FeedLocal: D150 parents have a decision to make
May 6, 2008 in Local, Overset Tags: district 150
I love Peoria. I want Peoria to survive. That won’t happen if if decent working families won’t live here. And for that, we need a quality school system.
So, as an advocate for Peoria, what do I do now? It’s apparent the people who run District 150 do not know what they are doing. They stood before the public and told a bald-faced lie: That they can cut 45 minutes out of the school day, eliminate teachers who teach art and music, and still provide an education that’s equal if not better than, what they are getting now. It’s an obvious and shameful lie. And out clueless school board either buys into this nonsense or they are in on the lie.
I can’t use this blog to tell young parents that despite the problems, D150 schools are a fine place to send their kids. They won’t be. They are getting worse, and not because of outside influences. The people who run the district WANT the schools to be worse next year than they were before. All because they want to save a few dollars that that want to spend on other, educationally useless crap.
So my advice to parents: Get the hell out. D150 has reached the tipping point. Send you kids to private school, if you can. If you have to, move to Dunlap or Washington or Metamora. I’m sure these districts have their problems. But these districts seem to be run by the community and not by administrators who are determined to starve your children’s minds to feed their bloated egos and fat paychecks.
May 6th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Billy, I think many of us are still reeling from yesterday’s events. I am personally dumbfounded how the will of the people can be so blatantly and arrogantly cast aside. Fleeing the district is a viable and fairly simple fix…but if we choose that option does it only make ourselves to blame when the whole community goes down the tubes? What can you say about a city that does not treat the education of its youth as a top priority? What can you say about a school district that sacrifices its most impressionable contingent when it needs to save money. What about the children of families who do not have the option to flee? Do we just abandon them? So many questions, and I’m working on answers. We have just begun to fight!
May 6th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
This is an obvious no-brainer. There isn’t enough money for the schools, yes? Ok, well you aren’t gonna get any more state or federal money, so start a campaign to raise property taxes in Peoria. Easy money for the schools.
/crickets/
Ya, that’s about what I thought.
May 6th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I took my son out of a Dist 150 school and he finished high school in a very small private school, so I have personal experience with this school system. Having said that, you may be surprised by what I say next. The problems of the Peoria school district have (almost) nothing to do with District 150. This place is quite typical of the general problems facing most urban school districts. First, it makes perfect sense to do away with art and music education. I say this not because I don’t value art and music. Rather, lets face it, the system doesn’t value it. Because of “no child left behind”, a federal (republican sponsored mandate) school systems are rewarded/punished finacially based upon standardized tests. If it isn’t on the PAL or PIP or POP or whatever test their using, then you are wasting you time and money teaching it. It’s that simple. Art and music are not on those tests so teaching them is, quite literally, a waste of time and money. I read somewhere about a school district that stopped teaching geography because it wasn’t on the standardized tests. Think about it. These kids might actually think the world is flat, or that America is in Asia. Who cares? Its not on the test. As to the elected school board ignoring the parents who show up at meetings to complain, why shouldn’t they ignore you. Look at the typical school board election in the country. We pat ourselves on the back if the turn out is 15%. There are some school board elections with single digit turn outs. If 300 people were at that meeting the other night, odds are less than 50 of them even voted for the board they went to complain about. So who does a board member listen to? Answer: just like any board of directors, the people who select the information for them to hear - the professional staff. Nothing will change here unless federal mandates change (not likely) and people actually take a greater interest in the school system, starting with turning out for school board elections. P.S. do you all really think that keeping elementary school kids an extra 45 minutes per day is going to make a difference one way or the other?
May 6th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
mcsey — There’s plenty of money for the things the administration values. For example, four superintendents, consultants, Edison schools, etc. Look at the other school districts around the state and you won’t find anyone shortening the school day to make ends meet after the state “cut” funding (actually they just didn’t raise it as much as D150 expected).
May 6th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Elect better people to the school board, people who will tell the straight story to the public.
May 6th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
So asking for public input was just a dog & pony show? Hinton and the entire board have taken something very crtitcal away from the children and should be ashamed. They don’t care about the kids.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Deebie: When did they ask for public input? I thought the meeting at Keller was informational and the school board - at least not more than 2 of them - didn’t show up for that. Allowing people to speak for 5 minutes each and 20 minutes total at a board meeting is not asking for input. It’s allowing input. And then Hinton brings out his principals to tell the board how it really is -and does his hypnosis tricks - so the board will forget/ignore anything they’ve heard from the parents and teachers during open mike.
