Posts Tagged ‘district 150’
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
The following arrived in my inbox a moment ago:
Dear Friends of District 150,
You may or may not know that there is an important school board vote coming up next Monday. The Board of Education will vote on who will be the next board president. Most of you will agree that the far better choice from a community and parent standpoint, for a variety of reasons, would be Martha Ross. My reasons are outlined in the sample letter below.
I think we can be fairly certain that Board members Stowell, Gorenz and Wolfmeyer will vote for Wolfmeyer, so we need to influence Ms Butler, Ms. Parker and Ms. Petelle.
If you can, please write a letter to these 3 board members expressing your support for Ms. Ross. Below is a letter I have drafted and sent. Feel free to use it or its ideas in any way you see fit.
Here are the e-mail addy’s of the three board members.
rachael.parker@psd150.org
linda.butler@psd150.org
laura.petelle@psd150.org
Thanks for your pro-active efforts on behalf of our kids!
Diane
At next Monday’s board meeting you will be casting an important vote – who will you as a collective board choose to lead the B of E over the next year? I am asking you to strongly consider voting for Martha Ross as Board President.Martha appears to have the ability to put politics aside and consider the needs of the children first. She is one of the few that has put forth an effort to bridge the differences between the school board and the community. We believe she also puts forth some excellent ideas that never see the light of day because of the current hierarchy of power within the board.
On the other hand, Ms. Wolfmeyer has been extremely dismissive (to be polite) of the wishes of the community and exhibits only minimal independence of thought. A year of “leadership” from Ms. Wolfmeyer would in my opinion do nothing other than continue the dissent that has plagued the district for the past few years.
Your vote for Martha, and Martha’s subsequent victory could set a new tone for the Board of Education and how it relates to and listens to the goals and concerns of whom they serve – the families. Perhaps her leadership will help some of the other members find their “voice” that has seemingly been suppressed under the Gorenz Presidency.
I know that many others share my sentiments.
If you have the time to discuss further, please give me a call at 645-8608.
If we assume, as Diane Vespa does, that Wolfmeyer can count on three votes (including her own), that leaves four others who could vote for Ross. With Ross voting for herself, that means if the other three remaining vote for Ross, we will have a Ross victory.
So by all means, contact these remaining folks and let your opinion be known.
Tags: Debbie Wolfmeyer, district 150
Posted in Local, Overset | 4 Comments »
Monday, April 27th, 2009
Having to work a day job today kept me from talking to the many people who returned phone calls about this story. But since WEEK has about half of the story (stating the Peoria School District 150 board is meeting in private to discuss the termination of a whistleblower), I’m going to go ahead and print as much as I can without running afoul of a libel judgment:
Julie McArdle is the current principle at Charles Lindbergh Middle School in Peoria. She recently replaced Mary Davis who now works at central administration with Ken Hinton as what the Journal Star described as “an academic officer for the district’s middle and high schools.”
McArdle noticed incoming credit card card receipts bearing the name of another District employee. Money also came up missing in the school’s activity fund. McAardle suspected theft and started making inquiries, but got no answers.
My source added the following detail. The unauthorized spending involved at least a thousand dollars and included car repair payments and payments to “American Girl” in Chicago, a high-end doll store. Also, some of the suspect credit card bills were being paid with funds from the student activity fund.
Eventually, McArdle was told by Hinton to resign or be fired. Confident of the job she has done as principal at Lindbergh, she told Hinton go ahead and fire her.
She then gathered up as much documentation as she could find and went to a lawyer, Peoria criminal defense/civil rights attorney Richard Steagall, who told her that this was a classic case of trying to fire a whistleblower, an apparent violation of Federal law. Steagall then called Superintendent Ken Hinton and told him that if he didn’t take this information to the police and press charges, he would take his client to the police and do it.
Ken Hinton filed a report alleging theft by this employee Peoria Police Department on Friday, my source tells me. He told the officer at the station that an independent audit of the activity fund would be done, and the credit card statements checked out.
At one point, a mention of McArdle’s pending termination was on the District 150 Web site (possibly as an agenda item), my source said. The Web site to be down during the weekend.
I was able to confirm late Friday night — from a different source — that Hinton had been recently discussing firing a high-level administrator and that it would probably appear in the media on Monday, although it was discussed in terms of budget reductions. My source did not know the name of the administrator, and no mention was made of theft allegations.
Tags: district 150, Julie McArdle, Ken Hinton, theft, whistleblower
Posted in Local | 43 Comments »
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
Commenter PrairieCelt has a very interesting, fact-filled post over at C.J.’s site describing the reality behind District’s 150’s expected decision to close grade schools and a high school. The people formally known as the audience is practicing some journalism.
Meanwhile, here’s the run-of-the-mill quote regurgitation from the Journal Star.
