FeedIt’s time to consolidate Peoria and Dunlap schools
January 30, 2006 in Overset Tags: district 150, District 323, Dunlap Schools, Peoria schools, school consolidation
Dave Haney has a nice article on the spiffy new remodeling project at Dunlap High School. The article also discusses plans for future growth at the district. Here’s the problem, while the Village of Dunlap is an autonomous municipality, the “Dunlap” school system is served people who live in and around Dunlap and in the city limits of Peoria.
Yet I keep hearing the phrase “Dunlap schools” or “the Dunlap school system.” It’s simply not the case.
The growth in District 323 isn’t happening because of anything the Village of Dunlap has done. It’s happening because the school district’s bounderies just happen to overlap the boundaries of the City of Peoria. It’s created a situation where children who happen to live in one part of Peoria go to a District 150 school and children who live in another area happen to go to a District 323 school.
It doesn’t make sense. We’re not talking about seperate and distinct communities, seperated by distance and history. The area has grown so much that there is very little of the District 323 that can be called Dunlap.
The economies of scale suggest that there is a cost savings to be made merging the two districts into a single larger district. There will be those who think the Village of Dunlap needs it’s own seperate and unique school district. None of them seem to mind that fact that City Peoria is forced by circumstances to have many school district’s within it’s borders.
It also strikes me as unfair that taxes paid on property within the city limits of Peoria goes to build structures like the one described in this article. The majority of the students who attend this school are not Peoria residents. In other words, residents of Peoria are subsidizing an elite campus out in the boondocks, while residents of the same city are attending schools that are crumbling. It’s immoral, not to mention grounds for a lawsuit if anyone cared to file one.
It’s time to consolidate.
January 30th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Sounds like an excellent idea comrade. As I have always said, “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”
January 30th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Didn’t I see you at the last Party meeting?
January 30th, 2006 at 2:14 pm
Great - so now I have to move even FARTHER away to get out of Destruct 150??
January 30th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
Did you get the T-Shirt?
http://www.threadless.com/prod.....nist_Party
January 30th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
Please do.
January 30th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
GFY, M.
January 30th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
A couple things:
1) Peoria has many school districts within it’s boundaries because it has sprawled outwards. School districts have not intruded on Peoria.
2)Why should 2 school districts that are so different, in your words, be consolidated? Who would benefit? It would only serve Dist 150 by making it LOOK better.
January 30th, 2006 at 6:42 pm
The school district of Dunlap 323 was set down decades ago before Peoria was expanding, Just as Limestone school district was established in 1949 and displaced many Manual school students back then. Dunlap is not intruding into Peoria Peoria is moving their incorporated boundaries further to the Northwest. City boundaries do not mean school boundaries change at the same time, after all they are a government taxing body, just as the water districts are a government unto themselves and cannot be changed without the consent of the voters of those bodies and a benefit to their own pocket books.
January 30th, 2006 at 6:44 pm
hahahahahahaha…yeah, that’ll happen
January 30th, 2006 at 6:50 pm
Another point, all the sales taxes collectd at Grand Praire go to Peoria city not Dunlap village.
January 30th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
And another comment the number of school districts in Peoria County is much higher then the one district in Peoria the City.
January 30th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
That is city taxes, not school taxes. The school taxes for the Grand Prarie area go to Dunlap.
January 30th, 2006 at 9:00 pm
You should build your own empire, Vonster. You could clone sheep that will follow an idiot anywhere, just like you.
January 30th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
I’d like a few comments on my blogs today. I can’t top any of the comments on your site about schools. Consolidating the two schools? Talk to the Dunlap School Board and whoever said life was fair?
January 31st, 2006 at 12:17 am
That is precisely why it is a problem. It creates a constituancy that may well be opposed to supporting or assisting the troubled part of the city. Rather than shared interests, it creates divergent interests that will only get worse with time.
January 31st, 2006 at 12:33 am
For someone much smarter than I:
What would it take to merge the two? (Not that I am for it at all, just curious).
And, what are the origins of someone living in Peoria and paying Dunlap school district taxes? Is it because long ago people moved out north and eventually the city caught up with them after the school districts had all ready been established?
I’m unclear on how all of this works.
Thanks ahead of time.
Scott
January 31st, 2006 at 1:02 am
Why should a group of people who have built a fine school district be penalized for another group’s inability to succeessfully run their district? That’s like sending to jail the person whose home was robbed while letting the burglar go free. It’s immoral.
