FeedWhittier school on the move to Bradley Park?
April 25, 2007 in Overset
Don’t laugh.
I strongly suspect that Bradley University would love to get its hands on the land on which the award winning K-4 primary school sits. Peoria School District 150’s facilities plan calls for the school to be replaced. Alicia Butler, the school’s board’s strongest advocate for keeping Whittier where it is now, is on her way out having lost re-election. So, I’m guessing Whittier is on the hit list. But where would they built a new
But surely, the people who sit on the school board and on the Peoria Park Board have learned their lesson after getting their ass handed to them in the court of public opinion over their botched attempt to move
Like I said: Don’t laugh. As long as Superintendent
April 25th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Don’t even joke about that.
April 25th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Not a joke. Call it an education opinion.
April 25th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Excuse me while I go strap myself to a tree in Upper Bradley Park.
April 25th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Boy, it’s sure a good thing we got rid of Whittier’s most vocal defender on the park board, huh?
April 25th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I can’t answer your comment right now, but my lawyer will issue a statement soon.
(Oh, and you mean school board, not park board.)
April 25th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
So, the district wastes almost 1 MIL to buy and tear down houses in the EAST BLUFF for nothing.
Then I read Billy Dennis’s post about them eliminating front line employess who work with the kids - just so they can keep uneeded administrative “top-heavy” salary.
Then I open my mailbox today and get my property tax bill. This is my first ‘Peoria Tax Bill’ since I only bought my home here a year ago. Not to complain, but roughly $1600 for D150, and another $130 for D150 pensions? I wish I could ’short-pay’ this one…..
No point to this post other than to vent about something I can’t control what-so-ever…..
April 25th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Swap the properties on Prospect for Upper Bradley Park?
CJ & PI… surely our neighborhood leadership would be ok with this. They seem to be pretty consistent with encouraging the demolition of neighborhood assets be it homes on Maplewood, Main, or University. The park is an attractive nuisance after all.
Wonder how the paster of Bradley Epworth feels about this possibility? Almost makes me want to support the move. Almost….
April 25th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Mahkno -
Not all of the neighborhood leadership would be okay with this. If I remember correctly, our neighborhood representative to Bradley said that Bradley University DID NOT want the Whittier land. But we have learned not to trust Bradley. That is one reason the Uplands voted no to Bradley owning the Pi Phi house.
April 25th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Kara,
The instance you speak regarding Bradley not wanting Whittier, was premised on Whittier moving out of the area entirely.
Re: leadership. You know full well that some people are deliberately left out of the loop and that at times (all to convenient even) decisions get made by a select few without the explicit consent the association.
Yes we voted to oppose the rezone of Pi Phi, which was a rare vote against the desires of those select few. Hopefully more of those occur. Bradley Epworth continues to buy up property. We should have sent a clearer message a long time ago.
The idea of an unattractive parking lot sitting across from the pastor’s house is a wee bit tantalizing.
April 25th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Whittier was on the original closings list and rumor has it that Bradley wanted it back then. Too bad for them it won a bunch of awards and the parents were screaming about not closing it.
If they still want a new Whittier, where would a new one be built? There aren’t many options unless they want to leave the West Bluff, and don’t even tell me they want 15 acres! But I can’t seriously believe that parkland would even be considered based on what happened at Glen Oak.
If in the very slim possibility this rumour is true, do they think all the real activists live in the East Bluff and we can just be steamrolled (like Bradley likes to do to us)?
This won’t fly.
April 25th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
The next park board and school board elections are two years away, and the media has their backs (look what happened Alicia), so there’s no reason to think they won’t take another stab at it. How many Uplanders are beholden to BU for jobs?
Be worried. Be very worried.
April 25th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
What happened to Alicia had nothing to do with her vote on Glen Oak and everythign to do with her credibility!
April 25th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
What words come to mind here? Let’s see… alarmist… fear-mongering…
Look, that’s simply not going to happen. The Park Board wouldn’t approve such a thing, and I don’t believe the leadership of the Uplands would approve of it either, regardless of what Mahkno says. Letting institutions purchase houses is a far cry from what Billy is suggesting for Bradley Park. Think of all the traffic a school would produce — that alone will make the Uplands blackball it.
Whittier may or may not be on the “hit list,” but Bradley Park isn’t going to be considered as a site for a new school. No way.
Alicia’s demise was of her own making.
April 25th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Is this where I should bring you a bratwurst from the blogger bash?
April 25th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
For those of you who live in the City, does your tax bill equate to mine? My new bill (out on schedule by board demand)says $698.00 total for the County and $505.00 total for the PPD. And the County has $110 mil budget and well over 1000 employees and the park has a $49,400,000.00 budget and approximately 150 full time employees. The County Collected approximately $20,000,000.00 from the whole county and the PPD collected approx $11 mil from just the city. At this rate it is possible that my tax bill for the PPD will exceed the County tax in just a few years. (I’m rerferring to property taxes)
April 25th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
I am looking at buying a house in town, so I often look online for the property tax info for houses that catch my eye. I thought it was a typo the first time I saw that the park district portion was only about 50 bucks less than the city!
April 25th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Can you bring along a couple beers too?
April 25th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
If they think all the real activists live in the East Bluff they are more insane than I originally thought!
April 25th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
If you go to the District #150 website (www.Peoria.psd150.org) you can access a copy of the Master Facility Plan. The MFP clearly states the present Whittier location was to be closed and a new Whittier Primary School built in Bradley Park. It is also my understanding that the way the MFP was written and presented to the BOE, once the BOE approved the MFP the individual projects to be undertaken by the district did not have to be separately/individually approved by the BOE. Hence the mess with the proposed GOS/GOP site. However, it seems that some of the board members quashed the proposed move of Whittier to Bradley Park. I also have heard that Bradley was very interested in purchasing the present Whittier site but the BOE put a monkey wrench in the works.
If you think the proposed move of Whittier to Bradley Park was bad, how about the rumors that the administration wishes to replace Sharon Kherat as principal of Whittier? Guess she is figured out how to run a successful school in spite of Hinton’s leadership and certain people don’t like that.
April 25th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
So let me get this straight… The school building doesn’t make the school, in the case of Glen Oak School, but in the case of Whittier, the school building makes the school.
I get the impression that some out there want District 150 to make changes, save money, and improve as long as it doesn’t effect any of the students or parents.
April 26th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Correction
We are the “Vocal Minority” in the East Bluff acording to some on the school board, not activists.
April 26th, 2007 at 9:09 am
I have long felt that the ‘developers’ of this city really don’t want to see the heart of peoria fixed. Indeed I think some of them find being a bottom feeder desirable. It is far more profitable for them to convert productive agricultural fields into housing or new shopping areas, than to renovate or infill the inner city. I would not be surprised if there were people who would want to knock a good school down. If the Heart of Peoria suddenly were to be a huge success and people started to pour into the city, it would be a dark day for those ‘developers’ (and anyone else with a vested stake in outward expansion).
April 26th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Tony, it’s not about the building, it’s about location.
April 26th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
I think you hit the nail on the head Mahkno! How does one justify a $75,000 piece of dirt to build a home on? Dunlap offers safe streets and quality schools. If Peoria were to offer the same a whole lot of developers would strugle to sell those $75,000 pieces of dirt. People pay $350,000 and up for many of those finished Dunlap homes. The same dough would buy one of the grandest homes in the Uplands. With poor schools and crime most people choose the prefab in Dunlap. Developers make nothing off of the sale in the Uplands, they make plenty in Dunlap.