UPDATE: Speaking of citizen journalists who out-report paid mass media reporters, here’s is Diane Vespa’s report the idiotic way District 150 waste’s space.
Tags: district 150
Posted in Local | Comments Off
Monday, August 11th, 2008
I see from tomorrow’s Word on the Street column that Peoria City Councilman Jim Montelongo is eager to get the city government involved in efforts to create charter schools in Peoria. Failing that, at least get the council to endorse the idea.
On one hand, I’d like to see the city take a more active role in running the schools, but given the sentiment of the current council, that won’t happen. And I certainly believe that there needs to be more accountability, and the current system afford voters few opportunities to make change.
But I am not convinced that charter schools are the answer. I went looking for articles, and I found a transcript of a discussion on the Jim Lehrer NewsHour in which the value of charter schools is questioned. It seems that once other factors are taken into consideration, there’s no indication that the results are any better than ordinary public schools (I note that this segment is from August 2004).
And then there’s a 2006 article from the New York Times that also questions the effectiveness of charter schools.
Still charter schools seem to afford parents greater control, demand more accountability and supposedly lets educators avoid a lot of red tape.
I remain unconvinced. One of the allures of charter schools is that some people really want to get rid of teachers’ unions, and charters might let that happen. Well, Edison Schools didn’t have to worry about teacher contracts, and they haven’t shown us anything exceptional in the area of student achievement.
District 150 has tried a lot of other stuff too. They seem to be jumping on one fad after another, and not really sticking with anything. One day they are convinced that a park-like campus setting absolutely necessary. Why? Because kids need to learn about nature. Or they want to cut hours out of the school day so teachers can make lesson plans together.
The last thing the school board seems willing or able to try are those things parents seem to want: Better and more discipline, longer school days and a longer school year and more arts and music. Charter schools aren’t necessary to get these things, and there’s no guarantee that the people chosen to run any new charter school won’t be just as enchanted with shiny new fads and nifty new theories and research as the the people running the schools now.
Tags: charter schools, district 150
Posted in Local | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
Unless noted, all links are via the Journal Star:
- The 18-year-old who was found murdered behind Sterling School apparently had an “unconventional relationship” with the man prosecutors say killed her. No kidding. There was an eyewitness to the murder, they say. And she snitched. Apparently she never got the memo saying that Peorians never talk to police.
- Some details on the new school calender. Why in the Hell did Peorians have to go through all this for? It was a stupid idea to begin with, and D-150 compounded the problem by getting its back up over criticism. Well, at least the district is in the black.
- Oh, good heavens. A tourist attraction is gonna close two days a week. Will the bloodletting never end?
- A New York Times reporter is going to visit Peoria to tell us details of the Rwandan recovery effort and that we screwed up in Iran.
- Here is nice long article about how the City of Peoria is getting input from the public about the city’s budget. Not much in the story about what that input has been, though. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say they folks want more essential services and lower taxes.
- The Peoria Journal Star’s award-winning editorial page today opines on the practice of not paying attention while walking around. They are opposed.
- HOINews: Free public WiFi comes to Normal. I’m guessing, though, that within 10 years or so, new technology and competition will make municipal wi-fi unnecessary.
- WEEK: My condolences to the family, friends and comrades of Rockford native Private First Class David John Badie, who was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan.
Tags: Crime, district 150, editorial board, murder
Posted in Local | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 16th, 2008
From the Journal Star:
- You know, if I had a bullet wound in the gut, I’d be a tad uncooperative, too.
- Ken Hinton is in rare form. Bull-headed, condescending … come to think of it, that’s not rare for him at all.
- Here’s my big dream: A new board and administrators at District 150. Visualize, visualize, Visualize …
- The Peoria Park District will have to hold a public hearing before it screws around with the old Spanish cannon at Glen Oak Park Lagoon. I suggest people want to seem preserved better pack this hearing when it’s held.
- I say if the pumps CAN’T show a price higher than $3.99, then let them. In fact, let’s make old mechanical gas pumps mandatory.
- The award-winning (snicker) editorial page of Peoria’s one and only newspaper complains about a lack of maintenance on the Kellar Branch. It blames the carriers, not the bull-headed decisions by the rail owners — positions advocated by the this same newspaper — that kept the rail users from being able to USE the rail until very recently. Because, as you know, it makes perfect economic sense to maintain the a rail line you aren’t allowed to use. No doubt other bloggers will further deconstruct the editorial.
- This drunk, anti-social, violent knucklehead could very easily have ended up shot a couple dozen times. Instead his sorry-ass is in jail and faces a long prison term. And two cops get injured bringing him in the hard way. Get well soon, officers. And in case no one else says it: Thank you for your service.