Electing better people to the school board who will tell the public the straight story seems hopeless. The present board sits there and believes whatever the professional educators tell them. I don’t know why but it’s like watching a train wreck.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
McSey, they have a $160,000,000 budget. Count the zero’s my friend. Yesterdays vote saved them $700,000. That means they saved less than one/half percent. It seems they could have just as easy changed their brand of floor cleaner and achieved the same results.
And dd, yes, I do believe 45 minutes a day makes a difference. That is one day short of an entire month of school. Not to mention the 90 minute spans of uninterrupted teaching time they brag about. Good luck with THAT! Obviously they have never met my boy.
May 6th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
I beleive the D150 Board of Education has ceased to be able to do the jobs they were elcted to do- implement the community’s vision of what they want their schools to be. Therefore, I beleive they should resign. I call on them to do so.
May 7th, 2008 at 6:00 am
The “uninterrupted teaching time” argument is completely bogus. Everyone, especially kids, needs interruption. Even adults have a hard time maintaining focus during a talk that runs much more than 45 minutes. How is an 8 year old supposed to sustain attention for 90 minutes??? They’re cutting time from the day AND creating more wasted time in the process. This plan is doubly bad for the kids.
I think dd is right, unfortunately … if it’s not on the standardized test, why teach it? That’s what standardized testing does. It makes schools “teach the test,” and our narrow, dumbed-down education system gets even dumber. We’re leaving every child behind.
May 7th, 2008 at 7:17 am
What is going to happen with the displaced tenured teachers at Manual? It’s going to be a goldmine for litigation-will make the Prospect Road fiasco look like penny pinching!
May 7th, 2008 at 8:23 am
You get what you deserve.
Peoria deserves the school system it has.
The election cycles have come and gone without major change.
You get what you deserve.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:34 am
The center of Peoria is dying as parents flee District 150, to Dunlap or over the river to Metamora, Washington and the like. That is, anyone who can afford to do so. As soon as my daughter turned 5, we high-tailed it out of the big city.
Can anyone say “School Vouchers?”
May 7th, 2008 at 11:14 am
I think one of the problems with the school board elections for D150 is that there is an election every year. No other school district in Illinois has elections during even year elections. This past spring one board member was elected to a five year position which is a long time to remember and insulates the school board. Most school boards turn over half there membership every other year and allows a slate of new candidates. An example is Illini Bluffs that had some issues and had a slate of board candidates run as write-ins with one even winning.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I know that standardized tests are not a perfect tool for gauging success in the schools, but what other option do they have?
Has anyone come up with another way to evaluate the teachers and the students?
My point is, to “dd” and others, lets not make this about testing or NCLB or Republicans. Make it about the real problem, the yayhoos on the school board and the yayhoos in the Admin bldg.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Anon, et. al. — I understand your frustration with low voter turnout. It’s definitely a problem. But that’s a bit simplistic. A bigger problem is getting better candidates to run. For instance, Martha Ross was just reelected this year for another five-year term — she ran unopposed. So voter turnout is moot in that election. Then you have people like Mary Spangler who, according to the newspaper, ran on a platform of fiscal conservatism for the district — yet she voted to purchase $877,500 worth of houses on Prospect. You can’t blame everything on the voters.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Maubs: The center of Peoria has been dying for quite some time. The decline of D150, as well as the decline of central Peoria in general is due to abandonment by City in many regards. The focus is all out North.
I still say that one of the ways to fix Peorias problems is immediatley suspend any further annexations and focus on central Peoria. And by focus, I mean bring in bulldozers, clear blocks, redraw the lot lines to bigger lots which reflect the current trends, and breathe some new life into otherwise dead neighborhoods.
May 7th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
So getting rid of two administrators is like less than the saving of $700,000?? Less than on/half of one percent Diane?
May 7th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
CJ has just left me dumbfounded.
First, CJ sez: “You can’t blame everything on the voters.”
I sez: Uh, why not? After SEVERAL voting cycles, the taxpayers have not fixed the situation. It was a mess a decade ago. It is a mess now.
