FeedArrogant District 150 fails to make the grade
May 2, 2006 in Local
Unfortunately, I didn’t have an opportunity to attend last night’s forum, in which members of the community had an opportunity to tell Peoria School District 150 that they were opposed to the district’s plan to relocate
What the public didn’t get a chance to do was to ask questions of those board members who attended. When asked to allow questions, they didn’t even reply to the request, just proceeded as planned.
According to the Journal Star article, about 30 people spoke out against the plan. No one spoke in favor of it. Council member Bob Manning suggested another option: Building on the current site, and expanding onto property to the block to the east of the current campus. No one on the board responded to this idea — although the audience cheered.
By the way: The enthusiastic support shown for building the school at or close to the present location gives lie to the contention made by the Journal Star’s award winning (snicker) editorial board that East Bluff residents are just a bunch of not-in-my-backyarders who don’t value education and don’t deserve a quality school for their children.
No one from the district would say exactly why they need 15 acres. They certainly aren’t required by state law or state regulations to have a school that large.
What it boils down to is that these board members decided — behind closed doors — what they want. And they are going to do what they want when they want to do it. At least they will until someone with more power and clout — and who is apparently more concerned with the rights of the public to be heard and to be involved in the decision making — gets involved and gives the board a tate of what it’s like to be pushed around.
It’s time for State. Sen. George Shadid to make that call to Gov. Blagojevich and tell him to NOT sign that bill giving the Peoria Building Commission the power to authorize construction projects for District 150.
And the Peoria City Council needs to send a message as well and pass a resolution stating that any future request from the Peoria Park District to vacate any section of North East or East Republic streets — something that would have to happen to build on the site as planned — will be denied.
May 2nd, 2006 at 3:06 pm
I think this is all tied together with Peoria’s Med-Tech/image fixing problem. Peoria is trying to be something they are not. More so they seem to have a keep up with the Jones, not sure what Jones they are eyeing, but I smell some sort of envy here…
May 2nd, 2006 at 5:31 pm
I was sitting in the audience last night and found it really, really funny that Pat Landas of all people tried to get the board to answer questions…….just think if she had to answer the public’s questions at City Council meetings. Of all the people there, she should know how it works.
I’ve been to council/board meetings where there was a dialogue. It has NEVER turned out anything productive. Pretty soon, all you get is a pissing match and everyone starts yelling at each other. The school board was better off to listen and not respond. If people wanted their questions answered, they should have the balls and seek out a school board member on their own time…..it’s easy to scream and yell and demand when you part of a mob.
May 2nd, 2006 at 9:53 pm
Bill
You missed out on a great event — Democracy in Action in Peoria, IL.
Ryan
Last night, no screaming and yelling, no ‘mob’ mentality. Civic dialogue and engaged citizenry. There was plenty of testosterone and estrogen in that room and as far as seeking our a school board member on their own time, many people do just that.
There was sound, valid, current urban planning information presented that is the ‘best’ practices of healthy and vibrant cities. Those who presented additional handouts take their time to be part of the solution.
Just because we have the tradition of ‘public hearing’ one sided — comment over your soda can dialogue— is no reason to believe that we cannot advance to the 21st century and bring all stakeholders together at the onset of any project, meet often and result in a best product with widespread buy-in from the community who is expected to pay for these projects.
May 2nd, 2006 at 10:12 pm
There was no screaming and yelling because the board didn’t answer! I’ve been to many, many meetings….more than I care to remember, but it’s never a good idea to get in a public dialogue like that. The way it worked last night is how it should work. There were a lot of really good ideas…and there were a lot of bad ones, but the board trying to defend themselves in public forum is just asking for problems.
It’s now up to the board to answer the questions that were presented to them like they said they would. I know the answer to most of them already, but I’m an impartial observer in this thing, so I can look at it from both sides and not just my own.
I’m sure there are plenty of people who have taken their concerns to the board 1-on-1…and that’s the best way to get an answer from any public body. The mob mentality comes into play when you have people who normally wouldn’t speak up, but once they become one of many, they get nasty and things spiral out of control.
I think the board did a good job of controling the forum so everyone could get the most out of it.
In these situations, it’s important to remember (and no one involved in an event like this ever does) is that we are not a democracy….we’re a representative democracy. Our opinions only count 2 times a year. The other thousands of votes are left entirely up to what we choose in March and November.
May 2nd, 2006 at 10:36 pm
I was at the meeting last night, also. I agree with Ryan…this could have really turned into a fiasco if there was a public debate between the public and the board. By the reaction to the non reaction of the board after Landes’ request, you could hear the boos in the crowd…there were people in attendance looking for a fight.
I gotta give kudos to Bob Manning. A politician who actually took a stand, told the board they were wrong, to do some real research on costs to renovate and not build on Glen Oak Park. Nothing wishy washy about Bob.
I don’t know what anyone thought about the gentleman who got the biggest ovation, bigger than Manning’s, about extending the current sight farther SOUTH (that’s right, south) by closing Frye and extending the current school property to Kansas ending up across the street from the Boy’s & Girl’s Club. It was a pretty progressive and assertive idea and the crowd seemed to love it judging by the ovation he got. Some of those business properties are for sale right now at dirt cheap prices. Anyone know who htis gentleman is? Might be a good idea to get his thoughts on a website or blog.
May 3rd, 2006 at 8:06 am
Congrats to the East Bluff area residents for ending the persuit for a new school for their children! You all should be so proud! Lucky for you, it looks like the Board is going to focus on building new schools OUTSIDE of the Woodruff attendance area!
Whew! Glad you escaped that one!