Tags: district 150, Journal Star, kellar brance, Ken Hinton
Posted in Local | 2 Comments »
Friday, May 16th, 2008
Some announcements:
- I’ve been playing around with my Facebook page, and I ended up sending invitations to about half the people in the mailing list. If you got one (or two or three, sorry about that), consider signing up. Facebook is a good way to network for business and social reasons.
- And the mysterious Subway Conductor seems have a few misconceptions about me.
- And Kudos, again, to Diane Vespa. She took to the airwaves to fight for quality education for District 150 kids.
- And there’s some news over at The Blog Peoria Project.
Tags: Diane Vespa, district 150, facebook
Posted in Citizen Journalism | Comments Off
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
Once again, HOINews came through for parents at District 150 schools. Last night, I caught their 10 p.m. newscast, and there were two — count ‘em, TWO — reports related to the quality of education at Peoria’s public schools. One was a follow-up to the station’s original report on how some school’s aren’t meeting state-mandated physical education requirements. The other was a report on how a principal who lost a no-confidence vote was pegged as a new vice principal at the newly reconstituted Manual High School. Kudos to the folks at HOI News. It’s sometimes hard to get any coverage at all on other stations.
Tags: district 150, HOINews, Television
Posted in Watchdog | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
I couldn’t go to last night’s meeting of the group of parents upset at District 50 for slashing a month of instructional time from primary school students (in daily 45-minute increments). I had to work.
In the days since the school board voted to slash the school day, there has been something of an uprising underway. Methods for replacing the board have been discussed. Suggestions include simply getting better candidates to run for the board, reducing board terms from five years to as few as two, electing the board all at once rather than staggered terms. The “doomsday weapon” in all this would be to demand a city or even a state takeover of the district, perhaps with educational guru Paul Vallas or his associates helping out.
No current school board members attended, which was wise considering the foul mood that D150 has created among parents. However, Bud Collier attended. He’s the former superintendent for Dunlap schools. Since his retirement, he’s been acting as a sort of go-between for Peoria city government and the city’s many school systems, the largest and most troubled of which is D150.
Collier came bearing a message: Stop all this nonsense and D150 might rescind its decision.
Via Diane Vespa:
But Mr. Collier insisted that we “had the Admins attention” and that they were willing to put options on the table. Ultimately, we were persuaded to “call off the dogs” and place them on a back burner, for now. In the interim, we will meet a few more times to explore options for saving $600K. We don’t anticipate this to be too difficult of an undertaking given the fact that it is less than 1/2 of 1% of their budget. There is a meeting scheduled with the District for May 22. The goal: a full rescission of last Mondays vote.
,,,
I am pleased with the outcome of the meeting, and although there exists an innate sense of unease with the Administration given the callousness they have exhibited towards the expressed will of the community, I, personally, am willing to put differences aside and work on behalf of the children as well as every citizen of Peoria.
The bottom line is this. It is one thing to not think things through, buy property, sell property, randomly knock down and build new buildings. But taking school time and fine arts teachers away from our youngest children to compensate for the lack of vision is fundamentally impacting the very foundation of the city of Peoria. Monday’s decision, if it stands, would have far-reaching consequences that go way beyond the boundaries of District 150.
Elaine Hopkins reported:
“I personally believe there will be something that will work. I’ve been told if you come up with legitimate solutions they would take a look at it. I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t find an option by next week. They’ve gotten smacked pretty good,†he said.
Collier said Hinton is willing to meet with four members of the group on May 22 and May 27 to consider options. The board next meets on May 19.
He urged the group not to attack school officials personally, and to focus only on the shortened school day issue and not other grievances.
And C.J. Summers:
I think it’s a good idea to try negotiations first, but we must, at the same time, keep the heat up. We won’t let the administration razzle-dazzle us like they did the school board last Monday night.
The fact that the District 150 board and the administration have shown in the past they they will sputter indignantly when people with common sense stand up to them, but in the end they will back down.
Peoria School District 150 hasn’t had decent leadership since Superintendent Harry Whitaker left. We’re not going to get decent leadership with Ken Hinton at the helm the administration we have now. And we’re not going to get rid of THEM until we get rid of the current school board. The very, very least that needs to happen is a change in how board members are elected. The current system doesn’t allow for adequate change, and it discourages new people from seeking election. I mean, who wants to be the only new board member on this group, especially if you oppose how the board operates? Being the lone gadfly is no fun.
The inference I draw from all this is that the board is willing to go back to a full school day and not fire the music and arts teachers IF the efforts to get rid of the current board stop.
Feh. Rescinding the decision they made last week should just the first step of what needs to happen. and I’m worried that if the board decides to rescind, if might lessen the motivation behind the insurrection. I mean, where would America be right now if King George III had rescinded the stamp tax?
We need to fight the disease that infects District 150, not just the most recent symptoms.
