A continuation of an investigation on a District 65 contractor who didn't complete the terms of his contract and a District that omitted background checks
I would encourage you to look into the LLC recently established by the Superintendent called National Stand Up LLC. He is an officer with the firm along with a few other people who apparently have CPS ties.
Given the Superintendent's personal debt of tens of thousands of dollars that NBC reported on before he was hired, I think there needs to be more scrutiny of his outside businesses. As you report here, the District uses consultants all the time and is not forthcoming about the nature and fulfillment of the contracts.
While I understand that people can start outside businesses (if their contract allows), I think that it is very unusual behavior for a high-paid public servant responsible for a $20 million budget. In the Superintendent's case he has started at least three corporations that I have found and they include operations outside of Illinois (St. Chi Enterprises (MO), National Stand Up LLC, and Altering the Xpectation)
I am not accusing anyone of any untoward actions, but it certainly should be reasonable to investigate any relationships between the District and the Superintendent's business partners:
In fact, I just submitted a FOIA request for a company called "CONNECTING THE DOTS" which has been paid over $50,000 in the last year. This contract was approved without going in front of the board, in violation of 105 ILCS 5/10-20.44, which is why I FOIA'ed it.
However, the owner of that company is a named officer on the link you just shared. This is news to me. More to come. Thanks for the heads up. Feel free to email me if you have other comments.
The waiver of the sexual molestation insurance clause is fascinating. I have been working with the Director of Safety Town to get that program restarted after it being essentially mothballed for the last 3 years (shameless plug - it is a great program and if you have kids who are age appropriate for it, sign them up). The District was insisting on a year long insurance policy (despite the fact that the program window is basically 6-8 weeks) with sexual molestation coverage (which is appropriate given the ages of kids involved etc). And this was all just to be able to rent space in D65 schools - it isn't a 65 program. Picking and choosing who has to clear all of these hoops is wrong.
I suspect he was unable to get certain types of insurance due to his background and others, such as E&O were still easily obtainable. I reached out to the District Superintendant and School Board and suggested they consider adopting a background check policy district-wide because this "direct daily contact" claim is so clearly non-sense. I recommend sending them an email and feel free to cc this URL.
I would encourage you to look into the LLC recently established by the Superintendent called National Stand Up LLC. He is an officer with the firm along with a few other people who apparently have CPS ties.
Given the Superintendent's personal debt of tens of thousands of dollars that NBC reported on before he was hired, I think there needs to be more scrutiny of his outside businesses. As you report here, the District uses consultants all the time and is not forthcoming about the nature and fulfillment of the contracts.
While I understand that people can start outside businesses (if their contract allows), I think that it is very unusual behavior for a high-paid public servant responsible for a $20 million budget. In the Superintendent's case he has started at least three corporations that I have found and they include operations outside of Illinois (St. Chi Enterprises (MO), National Stand Up LLC, and Altering the Xpectation)
I am not accusing anyone of any untoward actions, but it certainly should be reasonable to investigate any relationships between the District and the Superintendent's business partners:
https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_il/LLC_09199365
In fact, I just submitted a FOIA request for a company called "CONNECTING THE DOTS" which has been paid over $50,000 in the last year. This contract was approved without going in front of the board, in violation of 105 ILCS 5/10-20.44, which is why I FOIA'ed it.
However, the owner of that company is a named officer on the link you just shared. This is news to me. More to come. Thanks for the heads up. Feel free to email me if you have other comments.
The waiver of the sexual molestation insurance clause is fascinating. I have been working with the Director of Safety Town to get that program restarted after it being essentially mothballed for the last 3 years (shameless plug - it is a great program and if you have kids who are age appropriate for it, sign them up). The District was insisting on a year long insurance policy (despite the fact that the program window is basically 6-8 weeks) with sexual molestation coverage (which is appropriate given the ages of kids involved etc). And this was all just to be able to rent space in D65 schools - it isn't a 65 program. Picking and choosing who has to clear all of these hoops is wrong.
I suspect he was unable to get certain types of insurance due to his background and others, such as E&O were still easily obtainable. I reached out to the District Superintendant and School Board and suggested they consider adopting a background check policy district-wide because this "direct daily contact" claim is so clearly non-sense. I recommend sending them an email and feel free to cc this URL.