Thursday, February 4, 2010

Kalkirtz leaves D-158

This morning's Northwest Herald reported the departure of Special Services Director Cheryl Kalkirtz from Huntley's School District 158 and that Superintendent John Burkey refused to say whether Cheryl resigned or was canned.

A parent told me she left suddenly, but not because of any fault of her own.

What else did the parent have to say about Cheryl? Cheryl was only there for a few months after the previous Special Services (used to be called Special Education Services in school district - all part of re-languaging to call things what they aren't) Director Meg Schnoor left, taking two assistant directors with her to Elmhurst.

The parent had these things to say about Cheryl:

She was one of the good ones.
Cheryl was all about compliance with special education laws.
She was rule-oriented.
She felt strongly that the district should comply with special education laws.
Cheryl felt the school district must comply with the laws.
Parents who knew their rights and the rights of their special education children found Cheryl good to work with.

Why does someone come into a new $100,000 job and then leave abruptly? "Personality conflict" or being asked/told to do things that aren't right and refusing to do so? There was recently a big storm in that school district about planned spending of special education dollars for a reading program that parents believed would not work for special education students. Or something close to that.

All I can base my opinion on is my own past experiences. Have I been fired? Yep.

I recall one job where I held a vice-president's position. When I was ordered to falsify reporting to the board of directors about my department's budget, it would have been easy to roll over, agree and keep my job. Instead, I refused to falsify those records, because the board then would have been deceived about spending in my department that had been ordered by the president of the organization.

Good luck to you, Cheryl Kalkirtz, wherever you are.

1 comment:

Gus said...

You can read Cheryl Kalkirtz's one-sentence letter of resignation, dated 2/1/10, on www.mchenrycountyblog.com today.

It's easy for me to read between the lines. A terse one-sentence resignation tells me that she was forced out and probably resigned under threat of being fired.

For what? For doing her job?

Good luck, Cheryl. If you resigned under fire, get a good lawyer. If you would like a recommendation, get in touch. He'll be a shark in the Loop.