Tags: CJ Summers, Diane Vespa, district 150, Ken Hinton, Paul Vallas
Posted in Local | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 12th, 2008
When I first heard about the parental uprising over the drastically shortened instructional time at District 150 primary schools, I was outraged. Imagine the outrage if you are parent of primary-age kids:
Seriously, what do the parents, city leaders and property owners in Peoria plan to do about the fact that our school district seems perfectly capable of single handedly ruining this town? Will we wait until there is not a single self respecting family left in the district? Will we wait until we realize that the children of Peoria are not keeping up with their Dunlap (or Edison) counterparts due to the fact that they spend 18% less time in school? Will we wait until we see a reduction in our property values? Seriously, folks – all the City great news in the world won’t make a hill of beans difference if our schools are in the crapper.
Soon you will be offered opportunities to voice your opinion and make a difference. Please stay tuned. I call upon the Mayors of Peoria and West Peoria, The Council Members of same, The Regional Superintendent of Schools, Gerald Brookhart, a wonderful man, to stand up, look Mr. Ken Hinton and his merry band of rubber stampers in the eye and say “STOP THE INSANITY!” C’mon people, put down the remote, pul-lease check my math (and I’m serious), engage thyself, and lets get busy. This is our children’s future we are talking about!
I think D150 ticked off the wrong person in Diane Vespa.
Expect changes.
Tags: district 150, schools, Vespa
Posted in Local | 12 Comments »
Monday, May 12th, 2008
Today’s Word on the Street mentions that parents who are upset at D150’s decision to cut a month’s work of instructional time out of their primary schools are taking their concerns to members of the Peoria City Council. I’ll paraphrase the positions taken by two of the council members quoted in the article. Mayor Ardis: ‘People sure are upset and concerned about this.’ Barbara Van Auken, 2nd District: ‘My constituents sure don’t like it.’ Past Nichting, 5th District: ‘Balancing the budget comes first.’ It needs to be said, however, that many of Nichting’s constituents reside in the Dunlap school district.
So why even bother complaining to the city council? It’s not like our city government — unlike other communities — has any official role in running the schools. Here’s why? For all it’s faults, Peoria City Hall is fairly responsive to the community. I’ve been observed the council as reporter and blogger for many years, and I’ve seen the council change course in the face of public opinion. Not so much with District 150.
Tags: Ardis, district 150, Nichting, van auken, Word on the Street
Posted in Local | 2 Comments »
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
I was chatting with one of the parents who unsuccessfully tried to convince District 150 to NOT gouge 45 minutes of instructional time from primary schools. His assessment mirrored my own: HOI News has presented the best coverage, hand’s down, of the whole controversy.
And this was before today’s story about how at least one school’s plans to try to count recess as physical education is contrary to a state law requiring actual physical education classes (which means recess doesn’t count). This particular newscast also included a report on how the number of guns being brought into schools might be higher than the media is being led to believe.
I’m not saying that other news organizations are ignoring the whole mess. But HOI News has made itself the station to watch if you have kids in D150 and are concerned about how the district is being run. Kudos.
Conversely, WEEK’s coverage is considered to be the weakest. Sorry Mac and Mike.
Tags: district 150, HOI, WEEK, WHOI
Posted in Watchdog | 15 Comments »
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
Kudos to Peoria Anti Pundit, for correctly calling me out on the negative attitude that permeated this post, in which I advised Peorians with young kids to get them enrolled in private school or to get the Hell out of Peoria.
In my defense, it was a post out of character. Even though I’ve been critical of the way the powers-that-be in this city run things, I’ve consistently advocated activism and participation in the process. I loathe the White-flight attitude so many people possess. Anyone inclined to pack up and leave Peoria didn’t me to give them the idea.
The fact is that there are many things that can be done to fix District 150. All of them begin with replacing the board and the current set of administrators. The decision to eliminate 45 minutes of instruction time from the district’s grade schools may just have been the tipping point. There are a lot of angry People out there and they are getting organized.
Expect change.
Tags: district 150, schools
Posted in Local | 10 Comments »
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
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.
Tags: district 150
Posted in Local, Overset | 26 Comments »
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
C.J. notes that when District 150 bosses say that a a shorter school day at all 12 primary schools will actually help kids learn more, it doesn’t match earlier statements:
So, let me see if I have this straight. Manual was not doing well academically, so they’re restructuring — that is, making changes that will help improve the educational experience there, which will manifest itself (hopefully) in higher test scores. One of those changes is a longer school day.
Furthermore, Superintendent Ken Hinton recommended just three months ago a longer school day for the new school that will be built in the East Bluff, replacing Glen Oak Primary School. I presume he recommended this because he thinks it has pedagogical benefits. Isn’t that also why Edison schools have a longer school day than other District 150 schools?
Good catch C.J.
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Tags: district 150, Glen Oak Primary School, Kellar Primary School
Posted in Local | Comments Off
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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