Two good posts from C.J. Summers about District 150’s plans to slash instructional time at all 12 primary schools. They are located here and here. Leave it to C.J. to provide documentation proving the district is talking about of both sides of its mouth.
But Diane Vespa, herself a Kellar Primary School parent, illustrates perfectly the [...]

A shortened school day and the elimination of two part-time teaching positions at all Peoria School District 150 primary schools will be the subject of an informational meeting scheduled for 5:15 p.m. Thursday at Kellar Primary School, 6413 N Mount Hawley Rd.
I have been told that parents from other schools are welcome to attend as [...]

East Bluff Barbie has a very infuriating post about school bus safety. It seems the district can’t afford to put safety monitors on a bus after her son reported bullying. Funny, isn’t it, how they can toss away hundred of thousands to buy all those houses on Prospect. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t question the school [...]

That’s announcement that was made at the end of tonight’s meeting of the Peoria School District 150 Board of Education. The subject of the assembly was not released, and will be revealed by the City of Peoria at a press conference scheduled for 1 p.m,. tomorrow at Peoria Police Headquarters at the corner of Walnut [...]

The last time I attended a meeting of the Peoria School District 150 Board of Education I attended was waaaaaaay back during my Journal Star internship. So, it’s been at least 20 years.
I’m going to tonight’s meeting of the committee of the whole, which is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at the district office [...]

Unless noted, all links are via the Journal Star:

If this “GateHouse News Service” report on how Insight Cable is going to carry some Bradley University basketball games is anything other than a press release, I’ll eat my fictional season tickets. What? No one was available in the JS newsroom to make a phone call for [...]

Kudos to pundit blogger Brad Carter for his first-hand report of Monday’s Peoria School District 150 Board meeting. I’m beginning to appreciate PJS reporter Clare Jellick’s reporting these days, but I have to say I found Brad’s longer report to be a bit more comprehensive. I’m not being critical of Jellick; it’s just that print [...]

Lack of funding for district projects had two district council members demanding changes at the Peoria City Council’s first meeting over the 2008 budget.
Barbara Van Auken was angered that the preliminary $22 million capital improvement budget had no funding for the Sheridan Triangle facade improvement program in her 2nd District. It was especially galling because [...]

I attended the protest outside Peoria Police Department headquarters this morning. Rather than rabble-rousers out to play the race card and demand special treatment for black people, I met and talked to people who sincerely believe that the ‘Manual 22′ case is yet another instance of racial profiling.
Several people I talked to or overheard [...]

UPDATE: The PJS has its article about the press conference up.
I noticed this paragraph in today’s Journal Star article about the “Manual 22″ controversy.
But while District 150 Associate Superintendent Cindy Fischer confirmed Thursday the city had notified the district that tickets would be issued to students heading home down streets instead of available sidewalks, she [...]

C. J. Summers has been all over the Peoria School District 150 effort to tear down three grade schools (one is already closed) and replace them with one mega school. One of the arguments the district has made is that they are being required to do so by the state, in order to make [...]

Here’s that letter that local NAACP leader Don Jackson is distributing:
In case you haven’t heard, we have a Jena 6 situation right here in River City. We call it the Manual 22, representing 22 Manual students who were recently ticketed by the Peoria Police department for walking along a street with no sidewalks, and [...]

Don Jackson is staging some sort of protest next weekend over tickets issued to Manual High School students (as well as students at other schools) for jaywalking. It seems that Peoria School District 150 called the City of Peoria for help dealing with groups of students walking down the middle of the road and intimidating [...]

Via reporter Andy Kravetz:
Nearly a year ago, Kay Royster filed suit in federal court, alleging the School Board and four past and present board members discriminated against her because she is black. When she filed her suit, her attorney, Terry Moran of Chicago, said Royster took legal action to “restore her reputation.”
Eleven months later, [...]

I’m linking to both Journal Star articles on the no-confidence vote on Roosevelt Magnet School principal Taunya Jenkins, both the original on-line only, breaking news story and the article that appeared in today’s newspaper. I’m doing so because the reader comments provide some illumination about what’s going on there. In the first article,the comments were [...]