan on Tuesday and view the choices for the Waukegan School Board your decision should be simple. It’s time for a change, and the only way to effect that change is to vote for Mark Hawn, Sonny Garza, and Rita May-Field Wilkins for the Waukegan School Board.
Mr. Shipley, Mr. McBride, and Mr. Reddick, the current incumbents up for election, have proven themselves to be incompetent, arrogant, and unresponsive to the Waukegan taxpayers. While I could give you a laundry list of problems associated with this board, I think the overriding concern for the community should be their lack of anything close to a vision for Waukegan Public Schools, and the absence of the management skills required to implement one.
These individuals were presented with a sacred trust when they were elected to this school board. They were entrusted with the education, and therefore the future of your children, and at the same time they were given the very serious responsibility of looking after your hard earned taxpayer dollars. They have failed on both accounts.
School boards across this state operate in near anonymity, which has always struck me as odd when you consider how precious the resources are, over which we give them governance. We allow school boards to set the course for our children’s education and we have to make sure they get it right because it is the only chance we ever get to educate them. School boards are also responsible for spending more of your personal tax dollars then almost any other governmental entity and it is incumbent upon taxpayers to become involved and stay involved to make sure this resource is not wasted.
This may be the last chance to right the education ship in the City of Waukegan, and the current incumbents are not fit for that task. The only logical choice on Tuesday is to vote for Mark Hawn, Sonny Garza, and Rita May-Field Wilkins for the Waukegan School Board. I strongly urge all Waukegan residents not only to vote on Tuesday, but to vote for change. Send a message that the status quo will no longer be tolerated. Send the message that you will no longer stand by idly in the face of nepotism, financial irresponsibility, and business as usual. Send the message that this election is about competence not color. Send the message that the education of your children is your number 1 priority. Send these board members your petition for change by voting them out of office on Tuesday, April 17th.
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E-mail Fred at fred@acitizensvoice.com
Fred Flannigan can be heard on WKRS 1220AM, Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri: 6-8pm
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So happy to see this post ..... I only hope that there are more reads on this as Waukegan does need to make the change.
Count me in for this VOTE. This is the
only choice! The Children of Waukegan deserve this Choice!
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Part one of my comment:
I couldn't agree with you more Fred. It's time for a change. If we voters do not make a change now we deserve exactly what we get. If we taxpaying citizens do not hold the school board accountable we deserve exactly what we get. I was lucky enough to catch your interview with Mr. Bobo on Friday. Mr. Bobo almost had me sold on his message about working together as a community until he started accusing the white citizens (which are a minority in Waukegan) of being racist. Your regular caller Judy phoned in and actually agreed with him. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but I was not too shocked by her call.
Mr. Bobo explained we need to get passed racism before we can really begin fixing the problems with Waukegan public schools. What Mr. Bobo is failing to realize is that we white citizens are caught in a catch 22 scenario. How can we get passed racism if at every turn of fair questioning of the school board the race card is played. If a citizen wants to know how money is spent, is that racist? Maybe Mr. Bobo’s (and some of the folks who sit on the school board) previous encounters with racism are tainting their perception of what we citizens are actually trying to do and that is to hold elected officials accountable. As far as Mr. Bobo’s so called “racism-radar”, I think it needs a bit of fine tuning; at least that is my opinion after hearing your caller Nurellia’s (spelling?) conversation with Mr. Bobo.
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Part two of my comment:
What will it take to prove to these people that we are sincere with our constructional criticism? After hearing Mr. Bobo I am now certain he is a very, very bad version of Jesse Jackson. He speaks eloquently, but his words hold very little or no meaning whatsoever. How people cannot see right through him or his dialogue is beyond me. What we need less of are people who are not willing to be held accountable for their actions. We need less of people who are constantly in a reactive mode instead of a proactive mode. What we NEED are people who are willing to take criticism AND be willing to answer the tax payer’s questions AT BOARD MEETINGS or a town hall meeting. If you do not like the FOIA requests, then be proactive and meet that challenge head on by creating a new policy/solution that will allow documentation to be openly accessible to the public. If you do not like citizens recording the school board meetings or feel the recordings are “edited” unfairly, then record the meetings yourself for public viewing.