January 31st, 2006 at 1:16 am
How is school district consolidation penalizing existing resifdents of the Dunlap district? First, a sizeable proportion of them are PEORIANS, and attend that distrct’s schools only because of arbitrarilly drawn borders.
Second, the students would be attending exactly the exactly the same schol districts they are now. Same teachers, same principals. So don’t worry, Dunlapers: There won’t be any more Negroes attending your schools than you already have!
If done right, the consolidated district would need fewer administrators that they have now, combined.
That’s a cost savings to taxpayers of BOTH currently existign districts.
January 31st, 2006 at 6:53 am
Does one really want to start seeing news headlines like ‘Gun found in Dunlap school locker’? I think not. Then again, as long as Peorrhea doesn’t try to annex Tazewell County, I don’t care…
January 31st, 2006 at 7:05 am
The school districts ‘borders’ were laid out decades ago, long before sprawl was an issue. Probably laid down when our economy was still primarily agricultural. That does not mean that the current outlines are best suited for today.
January 31st, 2006 at 7:16 am
I bet it already has. Just nobody has heard about it. The difference is the color of the student body’s skin color and how that population deals with difficulties.
I went to what was regarded as a primarily ‘white’, upper class high school. Starting my sophomore year, people were carrying knives, including myself. We had some bullies in the school that were not affraid to jump people anyplace anywhere. Even during school hours. We were not safe! Did the bullies get expelled or at a minimum suspended? Nope. Did the press care? Nope. Did people get hurt? Yep. Would the police do anything? Are you kidding (that was a real eye opener)! The parents? Can this be kept quiet?
Meanwhile across town, at a school that had a much larger black population. Expulsions? Yep, well sort of. The press? All over it!! Police? Can they be charged as adults? Parents all up in arms.
What is amazing, learning years later just how much worse it really was. Cocaine had a much larger presence than I even knew back then. Yet, it was and still is considered one of the ‘best’ schools in the area.
January 31st, 2006 at 7:20 am
My first response is: “So, it’s OK if it happens in Peoria?”
But as I’ve said earlier, this has nothing to do with shipping Peoria students to Dunlap schools or vice versa. The districts’ borders would simply disappear, meaning the schools these students ALREADY attend would be controled by a single government entity. A very small proportion of the families who live within this new district’s boundaried could be considered truly outside the metropolitain Peoria area. They students would still go to the closest school posible.
January 31st, 2006 at 7:40 am
Norman should add naive to his moniker.
January 31st, 2006 at 7:56 am
Not exactly true… I think some civil rights laws would require the district to bus some minority students to those far northern schools. I believe this already happens with some of Peoria’s primarily ‘white’ schools. Unfortunately these laws don’t cross school district boundries, requiring ‘diversity’ between school districts. Hence we get segregated districts vs segregated schools.
January 31st, 2006 at 8:00 am
I hear Kansas is ripe for conquest, with many people sympathetic Vonster’s outlook. Home on the range. Where a cowboy can be a cowboy’s cowboy…
January 31st, 2006 at 10:31 am
Ummm… The lines were drawn a long time before any party of the Dunlap school district was part of the City of Peoria.
Any yeah right, the number of administrators would be decreased and money would be saved by the taxpayers. What dream world are you living in? Bodies of government such as school districts rarely, if ever, voted to decrease their tax levy, even if they are in the black.
Not to mention that when two school districts are combined, the tax percentage becomes the average of the two for the entire new district. So, one group would benefit and one would suffer. Any bets on which district has the lower tax percentage?
January 31st, 2006 at 10:36 am
To consolidate, under present law it would take a majority vote in each district at a general election. There is talk of changing this law to a majority vote in BOTH districts combined, IE the new consolidated district. Thus, if enough people in District 150 voted yes it could force Dunlap in, even if they had a no vote just within their boundaries. This would be a forced consolidation though, and would take action by the ISBE.
January 31st, 2006 at 10:36 am
Why not, Pekin has annexed part of Peoria County!
January 31st, 2006 at 10:39 am
Very small proportion yes, if you are talking about the combined district. The proportion of rural students in the Dunlap district alone is not very small, however.
January 31st, 2006 at 11:24 am
This idea is a throwback to the German unification of 1990. Same issues. They did unify only because of their heritage, not for cost savings.
There was tremendous hatred of the East Germans because the West Germans had to assume the East German’s debt load.
Since the discussion is of D-150 and Dunlap, I don’t see the need. You can’t blame a parent for wanting to put their child in a district that scored 16th in the State of Illinois on their average ACT scores.
