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This page provides all of the information that we have been able to gather on Mr. Dennis Cleveland to date. Mr. Cleveland is one of three candidates from Dundee township (the others are Joe Stevens and Dave Alessio).
Mr. Cleveland and his wife, Ruth, have three children and have lived in East Dundee for 30 years. Their three children attended Parkview Elementary, CMS and have graduated from Dundee Crown. Prior to retiring, Mr. Cleveland taught for over 25 years at Dundee Middle School and has served on numerous school, district, and community committees as a volunteer. In 1996, he received a Kane County Distinguished Educator Award. From 1998 to 2005 Mr. Cleveland served as the President of LEAD 300, the D300 teachers union.
Mr. Cleveland believes that his extensive knowledge of District 300, his background in Education, and his understanding of financial and funding issues would be an asset to the Board of Education. If elected, he feels that he will provide representation of the eastern side of the district.
Click here to see Mr. Cleveland's responses to our candidate questionnaire.
In addition, we received answers from Mr. Cleveland(in italics) specifically on the following additional questions that voters have asked about:
I have not accepted campaign contributions from any individuals or groups. Along with two other candidates, I have received the endorsement of LEAD 300, DESPA, and DESA IPACE committees.
Contract negotiations, through collective bargaining mandated by state law, need to be viewed as a problem solving process. Too often they are viewed like an athletic contest or battle in which there must be losers and winners. This is a 1930's view of employer/employee relations and is not the way the most productive businesses operate. My experience in win-win and interest-based styles of bargaining leads me to believe that a collegial problem-solving approach is more likely to deliver a mutually satisfactory agreement than an adversarial approach. The education of children is by its nature a cooperative effort and there is no place for mistrust or antagonism.
As a member of the board of education I would not be involved in bargaining other than possibly serving as an observer. Given my experience as a negotiator, I would be an asset to the board as it sets the parameters for its position in negotiations, selects the bargaining team that will represent district interests, and makes the final decision by majority vote on whether it will accept a tentative agreement.
Through my participation in Consortium for Educational Change (CEC) activities, I was one of the first educators in the district to evaluate some of the comprehensive school reform models being touted. The district has seen some positive results from a number of school reform initiatives. It is likely that somewhere down the road the Board is going to need to find a way to maintain successful programs such as these comprehensive school reform models, in the face of expiration of grant money support.
We are going to have to find a way to encourage and empower parents on the east side of the district to become more involved with their public schools. Part of the inequity that exists is based on the varying degrees of parental support, particularly at the elementary level. Parents that are involved with their child's school are frustrated by the lack of participation from other parents and by the absence of school activities and events that results. A community outreach program, established by the Board and administered by the central office, may be necessary because individual schools can't be expected to have the time or the resources to address this issue to the extent required.
We have seen that the unique programmatic needs of portions of our east side student population place a great deal of pressure on our facilities in this area of the district. While growth is to the west, it may be necessary to build some flexible capacity into our east side schools.
There needs to be a greater effort to promote the arts on the east side particularly in the area of instrumental music. This needs to begin at the elementary level but needs to be particularly emphasized for 5th and 6th graders at Lakewood. Research indicates that student achievement is enhanced by instruction in music particularly in Math and the ability to acquire a second language.
Do you have more information on this candidate?
We will continue to provide you with information on Mr. Cleveland when and if it becomes available.
If you have additional information that we should publish on this candidate, please contact us at advance300yes@yahoo.com.
However as we have stated all along, we will NOT post unsupported rumors, innuendo, or opinion not based in fact. We will tell you when candidates have not been forthcoming (which we believe is in itself information for you to consider), and we WILL pose questions for you to consider in light of their lack of response.
It is our belief that the voters of this district are capable of making the right decision once provided with the available facts - POSITIVE or NEGATIVE.
Click here for side-by-side answers to our candidate survey.
Click here for a menu of the other candidate pages.
Mr. Cleveland's campaign website is home.comcast.net/~denniscleveland.
We are aware of the following endorsements for Mr. Cleveland: none
You can see what all the candidates said to the Daily Herald at:
http://www.dailyherald.com/search/searchstory.asp?id=299056
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