Yup. Remember, you read it here first. The majority of the District 150 School Board must be on drugs, most likely of the highly addictive and hallucinogenic variety. The frequent use of said drugs would be the only logical explanation behind tonight's School Board meeting. It is no wonder why so many of our public schools are in serious trouble. It isn't the fault of the kids. The real problem is that the people at the helm are drug addicted numbskulls!!!
Tonight the School Board voted to renew the Edison contract for another year. Nifty. No problem. Lots of folks in red shirts showed up to support Edison. If one were to buy into the logic of Edison proponents, one would believe tht overnight all Edison students will become drug addicted retards, just like school board members, should the program be eliminated. Many a story of woe was heard of how District 150 could NOT afford to NOT continue with Edison. Apparently the parents of Edison students and other proponents fail to realize that Peoria's Blue Ribbon Schools and those Schools that meet or exceed State test score standards are not Edison schools. Nonetheless, four members of the School Board were convinced to fork over millions of more dollars it doesn't have in order to keep Edison around for another year.
Anyone else recall Alicia Butler on the evening news last week stating that the District had to fire 60 teachers it recently hired?! Must have been a wild dream or perhaps a contact high.
Yet, none of the above justifies my conclusion that school board members are smoking some mighty fine weed. What leads me to conclude that some board members are toking it up long and hard is that at this very same meeting these potheads also voted to borrow money in order to pay the District's bills. At a minimum, the loan will cost District 150 taxpayers $130,000 in interest. I seriously doubt it will cost us more than $132,000 because what idiot would borrow even more money in order to make payments on previous loans? My guess? Ganja loving school board members, that's who! It's the only thing that makes any sense.
You know, Edison may well provide an excellent education. A Mercedes Benz may very well be a superior car than the current pile of crap I currently drive. However, since there is no way in hell I can responsibly make payments on a Mercedes, I will continue to drive the aforementioned piece of crap for the foreseeable future. Most days the piece of crap I drive beats having to walk, but not always. If I insisted on driving a Mercedes I would be forced to rob a bank. Moreover, I would occasionally need to rob more banks in order to keep up with payments and maintenance on the Benz. Can you imagine the stress? You know, a slightly less deranged plan would be to rob a bank only once and either fix up the piece of crap car I currently own, or upgrade to a Tercel, maybe even a Camry. You know, basic reliable transportation.
Any parent in Peoria who has kids they love in public schools and can afford to move to Dunlap, Germantown Hills, or Metamora but hasn't is a fool.
From now on, I want every candidate for school board to submit to and publish the results of both a piss and an I.Q. test.
8 comments:
Yep it's drugs. And any lending institution will give it to them knowing that they can screw someone out of money via more taxes, etc. to pay them back.
The trouble with borrowing the money, most likely sticking it to property owners via increase in property taxes, is just like drugs. It's a quick fix; a temporary feel good high. Let's see a plan that will get the district to a balanced budget BEFORE the money is borrowed. It will do NO good to borrow the money if 150 keeps operating the way they currently are...they will just be in the red again.
Tighten the belt 150. We all have to do it. My last raise didn't cover the cost of living. It's either get another job, put less into savings, do without various extras, etc.
Fire all the consultants, fire 1/3 of the administration, go to k thru 8 schools, test teachers as well as students. Fire the 60 lowest test scoring teachers keep the cream of the crop. Lean and mean.
Every time I read something stupid about 150, which is often, I think: "Should we have moved to Dunlap?" But hopefully, when our little one is ready for school, they'll have their act together. Hopefully.
http://www.pjstar.com/stories/032906/TRI_B9CNVGTO.010.shtml
See first sentence of above post above.
This is all well and good but isn't it about time for Polly to bathe again. With the camera.
The Edison vote was terrible.
I'm not sure I agree with CJ, Pundit and others on the new school at Glen Oak park issue. Have you looked at the concept? It's the most progressive idea out of 150 since Valeska Hinton. It's outside the box, it's a true model and if it were to go as planned you'd have all the north side Edison advocates crying for a similar facility. Take a good look at the idea/plan. I'm not for taking property from people either but I wonder how many of those properties are rental and in the big picture I have to think the trade off has many plus sides, not the least of which is the eventual closure of Stop and Save and some potential stability for the blocks of homes that would remain and benefit from this NEW school.
It's a tough call but you can't have it both ways. For 150 to evolve it has to look at something that will be a commununity gem and draw people to the facility. That is what happened with Valeska Hinton. It is what happened when Lincoln school was built and Woodruff High school expanded. Homes were lost. But the community gained. The North side has seen many transitions like this over the centuries it has been home to Peoria. It will see many more.