January 31st, 2006 at 12:51 pm
There has been talk of making one district per county and saving many millions of dollars on administrative salaries just with that consolodation.
January 31st, 2006 at 7:31 pm
Ah, yes, always the mature, adult, comment.
January 31st, 2006 at 7:31 pm
…from Vonster. (to clarify)
February 5th, 2006 at 11:19 pm
WE’LL SAID, BUS FULLS OF NEGROES ATTENDING DUNLAP SCHOOLS IS WHAT PEOPLE IN DUNLAP FEAR…AND RIGHTFULLY SO. I’M AFRICAN -AMERICAN AND I DON’T WANT MY KIDS ATTENDING SCHOOLS WITH SOME OF THESE KIDS ALSO. SOMEONE’S SKIN COLOR DOESN’T DETERMINE ONE’S BEHAVIOR BUT HOW A CHILD IS RAISED DOES. UNFORUNTATLEY MANY OF THESE YOUNG AFRICAN-AMERICAN MALES ARE RAISED BY SINGLE MOTHERS IN THE GHETTO. THESE YOUNG MOTHERS ARE CLUELESS ,ABOUT LIFE AND NO AS MUCH ABOUT RAISING A CHILD AS A ELEPHANT WOULD.
February 5th, 2006 at 11:28 pm
You can blamethe parents all night and day, but low expectations from the system is also to blame.
February 6th, 2006 at 8:43 am
IF THE CHILDREN IN DISTRICT 150 WE’RE WELL BEHAVED. WE WOULD’NT BE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION. THE BLACK COMMUNITY HAS TO COME TO THE REALIZATION THE REASON WHY (WHITE FLIGHT) IS HAPPPENING ALL OVER THE CITY IS BECAUSE OF ARE SINGLE MOTHER CRISIS AND LACK OF FATHERS IN ARE HOMES
February 6th, 2006 at 8:46 am
ONE MORE THING,THE CITY CAN’T FIX SOCIAL PROBLEMS. LIKE THE OLD SAYING GOES YOU CAN PUT THUG IN A SUIT BUT UNLESS HE CHANGES HIS BEHAVIOR HE’S STILL A THUG.
February 6th, 2006 at 8:51 am
IT’S NOT THE SAME ,SOME OF THESE THUGS IN DISTRICT 150 ARE CONNECTED TO DRUG POSSES. NOT ONLY WILL YOU CATCH HELL IN SCHOOL ,BUT DEATH LITTERALY COULD BE WAITING FOR YOU OUTSIDE THOSE SCHOOL DOORS.
February 6th, 2006 at 8:55 am
THERE’S A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A FEW BULLIES COMPARED TO A ORGANIZED DRUG GANG OPERATING INSIDE THE SCHOOLL AND AROUND THE SCHOOL.
October 12th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
I am a married mother who graduated from Woodruff, District 150, I married a man who graduated from Dunlap District 323. We live in the Dunlap District because there in no way on Gods green earth I would send my children to District 150 schools. As a child I attended Franklin, Kingman Glen Oak,and graduated eight grade from Von Stueben. I turned out to be very successful in my life and so did many of my friends, we choose to excel in life. Alot of the kids back then were trouble makers and many of them are now. Sure you can blame the parents or the school district, but once these kids are in High School they have a CHOICE. They choose to be in gangs, they choose to get bad grades, they choose to curse at their teachers. They choose to be disrespectful to adults. They have the right to CHOOSE. And they know it. They choose to be the way they are. Alot of you people seem to think that we out here in the Dunlap District think that we are better than you in Peoria. That is not the case. It is quite simple. We have higher expectations for our children. We teach them to be polite and compastionate, and to respect adults. We also challenge them to do better. Of Coarse we don’t want to consolidate with District 150. Are you nuts??? We have our share of subsidised living in the District. One little boy told our bus driver that his Mamma and Daddy told him that he didn’t have to listen to any white people. Well, then get the hell out of our district, his parents obviously don’t have any respect for anyone. That is what we want to keep out. If a consolidation ever happensbetween the districts, I guarantee you will lose alot of money from the tax payers out here, because we will either send our kids to private schools or just keep moving farther away.
October 26th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
I just graduated from Manual High School. Nobody has any idea how great that school is. I coiuld not have asked for a better high school experience. Everyone who is bashing District 150, have you actually stepped inside one of the 150 schools and seen what it is really like. We have excellent teachers and students. Everyone is there to support one another. Dunlap is scared of minorities or anyone from the “south side” come to their school. From what I hear Dunlap has a horrible drug problem. All high schools are the same no matter where you go.