I would like to hear how the parent received her intimate knowledge. Please ask!

you call the office and ask them,,,then they tell you the time,,,the phone number is on the district web site

the meeting was a joke...doster has his own agenda,,,,,,,,,,,time to vote these people out................................whats next ?? grade centers ????

Strange, I thought she had done a fine job. I am with you Tom, time to show up at the ballot box.

The crap part is we cannot vote these people OUT, we can only vote new people IN, so unless someone is wiling to run, we have no choice. I have heard that Dreyfuss will not run again, thank goodness, but am unsure about everybody else.

The never ending saga that is Western Avenue (and its parents). They get a principal, influential parents gain "influence" with the new principal (i.e., making sure they get what they want, when they want it, for THEIR kids), then they throw a hissy if the Superintendent or school board have a problem with the situation.
Tom, what do you mean "Doster has his own agenda"? Of course he does. He's the Superintendent. He's supposed to - in alignment with the school board. The Principal works for him, not the other way around.
The drama queens who are the parents of Western Avenue students are the scourge of the district.

Nick002,

Civility would be best practiced with a hot button topic such as this. Your assumption of parents throwing a "hissy" and being "drama queens" is first off insulting and secondly not true. Yes, we have a vested interest much the same as you would had the Superintendent chosen to remove a principal of the school your child was attending who was proven successful and was performing the duties of their position with high performance and in accordance with what they were hired for. Furthermore, one thing that would ask you to consider is that the School Board and the Superintendent are supposed to work for the community and the parents and the best interest of the children in the district. At the meeting there was not a single person who stated anything but praise for the job and the professionalism of Jennifer Camilleri. In fact she seems to have the full support of the teachers and parents of Western avenue. The scary thing is that the teachers and parents of Western Avenue have in unison stated that we do not want this change and the Superintendent by his own admission has stated that was not part of the consideration in this matter. You stated that the principal works for the Superintendent. In actuality the principal works for the community under the supervision of the superintendent who he himself is supposed to work for us. This is not a Western Ave vs. the rest of the district issue, it is a Western Ave vs, the Superintendent issue. Your school could be next.

This from the website of the school board.
"The Superintendent is responsible for making dismissal recommendations the board of education consistent with the Board’s goal of having a highly qualified, high performing staff."
The empirical data available shows that Camilleri has proven both "Highly qualified" and "high performing" I would simply like to know what information and or empirical data the board has that we don't that shows otherwise.

Good Riddance!

Terrell Owens was a high performing player too: doesn't mean I'd want him on my team. I don't know anything about this lady, but 1) any Principal who has the full support of her faculty is probably not doing her job, which involves kicking some teacher butt when needed; 2) The "performance" at Western is primarily due to its rich, educated student body, not its faculty, and 3) There are an awful lot of folks in Flossmoor who think "their" school Western is the fair-haired child of 161 and deserves more resources than its cousins Heather Hill and Serena Hills

Inspector Daggett-
You are very assumptive and misleading when you state "In fact she seems to have the full support of the teachers and parents of Western avenue." Nothing could be further from the truth. There are many parents who are pleased with this decision. While I am in support of the district's decision, the public way this matter is being handled is terrible.

I have a few questions for you, Juvenal (very appropriate name). Why would a principal's performance be diminished because she has the faculty's support? If a leader does not have the support of his/her subordinates, how can he/ she be effective? Why shouldn't a school's success be a collaborative effort of the principal, faculty, parental involvement, and the students' efforts? What resources does Western receive that other schools do not? How do you know- where are you getting your information? I think you are ill informed. The one thing I do agree with you is when you stated in part that the "performance of Western is due to ... It's educated student body".

EXCUSES JUVIE, u know full well there are no teaching of history from a generation ago as far back as the plot of the movie Argo for ex, never mind 2,000 years, but u are correct education is sorely lacking!

Juvenal, why don't you put your satire aside and answer the questions? You acting as if you are too intelligent for the rest of us is very juvenile.

