we4
Junior
Girls Can't Do What?
Posts: 245
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Post by we4 on May 1, 2008 9:18:28 GMT -6
I just received this as an email from the Girl Scouts-Prairie Winds.
Important Information – Please read immediately!
It has come to our attention that District #204 is going to start charging a $10/hour facility fee to all groups that fall into the “Community Programs for Students” category starting this fall. This is the category in which Girl Scouting was listed.
Several Council staff members are working on this and we will continue to keep you updated.
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Post by specailneedsmom on May 1, 2008 10:42:21 GMT -6
I thought they did this already.
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Post by overtaxed on May 1, 2008 20:57:50 GMT -6
What? The Girl Scouts aren't for profit. Can you spell CHEAP!!!
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Post by Arch on May 1, 2008 21:41:57 GMT -6
This will have a very bad ripple effect for many kids. One of my wife's troops, the Brownie troop of 30, can not just hop over to someone's house. They don't fit. Next year as Jrs, they might drop in numbers down to 25-27ish but still, won't fit. I suggested to her to hit up the parents immediately for the the $400 it would cost for the meetings. No funds = no troop. Worst part is they always practice 'leave no trace' and try to leave the place better than when they got there (no cleanup crew ever required). Sorry girls, someone at the district wants to be a tightwad and not leave a revenue generating opportunity on the table without exploiting it. $10 dues to be a girl scout for the year.. but $10 / hr to have a place to meet.  |
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Post by rural on May 1, 2008 21:50:45 GMT -6
I wonder if there is any way to have the administration waive the $10 fee for groups that only use the MPR-- I don't know where the HS kids meet--cafeteria?
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Post by steckmom on May 2, 2008 6:05:45 GMT -6
I think the decision has something to do with this. At least the district is attempting to AVOID a lawsuit this time.
U-46 Scout decision a church-state issue
7/27/2007
By EMILY KRONE
Daily Herald
Ruling on Scouts, other religious club part of evangelical attorney's influence
Legal heavyweights brought the national battle over separation of church and state to Elgin Area School District U-46 last fall.
Scout troops across the Fox Valley now will pay the price.
U-46 officials say one of the country's leading evangelical attorneys last fall accused the district of wrongly giving perks to Scout troops that were denied to student religious groups.
The district responded this summer by reclassifying Scout troops as a nonprofit community group, putting them under the same umbrella as local churches.
The legal implication for the district is that it no longer faces a challenge from a group known for its willingness to throw a phalanx of lawyers at an issue.
The practical implication for Scout troops is that they must now pay rent when they use district facilities. The fees could price some troops out of the district, troop leaders said Tuesday.
District officials say an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund made the accusation on behalf of the local Christian group Cross Roads.
The leader of the Larkin High School Christian student group Cross Roads says he did threaten to sue the district, but not over rental fees or Scout troops.
Larkin junior Josh Lee founded the Cross Roads Church for Teens as an eighth-grader at Kimball Middle School, and then continued his ministry when he arrived at Larkin.
Larkin officials allowed Cross Roads to meet on school grounds but refused to treat the increasingly popular group as a student organization, Lee said.
"They were not allowing us the same rights as other clubs," Lee said. "Because we were religious, we could not be a club."
According to Lee, school officials limited the number of times a week Cross Roads could meet on school grounds, banned them from playing Christian music and said they were to be excluded from the yearbook and the homecoming parade.
Lee said his group, which attracts about 65 students per meeting, should be treated like any other school group.
"We have a club for people interested in learning about God, just like people interested in learning about math are able to go to math club," Lee said.
Ed Yohnka of the ACLU agreed that schools can't exclude student groups on the basis of religion.
"The operating principle here ought to be equal access for everybody," Yohnka said, "and not have that denied based on the content of that activity."
Lee said he contacted the Alliance Defense Fund, a consortium of lawyers and legal groups that aggressively defend the Constitutional rights of Christians.
The Alliance's Jay Alan Sekulow, whom Time Magazine named one of the nation's 25 most influential Evangelicals, took up the Cross Roads cause, Lee said.
The Alliance "helps students like us when people are giving religious programs a hard time," Lee said. "They contact the school, and if the they fight, they bring lawyers down, stay in hotels and fight it to the end.
"But we didn't have to fight," Lee said.
After receiving a phone call from Sekulow's office, U-46 attorney Patrick Broncato told Larkin High School officials to include Cross in the yearbook and the homecoming parade, Lee said.
