Monday February 1, 2016
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Telegraph • A5
Vendors cut off services and supplies to state agencies OVERDUE
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Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, insistent on probusiness changes to boost commerce, can’t agree on an annual spending plan with Democrats who control the Legislature. They oppose his conservative agenda, saying a multibillion-dollar deficit needs tax-increase and spending-cut triage. “No one is more frustrated about the lack of a budget than Gov. Rauner,” said his spokeswoman, Catherine Kelly. “Bills could be paid if the Democratic majority in the Legislature worked with the governor to pass structural reforms and a balanced budget.” The Department of Central Management Services, which oversees state facilities and purchasing, doesn’t track service disruptions because
the number constantly changes as officials work to resolve issues, spokeswoman Meredith Krantz said. As for CMS, the agency declared the AP’s FOIA request for vendor notifications too burdensome to honor. A preliminary search revealed 7,800 emails related to the subject. Billions of dollars continue to be spent on services ordered by federal court orders or limited legislative action, but the lack of spending authority means bureaucrats are spending more time dealing with angry vendors. Consider: • The storeroom staffer’s failed shopping trip led a supervisor to compile a list of Springfield businesses that had cut off the state. It included a janitorial supply shop, hardware stores, a carpet store, an electrical supplier and a general construction firm. • A Department of Human Services rehabili-
AP
Stacks of invoices to the State of Illinois lie on a table at Ashley’s Quality Care Inc., a home health care business, in Chicago. As Illinois politicians continue to squabble over a budget, hundreds of state contractors have been left with little more than IOUs. tation counselor in Downers Grove sought a taxi for a client and received an email that “all service is on hold due to non-payment.” • An Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission arbitrator’s personalized date-stamp broke but
it wasn’t replaced because the supplier was awaiting $511.06 that was past due. • A New Jersey landlord threatened to evict Illinois Revenue Department tax auditors from their rented home in that state unless he received five months’ rent totaling $37,936.20. It
was paid. John Ulzheimer, an Atlanta-based consumercredit expert, said credit risk is judged the same way for a government with a $35 billion budget as it is for an individual: If you don’t pay, you get cut off. “People are going to start avoiding doing business with you or setting terms that are punitive because you’re risky to do business with,” Ulzheimer said. One such vendor is Beatty TeleVisual, in Springfield, which is owed almost $400 by the state. Co-owner Wilma Beatty said she used to do more state work, but 56 years in business have taught her how to keep red ink out of the books. On a $207 bill to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, she used a stamp that reads, “Please” with a frowny face. The debacle has produced provocative exchanges. “I feel sorry
for the people who live in Illinois. Pretty sad!” wrote a St. Louis company’s administrative assistant. One bureaucrat, forwarding a sales rep’s overduepayment warning up the chain, protested without irony, “I am only ordering what we need, nothing more.” The state has deflected blame at times. When the Central Illinois Area Agency on Aging laid off a statepaid worker because of the spending freeze, the contract-termination letter noted, “the state does not intend to pursue damages as a result of this breach.” That made the Peoriabased agency’s director, Keith Rider, scratch his head. “If you have a contract with someone, and part of the contract is to pay them, and you don’t pay them, we’re in breach?” Rider asked. “That’s an ironic attitude for the state to take.”
Some fear changes could jeopardize student-teacher relationships BLOCKS
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“The most important thing in this is instruction,” he said, “and the two most important factors in student learning are the quality of the teacher and the leadership of the building. How I instruct is so much more important than what I instruct.” Certification will be a hurdle. The Illinois State Board of would need to review teachers’ licenses to determine whether their education includes the necessary courseload to receive the required endorsements on their
certificate. Further gumming up the works is ISBE’s requirement that a departmentalizing fifth-grade teacher would need a middle school endorsement – which constitutes 18 semester hours in said subject and two methods classes. Bob Sondgeroth, superintendent of the Regional Office of Education #47, which, among other things, oversees certification for Whiteside, Lee and Ogle county districts, said that particular endorsement requirement could change by July. He said he and fellow regional superinten-
dents have ISBE’s ear, and progress is being made on eliminating jumping through unwarranted hoops. “The ISBE is really starting to listen to us out in the field,” Sondgeroth said. The licensure situation is one reason Dixon and Rock Falls elementary schools only departmentalize for electives, such as music and P.E., and aren’t looking into further specialized education. But Dixon Superintendent Margo Empen also said it wouldn’t be in step with the district’s instruction scheme. “It really doesn’t work
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for how we deliver our curriculum,” she said. Lincoln Elementary Principal Cindy Frank said the state’s alignment with Common Core standards is a driving force behind the exploration. “With the new Illinois Learning Standards, they’re pretty rigorous, so it really calls for teachers to have the expertise,” she said. “They could dedicate more of their time and professional development to a specific area. And we think students will benefit from that: for a teacher to be as strong as they can possibly be in a specific area.” She spoke on behalf of
her colleague, Washington Principal Lindsey Stumpenhorst, whose teachers don’t want to jeopardize the students’ relationship with teachers – which is among the biggest factors in effectiveness of instruction. “I think what worries some people is the idea that you wouldn’t be with that same teacher all day long,” Frank said. “You might lose some of that relationship.” In researching departmentalization’s effectiveness, the Sterling district has looked into what other districts have done. In Fulton, fifth-grade curriculum is departmental-
ized. In Oregon, fifth- and sixth-graders are switching instructors every 45 minutes. It’s kind of like comparing green apples to McIntoshes, though, as Sterling is looking for longer learning blocks and a two-teacher system, rather than four. To compare apples to apples, Sterling staffers drove about 90 miles round trip to Goose Lake, Iowa, where the very model Sterling is considering has been in place for 5 years. It’s all worth it, when you consider what’s at stake, Frank said. “It’s all about what’s best for the kids.”
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