FeedQuestionable choice for school location
March 29, 2006 in Local Tags: glen oak, White School
Peoria School District 150 and the Peoria Park District want to build a new community school on the corner of Prospect and Frye, essentially at the top of Abington Hill.
Let’s count the ways this is a bad idea:
1. At least 14 owner occupied homes would have to be demolished. Kiss that property tax revenue goodbye.
2. It would require the use of eminent domain to seize homes of the people who don’t want to sell, some of them elderly.
3. Students who live near white school — located on East Illinois and North Peoria — will have even further to travel to go to school. The site is at the easternmost edge of this school’s attendance boundary.
4. Prospect Avenue is too busy a street for a neighborhood school.
5. Do I have to say something so obvious? If the district has to build a new school, do it at the site of either White or Glen Oak.
6. The park district would loose most if not all of the parking lot for the Glen Oak Park Amphitheater.
March 29th, 2006 at 11:42 am
Bill,
I agree wholeheartedly with you on this one. What are these people thinking about? They have all of this acreage all over the city and want to gobble up an all ready spoken for area.
I just don’t get how these folks are thinking.
March 29th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Regarding #6, the joint use agreement allows the PPD to use the parking lot of the new school, so there is really no loss there.
I like the idea of the school being there, adjacent to the park, with use by both the PPD and PSD150. It would be a true neighborhood school, with use by both school kids and community members, with the PPD programs that would utilize the space.
I don’t like the idea of emmient domain. I don’t think this is a proper use of that technique for land seizure. Now, if they just offer to by people out and they go willingly, then I am OK with that.
March 29th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
New Headline:
“Blind Squirrel Finds Nut”
March 29th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
This is a bad idea on so many levels. It defies logic given the hurdles to get this built. Some of the homes are historic and many have lived there for more than a half century. What is Bonnie and Co. thinking? There seems to be no consideration or logic on this deal….kinda like the albatross of a health club on the river! The park district needs new, focused and more reasonable leadership by those more interested in what’s best for Peoria, not trying to continually build monuments to themselves. Stop this now!
March 29th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
After the zoo gets it’s chunk, after the Junior League gets its chunk too, and after the school district get’s it’s bit of luv, will there be a Glen Oak Park left?
March 29th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
The loss of more of historic Glen Oak Park is sad. with the zoo expansion and now the construction of a school the park, it will become a blacktop and bricks and mortar sight for sore eyes. Open and green space is a value that can’t be replaced in the core of the city. the loss of the ball fields,possable loss of the lagoon or fencing it off(hazard for children) and the loss of old fashon sunday. where will it stop? the only hope in stopping this action is the city council not vacating streets in the proposed neighborhood. The residents in the area that must sell will be a hard decision. If the school pushes them out, what does it say for progress?
Marty p.
March 29th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
As others have said, Prospect is a dangerous street for kids. Not to mention the “creative driving” in and out of the convenience store at that corner. And speaking of that convenient store, how many times a day do the police show up there? And is Family House still planing to re-locate on the bluff behind Nebraska\Hillcrest? Where is the entrance to that going to be? If off Abingdon, there is even more traffic.
And what happens to those closed schools? Neighborhood eyesores in 5 years? “Home(s)” for the homeless, places to deal drugs? Whose is going to buy these buildings?
Lastly, if District 150 already is in the red over 8 million, AND are borrowing to get out of debt, where are they going to get the money to build this?
March 30th, 2006 at 8:02 am
Me thinks that when Bonnie Noble begins using words like synergy we need to be very worried………
March 30th, 2006 at 8:28 am
When Bonnie or Hinton open their mouth, we should worry. That I have learned very quickly. They will talk but never give you a dierect answer. Must have something to hide and apparantly so. This was a done deal before District 150 ever met with the three East Bluff Associations. never replyed to our letters and now they want to call another meeting? Have they met with those people who are now going to lose their home; one in particular who has lived there for 18 years. Talked with him last night and is very upset to almost on being able to talk on the phone.
So much for the lazy Sunday afternoons at the lagoon, or are they going to fill that is? If they don’t, you know darned good and well a child is going to be in it even if it is fenced. Challange to climb the fence. Ampetheater….gone.no more night under the stars concerts.
How can this be considered a community school, (by the way, it started out to be a Neighborhood School) Where I live, this part of the Community won’t be involved. That much I can just about guess without having to talk with anyone..but I have.
Glen Oak could be razed in time and a new school build according to guidlines. People around the school might not fight selling their homes as much as I hope the other location will. If they fight, then will eminent domain come into play. How long will that process take?
March 30th, 2006 at 8:42 am
I’m going to take the path less traveled and say this is a good idea for a few reasons. 1) Even if they rebuilt on the old school site, due to new standards for school construction, even more homes would have to be taken. 2) Eminent Domain isn’t necessarily required if the property owners sell willingly… which is yet to be determined. 3) What’s wrong with maximizing the use of current park facilities for the benefit of the schools… this will be an appealing draw for potential parents (outdoor classrooms, hiking paths, etc). 4) lastly, would you rather attend a school in a nice park-like setting, or one surrounded by dilapidated housing in an area with a perceived crime problem?
The district is trying to be creative and proactive in advancing the perception and reality of district 150 offerings. We should be happy their moving forward and not settling for a bunch of the same ol’ inactivity and mediocrity.
March 30th, 2006 at 9:03 am
From what Mr Hinton said on WMBD this morning, they are basically mandated by the ISBE to build new schools on 15 acre or more sites.
So, if they raze Glen Oak School, they still have to purchase more properties to build the new school, as it is only a 3.5 acre site right now. In fact, they would need to buy up more property than they would at the Glen Oak Park site.
March 30th, 2006 at 9:05 am
Part of the point of building new schools (I favor total renovation) it to improve these dilapidated neighborhoods. How exactly is abandoning the neighborhood helping? They might as well build the school in Dumlap and bus them there.
March 30th, 2006 at 9:21 am
Its not abandoing the neighborhood… its capatilizing on its current assests and building off those.
March 30th, 2006 at 10:47 am
This sounds like a done deal to me. It also sounds extremely suspicious to me. I can’t quite put my finger on it.
It sounds like it will be funded by bonds vis-a-vis the Shadid/PJS proposal. I could be wrong.
In any event, hold onto your wallets when the Park District gets involved with a School District. You’re going to be running more social programs out of that place funded from property taxes.
March 30th, 2006 at 10:58 am
Mahkno:
How are they abandoning the neighborhood? Glen Oak School is not that far from Glen Oak Park, albeit much further from White School.f
Either way, it will get kids out of a 100+ year old school building that has substandard conditions and has been deteriorating for some time now. This may not be great for the residents near Frye and Prospect, but it WILL be good for the kids. Think of all the time they can spend learning outdoors at the park, regular trips to the zoo to see what they are learning about, etc.