Broncato said the district has always worked well with Lee and his Cross Roads group, and the decision to allow him to participate in the parade was consistent with longstanding policy.
"He's entitled as a student-led group the same access as other noncurricular groups," Broncato said.
"It wasn't really a change," Broncato said, "because he wasn't denied the opportunity to be in the parade."
Lee said the parade was the only issue he asked Sekulow to pursue.
But according to U-46 officials, the district had further contact with the Alliance.
Broncato said the Alliance also contacted the district last fall on behalf of a different group, also named Cross Roads.
That Cross Roads was a Christian group led by adults, Broncato said, and it was that Cross Roads - not Lee's group - that pointed out the inconsistency between the district's treatment of the Scouts and the district's treatment of church groups.
Broncato on Wednesday did not have contact information for the adult Cross Roads group.
The letter from the Alliance on behalf of the adult Cross Road group prompted U-46 to reclassify the Scouts, Broncato said Wednesday.
"Once we looked at it, we made a determination that it was, in fact, appropriate to charge the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts," Broncato said Tuesday.
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Post by casey on May 2, 2008 10:05:44 GMT -6
I wonder what they charge AME to hold services in the district. Wonder if the good reverend has worked out a deal for that end? Maybe they'll just take it off the bottom line of the $19M that we owe for that disaster of a site.
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we4
Junior
Girls Can't Do What?
Posts: 245
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Post by we4 on May 2, 2008 19:58:12 GMT -6
Worst part is they always practice 'leave no trace' and try to leave the place better than when they got there (no cleanup crew ever required). [\quote] I know my brownie troop always swept the floor and wiped down the tables. The only thing left to do after we left the MPR was to move the tables. We did one year at my house and it was nuts. |
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Post by ru4real on May 2, 2008 20:19:07 GMT -6
Worst part is they always practice 'leave no trace' and try to leave the place better than when they got there (no cleanup crew ever required). [\quote] I know my brownie troop always swept the floor and wiped down the tables. The only thing left to do after we left the MPR was to move the tables. We did one year at my house and it was nuts. WE4 what was so nuts about it??? Just curious. |
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Post by Arch on May 2, 2008 20:33:16 GMT -6
Worst part is they always practice 'leave no trace' and try to leave the place better than when they got there (no cleanup crew ever required). [\quote] I know my brownie troop always swept the floor and wiped down the tables. The only thing left to do after we left the MPR was to move the tables. We did one year at my house and it was nuts. WE4 what was so nuts about it??? Just curious. In all fairness, what is the most number of brownies you had meet in your house and was it in the basement or upstairs? |
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Post by ru4real on May 2, 2008 20:37:08 GMT -6
WE4 what was so nuts about it??? Just curious. In all fairness, what is the most number of brownies you had meet in your house and was it in the basement or upstairs? Does either location matter if they are brownies?? Brownies uphold certain disciplines and so do their parents. But I digress...I asked WE4 the question. or are you one and the same/? |
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Post by Arch on May 2, 2008 21:00:02 GMT -6
In all fairness, what is the most number of brownies you had meet in your house and was it in the basement or upstairs? Does either location matter if they are brownies?? Brownies uphold certain disciplines and so do their parents. But I digress...I asked WE4 the question. I'm guessing '0'  |
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Post by ru4real on May 2, 2008 21:04:55 GMT -6
Does either location matter if they are brownies?? Brownies uphold certain disciplines and so do their parents. But I digress...I asked WE4 the question. I'm guessing '0' your post is as predicted and an example of current American parenting skills |
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Post by Arch on May 2, 2008 21:25:14 GMT -6
I'm guessing '0' your post is as predicted and an example of current American parenting skills I asked you a fair question and you refuse to answer it with anything other than an evasive or a deflection. This parent understands what that mostly means when kids do it. It's about the same when adults do it too. |
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Post by ru4real on May 2, 2008 21:31:54 GMT -6
your post is as predicted and an example of current American parenting skills I asked you a fair question and you refuse to answer it with anything other than an evasive or a deflection. This parent understands what that mostly means when kids do it. It's about the same when adults do it too. There is no black and white on this issue as parents have the duty and responsibility of teaching their children how to behave. So if you are desparate for an answer, it is 53. Those that could not handle the situation were asked to leave. Simple. You and most parents, as George Bush says, 'misunderestimate' our youth. |
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