Finally, a message to all of the current board members; please stop pointing the finger at us citizens and instead point your thumb back at yourselves. You ran for public office and were voted in by us citizens. It’s on you as a public official to make things better, to take public criticism, to answer to that criticism, to pay attention to citizens when they at the podium during a school board meeting or at any other venue. If you cannot do this, or do not want to do this then it is time that you step aside and let other people sit on the board that will accept these challenges.
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I am thankful Mr. BOBO appeared on your show, and he was correct that he can only speak for himself. The people will vote, and if we have a change or remain the same, it is up to the people. Brown-skinned Americans are as individual as all other Americans. You cannot paint us with one brush, and there is not anyone who can tell me who to vote for or not to vote for at any time. VOTE FOR WHO YOU WANT, AND WAUKEGAN PEOPLE WILL DECIDE, AND WE DO NOT NEED PEOPLE WHO DO NOT LIVE HERE, TO TELL US WHAT TO DO. I have made up my mind, and I live here! I ask everyone to just please come out and vote. WE WILL DECIDE! GOD BLESS EVERYONE AND THE BEST TO THE CHILDREN OF WAUKEGAN SCHOOLS. IT IS ABOUT THE STUDENT AND NOTHING ELSE.
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Judi:
Ordinarily I enjoy your calls on Fred's show, but you are wrong about this one. You seem way to smart to buy the crap that Bobo was selling, and yet you go there in your reply here. For the last time I don't think any of this is about the color of one's skin, I think it's about stealing and lying and corruption. If its about the kids then these people should be replaced and investigated right now.
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Fred,
Wow, you've said it all right here. I especially like paragraph 3 as that hits the nail right on the head. The most sacred thing we as parents have, is our children. This current board really dropped the ball when it comes to the kids.
Nothing here is about racism, until the board is confronted with not following their own policis, then it's racism all over. The taxpayers did everything by the book when they file FOIA requests and ask questions about things that are not right. It's the school board that is being 'sneaky' and untruthful and it needs to end.
Throwing the racism card out there only clouds the real issues and muddies the waters, instead of simply answering to the community, questions that are asked of them. This current school board doesn't see the taxpaying citizens of dictrict 60 as their bosses. Maybe they should. It is our right (as their boss) to question their performance, and if they aren't doing the job they promised they would do, it's time to 'fire' them, and hire new 'employees'. I hope your message has gotten out to those who can make the change.
Thank you Fred, for having Marvin Bobo on your show. I know you have asked the board members to come on numerous times, yet they simply refuse to. If they are being honest, then what are they afraid of? You? The taxpayers? Both? The answer is crystal clear. They simply are not honest people, and they don't have our children's best interest in mind.
I urge EVERYONE to get out there and vote this Tuesday, as this is the last opportunity to turn our schools around. In my opinion, if the current candidates wim this election, then we are doomed. It would be better for the State of Illinois to take over our schools than to have one more day with the current board in tact. This is a sad statement, but true. We now leave it up to the voters.
Thanks again, for getting the information out there to the public Fred. The children of district 60 will be better off if change takes place.
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I know that this is a repeated comment but the race card needs to stop. I for one can say that I grew up in Waukegan and my father was the typical Irishman.... Archie Bunker!
I did out know that that was whom he was until the show ... I only thought that this is how life was. I realized that things were different back in the 1969 when the riot broke out at school. Waukegan High West Campus to be exact. I was a friend with everyone until the riots. The African American girls that would smoke with me in the bathrooms all of the time would knife me if they could during the riot's. I don't think that they really would have ...they just had to play the part that they thought they had to. We are not our parents. I mean no disregard to all of our parent’s but we are not them.
We need to stop the race card now! It’s about the kid's and the injustice that the current board is doing now.
Illegal is the problem ... lack of taxes for the unaccounted families and children in Waukegan are the problem. It’s costing us taxpayers and our children way too much.
Race is not the issue! We need to correct the problem. The board as it stands today is not the board to make the changes; therefore we need to vote in new members that are willing to take a stance, listen to the taxpayer’s, and make the change.
To the future of Waukegan, we owe it to you!
Fred’s ticket is the only choice!
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Can someone please tell me why it is when accountability is questioned, instead of an answer, those who ask such questions are slapped in the face with the race card?? ENOUGH ALREADY!
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Fred,
Looks like Waukegan voters have spoken!!
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