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Champaign Unit 4 stakeholders demand that the Unit 4 Board of Education move to immediately remove Dr. Shelia Boozer as the district superintendent. In her position as leader of Unit 4, she has continually demonstrated that she is incapable of fulfilling her contractual obligations and job duties. Her unprofessionalism and disregard for students, staff members, and this community have contributed to this district's inability to increase staff retention, improve student outcomes, or engage in mutually beneficial community partnerships.

The creation of this petition was prompted by the most recent unfair retaliatory disciplinary actions taken against exceptional district employees at Booker T. Washington STEM Academy. 

Outlined below are other examples of misconduct, poor decisions, and contractual violations committed under her leadership that have continued to harm the Champaign Unit 4 school district. 

1. Not following ISBE and Unit 4 BOE approved district policies, including but not limited to:
   • emergency e-learning procedures and Chromebook policy. (After violating emergency e-learning procedures, she proceeded to ignore the Chromebook policy and take an entire day of learning away from elementary students left without Chromebooks. This is her "apology" email regarding that).
   • allowing her newly hired transportation team to violate ISBE Pupil Transportation policy by canceling many routes in fall 23. As of '24 they are now "combining" routes and sending this notice to some parents while others receive nothing. The notice does not provide any estimate on drop-off times, with some routes taking 2 hours. 
2. Failure to establish and maintain positive relationships with city officials, park district employees, Unit 4 board members, and district employees.
3. Failure to meet the performance and improvement goals outlined in the Performance Based Superintendent Contract. (multiple points not being met in the required sections of Ethics and Professional Norms, Equity and Cultural Responsiveness, Strategic Plan Implementation (more details in #12) and Family and Community Engagement)
4. Continues to send unprofessional, inflammatory, and threatening messages to Unit 4 staff members and community stakeholders (just a few examples, of many, shared below).
   • Her recent email exchange with a BTW staff member regarding the district's response to the BTW fall '23 shooting on school grounds.
   • Email response sent to a parent asking about information on joining a district committee (the "change, not chaos" group she is referring to was a collaborative community effort in fall '22 to provide equitable opportunities for info and community input after the consulting company hired to make change recommendations had botched a website rollout, did not provide adequate translations of materials, and was initially only holding hand-picked focus group times in the middle of weekdays).
   • After ignoring the district policies mentioned in #1, this was a message sent out to black community members on 01/28/2024 regarding the next board meeting (Shared by an outraged recipient. While not directly sent by Dr. Boozer, the opinions expressed address the district admin. No "mess" was planned for this meeting; you can watch the full 01/29 meeting here)
5. Failure to implement programs utilizing the City of Champaign’s $526,000 in Gun Violence Blueprint funds allocated to the district. (Made excuses about not having the manpower, as mentioned in her email to BTW staff above, but did not ensure adequate job postings to reflect attempts to acquire staff for programs). After much community outrage and backlash, the district finally asked for a second chance to use the funds but implementation is still pending.  
6. Fosters a climate of mistrust and fear with teachers who have made it known that Dr. Boozer will and has retaliated against staff (the most recent Champaign Federation of Teachers contract negotiations were unnecessarily adversarial and resulted in over 90% of CFT members voting to authorize a strike over plans to implement changes without solid plans/data backing them. This is briefly mentioned by Dr. Boozer in the "email response to parent" above as just the CFT not respecting her because she is a black woman).
7. Ignores valid concerns from teachers (teachers were very vocal about transportation issues when admin proposed changes of an extended school day, ending of the balanced calendar, and changing start/stop times of schools), calls community input "noise" during public BOE meetings, has made requests that both staff members and the community stop emailing her altogether, and continues to make decisions without adequate information or consideration of all Unit 4 stakeholders. 
8. Has engaged in negligent hiring practices of under or unqualified individuals, including but not limited to appointments made to administrative positions.
   • Supported hiring a Centennial High School Principal who had several Orders of Protection filed against him, multiple complaints against him at the school level, and was only forced to resign after his assault of a student was made public by an employee who lost their job over its release
   • Hired the current Unit 4 Director of Engagement & Social-Emotional Learning who was forced to resign from another school district after multiple complaints of harassment. This is the letter of reprimand and an article related to the lawsuit settlement the district paid over it.
9. Recommended the addition of middle school and pre-k programs at Garden Hills only a few months before starting them, without adequately consulting staff at that school. Those programs continue to have substitutes covering added positions.
10. Engages in an inequitable selection process for staff attendance at professional development trips outside of the district.
11. Refusal to respond to valid Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
12. Refusal to follow steps outlined in the Strategic Plan, including but not limited to the strategic priorities of family and community engagement.
13. Implemented a transportation reimbursement program with a confusing roll-out and questionable legality.
    • Requiring families to sign vendor contracts with the district as 1099 contractors who will have to declare mileage reimbursement as taxable income.
    • Discriminating against the lowest socioeconomic status families as the district set a higher minimum insurance premium requirement than the State of Illinois minimum requirements.
14. Has inaccurate student demographic data stated on the District Dashboard that differs from state-reported data.
15. Oversaw the elimination of the district's special education program and required SPED employees to re-interview to retain employment (offending employees and resulting in additional loss of staff which is exacerbating #16).
16. Failure to provide adequate attention and support to marginalized groups within the district, Latino and ESL students, and special education students. 
17. Failure to achieve performance goals of raising marginalized group's proficiency in math and reading, which is still substantially lower than Illinois state proficiency. (Illinois Report Card)
18. Eliminated year-round school options without data to determine how that would affect routes amid staffing shortages.
19. Has not engaged in meaningful conversations with the community or adequate data collection before making district changes. After paying a consultant company to formulate choices, she ultimately recommended a last-minute change that had little data or feedback to support it. 
20. Her recommendation for changing the start/stop times of schools across the district was done without adequate consultation or data that considered sibling feeder schools (making drop-off and pick-up times for families with students attending different schools unrealistic).
21. Eliminated the elementary band program without any opportunity for public input, or consultation with middle school band instructors. 
22. All of the above-stated reasons have also contributed to Unit 4's continued inability to hire and retain staff as well as other comparable school districts in IL. There are currently (as of 02/07) 208 vacancies in the district, 82 of which are for licensed teachers and paraprofessionals (74 being immediately available).

The information and documents provided have been compiled through collaborative efforts. If you have any questions, or additions you would like to see added to the petition, please e-mail champaignunit4info@gmail.com