CJ,
As I understand it your employer is looking to move to a different facility, out of the city, away from the core and it's problems with everyone else. Your points could be applied equally to Grace and I'm sure that conversely they have valid and well thought out reasons for their intentions and plans.
Education, children, families all have changed since Glen Oak school was built. The big picture, as I understand this planned school, is less about land and bricks than it is about facilitating education and key community components that current buildings can't properly address. If they had known 40 or 100 years ago what the structure of families, the status of certain neighborhoods or the struggles individual students would face I'm certain these buildings would have been designed differently then, but that wasn't possible.
The larger issue here is not one of teaching and learning. It's an issue of society and this community recognizing that we need some drastice changes to address drastice problems and these problems to a great extent have little to do with what goes on in the classroom of any classroom and more to do with what isn't going on in the surrounding community.
I would invite you to go to Valeska Hinton and spend a little time. Talk to parents and children there now. Talk to children who were there when it opened. Kids like Central Junior Veldez Robinson who ranks first in his class. Over that dozen or so years you'll see some of the most involved, committed families (not necessarily "parents", but families). You'll notice that the building is rarely closed, there is always something going on related to the school families or community. You'll find that the kids who began their learning experiences in this environment are spread throughout the district now and generally doing better than they may otherwise be expected to do.
I agree that 150 and this board are frustrating, that they've made many questionable and idiotic decisions to further put the community in the hole. I also know that had they hired Ken Hinton several years ago and if they would have listened to him (it's questionable whether they do even now) we'd be less in a hole and further along in making some of the changes necessary to get our communities, families, and children back on track.
It takes a village and especially in todays love them and leave them society. If there are 14 committed home owners the district should try to avoid taking their properties if possible. Bottom line, urban areas turn over, they have to reinvent themselves and change in inevitable if the area is going to stay or in this case become viable again.
I was helping with little league kids today and it always amazes me the number of parents who want to drop their kids off and expect the kids to be able to learn to catch and throw a baseball solely by the few hours of exposure to their little league coach. If they'd give their kids 20 minutes of playing catch a few times a week the kid would get better, enjoy the game more and the family relationship would be strengthened. Some of those same parents are the first to criticize the voluntter coach for their kids lack of improvement.
Unfortuneately the same approach is used with education. "I make sure my kid goes to school, why aren't you teaching him?" And that normally goes with "no, I don't think it's my job to make sure he does his homework" or "it's not my fault he won't behave in class". And that's an attitude that is prevalent in all areas of 150, not just the older neighborhoods.
It's not as simple as saying "lock out the thugs and teachers do a better job" as you suggest. It's about changing commmunities, getting families to take notice and be supportive and kids to learn at school and at home. It will take more than tax dollars and buildings. It will take churches, community groups, community connections that have long been pushed out of the schools. If you step back and look at the concept of this school it's more conducive to those elements. The property issues, footprint of the building etc. can be and should be discussed, but the concept and intent of the design of these new school facilities should not.
I hate the thought of losing some of these old school buildings, especially Glen Oak. I love anything old with high ceilings and hardwood floors. I am a sucker for charm and character.
Nonetheless, District 150 does need new buildings and since the population of students has declined immensely in the City's older areas, consolidating schools makes sense. I visit District 150 Schools regularly for my job, and frankly, I doubt most parents would take a job at a such facilites if they could avoid it. Overheated in the winter, no A/C in warm months. Forbidden to use even ceiling fans due to fears of disturbing abestos, yet, it is just FINE for our kids. Well, it is FINE for kids whose parents can't afford to move to Dunlap. Pathetic. Kellar School has it's students sit and watch cartoons in the cafeteria during lunch recess on cold days. That's most of the winter, anytime it is 35 degrees or below. They can't use the gymnasium and let these poor kids run off energy- since the PE and music teachers are using the gym. These students only have physical education classes twice a week - PE is not on the ISAT, you know.
Anyone who owns a home over fifty years old knows that properly and renovating an older structure can easily cost more than building a new one. Consider the cost of abestos removal alone.
That said, is there no where in Peoria that a new school can be built without mowing down homes? Was the School Board just too busy picking its nose and scratching its butt as the City spent loads of resources defending itself from lawsuits brought by property owners during the O'Brien Field and Sears/Museum Block fiascos?
CAN ANYONE IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEARN FROM THE EXPERIENCES OF OTHER BRANCHES OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT?
Moderation, in all things, is key. Forward thinking must be balanced with frugality, especially considering the Board's past mismanagement of money.
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