Meet Grenita Lathan, new boss at District 150
WMBD 1470 and WEEK are reporting that Grenita Lathan has been offered a job as Peoria School District 150’s superintendent. I heard yesterday that it all depends on a final, final background check.
I also hear good things about her. She’s never been a superintendent, but she kicked major butt in San Diego, a tough, urban school district where she raised achievement scores. She did that by holding administrators, principals and teachers accountable. She’s also skilled in hiring people who are going to do a good job teaching inner city kids.
UPDATE: The Journal Star comments section is just as racist as it usually is. She a black female, so she OBVIOUSLY is another Kay Royster. Here’s the problem with that: THIS time around the board is doing its due diligence and they actually are waiting until she passes background checks. Also, board members have Googled her for bad press and to see if she was invited to leave he past jobs, which is something no one bothered to do with Royster.
So who on the board (or the staff) jumped the gun and and told the press before the background check was done? Who knows. In the past, that’s how the district has been stuck with employees with unsavory behaviors on their record.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Here’s to hoping she raised the scores the old-fashioned way, and not the Mary Davis way – allowing only smart kids into the school with the use of fake staff addresses.
Billy, we are skeptics, aren’t we? You do make a good point about the background check–but why couldn’t that have been done earlier–before she became the finalist? Also, I am never able to figure out how one person can be responsible for raising achievement scores. In Peoria, a company–Edison–has been given credit for doing just that. I believe there are many factors that contribute to raising scores and that finding the “cause-effect” relationship isn’t all that easy. Also, I really want to know how principals, teachers, and administrators can be the only ones held accountable. What I want to hear is how she helped those people to make students accountable. How would you convince students of the importance of the NCLB tests when failing the test does not have any consequences for studenta at all? Teachers are the only ones held accountable for test results. Dr. Kherat was allowed to get rid of all those Manual teachers whom she believed knew nothing about inner city kids. She was allowed to handpick a whole faculty–last year she sent 15 of them letters saying they were not a good fit–and this year has sent more of those letters. I heard only two things that caused me to wonder about Lathan’s qualifications. Black and female weren’t the two. Someone on a blog (and it could have been totally inaccurate) quoted her as saying that students shouldn’t be suspended; they should be in school. That’s the philosophy right now–because no one in the district can come up with a third alternative–that would be an alternative school. The second red flag for me was that she has had only elementary school teaching experience. Peoria’s middle and high school students need the leadership of someone who has had experience with older students–we haven’t had that for a long time. 150 cannot survive another superintendent who doesn’t consider discipline a major issue. However, you are right about the prejudging. As I’ve said on other blogs today, it isn’t so much about distrusting Lathan whom I don’t know; I’m having some trouble trusting this board to make a wise decision. They have tended to be very gullible–to believe any hype that is offered them. When I hear words such as “meteoric” to describe Lathan, then I become a skeptic.
Not to mention that the majority of the members that sit on the search committee are not from Peoria or do not have kids in 150 schools and have no clue about the day to day challenges that parents and teachers face in the classroom. How did the board of education allow that to happen anyway?
VOTE FOR JEFF LICKISS FOR SCHOOL BOARD. A VOTE FOR JEFF LICKISS IS A VOTE TO TAKE PEORIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS BACK FROM THE ELITE CARPET BAGGERS AT THE PEORIA AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. LETS TAKE BACK OUR SCHOOLS NOW. PEORIA TAXPAYERS AND PARENTS IN DISTRICT THREE, GRAB YOUR NEIGHBORS AND FRIENDS AND GET TO THE POLLS ON TUESDAY AND CAST A BALLOT FOR SANITY, CAST A BALLOT FOR FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY – CAST A BALLOT AGAINST NEPOTISM AND WASTE – CAST A BALLOT TO RID THE SYSTEM OF TYPICAL ILLINOIS SYSTEMIC INCOMPETANCE AND CORRUPTION – CAST A BALLOT TO SAVE ALL OF OUR SCHOOLS AND ALL OF OUR CHILDREN – VOTE JEFF LICKISS.
skeptic: again, this is a case of the tail wagging the dog. The d150 BOE is ineffective (lost their mojo), so they convene committees (made of community members, of course) to help them do THEIR job that THEY were elected to do. Therefore, if things don’t turn out as planned, their hands are “clean”…..you see, they learned this from Mr. Hinton (this is how he operated).
Id’ say if school board members were paid for their job, then ok but they are not. You sometimes get what you pay for.
Too bad Joe Clark isn’t available.
Hey Em, I am a school board member and I can tell you straight up that we do not deligate our responsibilities to community members. That is why we were elected. Elected to make the hard calls; good, bad, and ugly. The responsibility is not only to do what’s popular to make others (small groups) happy, but to do what is right for the majority even if it isn’t popular.
I find it very disturbing that a BoE member uses this forum to defend his/her position. WOW.
I am NOT a district 150 BoE member!
I find it very disturbing that teachers come here and complain and defend their positions yet rarely see them do it in front of a school board at a meeting.
I’m more bothered that someone claiming to be on a board of education can’t spell “delegate” or write in complete sentences.
Joel: grow up. Some of my best friends are Professors who can’t spell. Whatever…
I’m very sorry to hear that you’re best friends with professors that can’t write. Our education system must be in decline if that’s the case – but “whatever” as you say. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe we should create a world for our children where the guy teaching shop class can’t cut wood in a straight line or the doctor teaching surgery can’t suture precisely. Being a good teacher means the ability to communicate your knowledge effectively and precisely – the ability to spell is not optional for a professor, nor someone who purports to lead our community’s efforts to educate our children.
and you are perfect, all the time? Never made a mistake, ever? You know the old saying, people is glass houses…..
Jim, would you consider the student body, the families and taxpayers of Woodruff, Central, Tyng and Kingman neighborhoods a small group? Here I’ll answer it for you cause not sure you are bright enough to give the right answer. That group is larger than the group that will be served by the Charter School and your buddies who wanted it.
BOE, I agree. I have always agreed. It seesm like people on the blogs complain & complain like you guys aren’t doing whta you’re paid to do. It takes a special type of person to give up their time and then have crap slung at them from monkeys in the cages. You can’t please everyone and 10 seconds after this new super lands. she’ll find that out too.
Spelling is basic. We have tools to help us with it. "Getting it right gives us credibility." The majority has, for years, used this as an argument to support the use of Standard English among minorities. Still, it's easy to make mistakes when using commenting tools. So, I say we should all be vigilant if we want to be taken seriously, but should give each other slack when we fail.
I am the director of a program in San Diego Unified and I still mourn the fact that we are losing such a bright, positive light in our district. You are all very lucky to be inheriting this beacon of reason and kindness. We had her for far too short a time. I hope you will make her feel welcome in Peoria (I grew up outside of Chicago) and enjoy all that Grenita has to offer. We will miss her terribly!
Thank you for your comment. I hear good things about her and her plans for improving the educational experience at District 150.