FeedLocal: Parents want a two-site option, or the status quo
September 28, 2007 in Local
District 150 held another forum on where to build a new super-sized feeder school for Woodruff High School.
Once again school board members insisted that they could only build one new school for the three they want to take down (they’ve already closed White School).
And once again, parents pleaded and begged the district to not take away their neighborhood schools.
‘Can’t do. We have only enough money for one,’ they said. ‘The cost of building two would be too much. And besides, we want to duplicate the educational nirvana that is the Valeska Hinton Early Childhood Education Center.’ Which, by the way is a magnet school, not a neighborhood school.
‘But we don’t want our children to be bused,’ parents said. ‘Well, lots of children get bused to school,’ the school board says. ‘It won’t hurt ‘em.’
‘How can you say there’s no money? Didn’t you waste all that money buying homes on Prospect Avenue before the Glen Oak Park site was a done deal? And why didn’t you maintain these four schools so they wouldn’t be in such poor shape.’ ‘Now, now,’ the board replies. ‘Let’s stay positive here.’
Feh.
These forums aren’t really about getting input from the public. They’ve already made up their minds that they are going to do the one thing that the parents DO NOT WANT TO HAPPEN. The only thing the board wants is for the parents is to concede to this plan, and for neighborhoods fight among themselves over who gets the building.
The board doesn’t even want to stop and consider that their entire school consolidation plan might be flawed and contrary to the wishes of the people they are supposed to serve. The board has a timetable they want to meet. If they don’t, they will lose out on all the wonderful Life, Health and Safety grant money from the state. And if that happens, no new school.
What District 150 doesn’t understand — or perhaps refuses to understand — is that for many, many, many parents the status quo is just fine with them. They LIKE their neighborhood schools. They like being able to walk to school. In other words, these folks provide evidence that one of the basis tenets of New Urbanism is valid: Sustainable neighborhoods are walkable neighborhoods.
Folks, this is NOT a done deal. Contrary to what is being said at the forums, the district is NOT being held to a deadline to take down Kingman, Irving and Glen Oak schools. What the district faces is loss of their precious grant if they don’t put a plan into place. The parents who send their kids to these three schools are happy to do so and believe their children’s lives, health and safety are not as risk by sending them there, and are happy to keep doing so if the only other option is to put them on a bus. And that happens, parents will use their school choice option … and move their families elsewhere.
PJS Reporter Clare Jellick’s article is here. C.J. Summer’s post is here.
September 28th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Wait ’til the Kingman forum. Then the “public” will want 3 smaller elementary schools. It is a real shame that three struggling neighborhoods will end up at odds with each other. Of course we all want our neighborhood schools. One does not have to go very far back in Peoria’s history to take a look at the impact of the loss of a school. Urban Renewal (laughing hysterically) took down the old Lincoln School and the area just south of downtown suffered tremendously. The concept of neighborhood ended. Children were bussed from the old Warner Homes and nearby areas to Charter Oaks, Northmoor, Mark Bills and I think, Rolling Acres. The neighborhoods in question already face many problems and each would benefit from the stabilizing effect of a new neighborhood school. My children are out of school (and out of Peoria), but my neighborhood is my neighborhood, and I, like many others, still care very deeply about our homes and the neighborhoods surrounding them. No real winners here, not the neighborhoods or the school district.