Second, CJ sez: “A bigger problem is getting better candidates to run.”
I sez: Put up or shut up. Get a petition and get your name on the ballot. File as a write-in and run that way. Do something other than complain. You, CJ, have the street cred. to pull this off. Seriously.
The same reasons you say “no” are the same reasons a lot of qualified people say “no”. Those are the same reasons you get these same candidates year after year.
No, Peoria gets EXACTLY what they deserve with their elected officials.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Em - Whu?????
Regarding the School Board - I think one BIG problem is that there are no minimum requirements to hold this position. You’ve got anyone capable of putting out 1000 yard signs potentially managing a $160 million dollar budget. Might as well throw darts at a dart board to resolve the serious issues faced by the district. The Voters sense it is a losing proposition one way or the other.
I think the whole Education Board philosophy needs to be re-thought. I’m no expert, but some ideas might include eliminating the boundary requirement, reduce the term in office, offer a salary (?), require minimum standards to serve.
Regarding Administration, reduce the number of Superintendants to ONE, but pay a significantly higher salary to recruit someone with a proven record of success.
Very soon an 80 million dollar construction project will be underway. Do we want more of the same? How long does a community tolerate a School District that is completely immune to their wishes?
It is time to take back our schools. Efforts are underway as we speak. Please stay tuned for details on how YOU can help!
May 7th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
“…Regarding the School Board - I think one BIG problem is that there are no minimum requirements to hold this position…”
Yeah, like “minimum age” (Aaron Schock)
“…You’ve got anyone capable of putting out 1000 yard signs…”
And to think, he (Aaron Schock) still had millions of dollars left over
“…potentially managing a $160 million dollar budget…”
Or, shall we say, mismanaging.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:17 am
What Beej doesn’t tell you is that if Schock was a good little neo-socialist Donkey he wouldn’t be bashing him all the time.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:52 am
“CJ has just left me dumbfounded.”
Not a particularly difficult accomplishment, considering you’re a Cubs fan.
“After SEVERAL voting cycles, the taxpayers have not fixed the situation. It was a mess a decade ago. It is a mess now.”
I didn’t say you couldn’t blame anything on the voters. I said you couldn’t blame everything on them. The voters have some responsibility, but so do the candidates/board members.
“Put up or shut up. Get a petition and get your name on the ballot.”
Next election in my district: 2011. I’ll keep that in mind.
“Do something other than complain.”
Like write to my board representatives? Did that. Like support a good candidate for school board? Did that (she lost, unfortunately). Like put my kids in public school so I can have more of a stake in the outcome and be better informed as to what goes on in the classroom in D150 schools? Doing that this fall.
But you know what? Even if I weren’t doing any of those things, I still have a right to a redress of grievances, whether I’m on the school board or not. Holding office is not and was never intended to be the only way to get one’s voice heard in government. Obviously, everyone can’t be a board member.
“You, CJ, have the street cred. to pull this off. Seriously.”
Thank you.
“The same reasons you say ‘no’ are the same reasons a lot of qualified people say ‘no’. Those are the same reasons you get these same candidates year after year.”
Wait, I thought it was all the voters’ fault?
May 8th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
CJ -
That’s “National League Central Division Champion Chicago Cubs” to you.
When I specifically call you out, I remember (but cannot find) a specific post where someone suggested you run for Park board and you declined citing a number of excuses.
CJ sez: “Wait, I thought it was all the voters’ fault?”
I sez: Not once in either of my posts have I used the term “voters.”
The blame lies with the citizens. That means the people who vote (and those who don’t), the people who run (and those who don’t), the parents who stand up and make their voice heard (and those who don’t).
The citizens of Peoria get EXACTLY what they deserve. Whether it is the schools, the city, or the park district - the citizens of Peoria run and vote for these elected officials.
BTW - 5 year terms for board members? WOW!
May 8th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
I’m talking about the Administrators and how many we have for a district this size each pulling down 6 figures. Dump 2 and we save nothing in the scheme of things. As for the board itself. I blame myself because my rep went unopposed and she is useless. I would tell you exactly what I think about a few of them but this isn’t my blog.
Next election cycle I expect to see CJ and Diane at least on the ballot. As for me? I want the Superintendent’s job. Apparently, you don’t have to do much and know even less. I can do that.