I worked with the principal at WA. She was too inexperienced and too unprofessional to serve in that role. I am surprised at the support she is getting as many of the staff members didn't care for the way she did her job. Oh how I wish I could openly tell what I know. Perhaps the reason people are upset is because of the way it has been handled- similar to the reshuffling that happened previously. Like it or not, WA is a 'good old' community school with a highly affluent population. Believe me, the whole 'overflow' issue was a thorn because it was seen as something that could skew test scores.

I agree with the unprofessional nature of both and her assistant. I have seen him in action in the school and the Flossmoor fest. After witnessing a tirade aimed at a male student which made me stop in my tracks, Mrs. Camilleri felt the need to walk over and justify Mr. Nieminski behavior and use of harsh language. This was my first experience with them as I was volunteering for lunch duty and happen to be in the hall, my child was a kindergartener.
Three years later I have witnessed the preferential treatment among parents and students. Especially those working the system to get their child placed in the grade levels favorite teacher. She walks a tight rope like any other employee keeping the parents happy because they have a vested interest in their child’s performance and that in turn support her in keeping her job. Read the paper and corruption is everywhere.

A school is a combined effort of the community and the staff. I think it’s grossly overstated that the WA community is the golden child of the district due to preferential treatment by the school board. We are a great school because our parents are if anything over-invested in each school day and activity. We have the benefit of a large stay at home mom and dad population who choose to use their spare time volunteering at school. Even the working parents use vacation time to attend and support the school and their children. I understand that this may not be the case in the other schools but please don’t vilify the WA community and claim “affluence” on this note. Each community, city, state and country has their own unique set of resources and challenges. Some have more of one than the other.
I feel the district has information that they may not be legally allowed to share and so this appears to be witch hunt – first our teachers and now our principal. I also ask for better transparency. The truth always sees the light of day.

Heather Mom- I agree that the community has a rich parent involvement aspect (which is wonderful) but I stick to the affluence thing (maybe not all but many). What is ironic is that Jen C. is experiencing the same thing she inflicted on several of her staff members just last year.
On a different note, I agree about Bruce N. He is a yeller who really doesn't have a way with younger children. He takes a similar attitude w/staff members.

Mrs. Camilleri was a great principal. Last year, many teachers were switched around and moved to different schools...wouldn't that type of decision come from the top???

Our focus should not be on discussing whether she was good principal or not....it should be on our kids and our school. Too much change has taken place in this district and I am worried about how this is going to affect our kids.

The problem is at district office, not Western Avenue!

Oh, please. Stop hiding behind the feelings of the kids. It's the parents who can't deal with change, not the kids. While I remember my childhood teachers, I certainly can't remember the elementary school principals who came and went. And since I changed teachers every year, I can't recall whether they were new or long-timers -- they were new to ME every year and that was expected. If you as the adult liked the changes, you wouldn't be commenting here. This kerfuffle is all about parent issues, not kid issues -- parents who have figured out how to work the current system of leadership and teachers and are worried about having to figure out how to work it if their are changes.

And it's not about communication, either. Everyone knows the district can't say much about personnel matters in public. But when they don't like a decision, they complain that it wasn't communicated well. That's just malarkey. They don't like the decision, they want to pick it apart detail by detail, but the details are (properly) not available to them, so in their frustration they complain about the "communication."

A.R.- You make several really good points. As a former employee of 161, one rumor I heard was that the principals got financial bonuses based on test scores. I would like to know if that is indeed true. If so, it explains a lot.

Wow, she is going to miss that $123K gig!

This site is interesting to look at & see what various teachers & administrators are making:
http://illinois-teachers.findthedata.org/

I'm new to the district. Can someone point me to a list of the candidates for the school board?

Disregard. I now have the link: http://homewood-flossmoor.patch.com/articles/flossmoor-school-district-161-board-of-education-election-2013

If people have their profiles, definitely post. Thx.