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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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: [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

This is the rationalization that District 150 administrators are using to justify the decision to cut the primary school day by 45 minutes, fire two part-time teachers at each of the 12 schools and basically reduce or eliminate art and music:
Despite less time at school, many principals say the proposed schedule change improves classroom instruction [...]

Parents of children attending Keller Primary School are upset at changes that will give their kids less time in school and fewer teachers to teach music, science and computer skills.
One set of parents spoke to me today and complained at length about many of the issues they and other parents at Kellar have with District [...]

Links are via the Journal Star, the snarky commentary is my own:

Apparently, Peoria isn’t the only city that sucks up to politically connected developers, in this case, a developer with a history of making sweetheart deals, not that the Journal Star would ever bother reporting it.
I don’t know whether or not Ali al-Marri is a [...]