Okay, it isn't "just" in. It came in awhile back, last Monday, April 17th to be exact. I work for a living -well, kinda- and I don't check my blog e-mail as often as I should. My apologies to the Councilman. Anyhoo, a few posts back I accused Bob of not playing nice by giving snarky e-mails exchanged between himself and School Board members regarding the proposed new Glen Oak Park School to Jen Davis at the Journal Star. I thought it was tacky and went against Mayor Ardis' kinder, gentler, at-least-pretend-to-be-an-adult version of government. Polly stands humbly corrected:
Polly --
As was noted in the Word on the Street column, Jennifer Davis FOIA'd my emails with the School Board members. I did not volunteer them to her. When this whole story originally broke, she asked me if I had spoken with any School Board members about it. I said that I had emailed a couple of them with my concerns, but I did not name the board members. That was the end of it. Big questions remain. Why are School Board members, Peoria Park District trustees, and PHA officials planning in secret? Why do their timelines keep changing? Why have they failed, to this day, to share their comprehensive plans with the public and the City Council? Those who have already built model community schools elsewhere have stated that public dialogue, neighborhood input/support, and community participation were critical to the schools' success. None of this is being done in Peoria. These decisions will affect generations to come and will affect much more than just the East Bluff. I believe that we should get it right the first time around.
Bob Manning
Polly has never been so elegantly put in her place. Got to admit. I rather enjoyed it. What Bob is ever so politely trying to convey is that Polly should remove her head from her arse and read the entire article (not just every fifth word) before posting snide inaccuracies. Point taken. Bad blogger. Bad, bad blogger.
I still favor the idea of a new school. It seems to me that Glen Oak Park would be the perfect place for a community "B thru 8" school. Moreover, I think Glen Oak Park is a yet another beautiful but decaying Peoria landmark. A new school at the proposed location could do a lot for the park as well as the surrounding neighborhood and the East Bluff.
However, I readily admit that the School Board could not have come up with a more idiotic, controversial, dorkwad way of going about selling this idea to the Public.
BTW, isn't Manning cute?
20 comments:
Not a cute as that hunk George Jacob.
;-)
Hey,
They are both on my list of "yummy".
Hey, in my book Georgie is one fine piece of masculinity as long as he has the power to shower Peoria with free beer. Who needs city wide wi-fi? Oh. Yeah. That's right. Bill doesn't drink. Poor baby.
Hi Polly,
Dumb me, when I click on your name on my sidebar, I get "site not found". Help. Thanks
Polly, you are so right (not about Bob or George, except for maybe the free beer part). The idea and location of the school at Glen Oak Park is very very good. It's too bad that both Boards had to ruin it with their bass-ackwards approach to it.
Interesting parallel between the way the school board/park district blew this one and the way the city council/Marcella blew the intro of the MedTech District. Instead of going to the public to ask, "What would you like to see...?" They come up with bright ideas and then try to force them down throats. No wonder nobody trusts government in this town.
Yes, they could have handled it better. But, a) is there a better option for the type of school they propose? and b) didn't we elect this school board to straighten out the mess in Dist 150?
I don't think Bob Manning should be involved other than possibly to be given a heads up. What has he or his predecessors done for Dist 150 other than raid their budget through TIF districts and promote further white flight to Dunlap schools by creating "growth" cells and abondoning the older neighborhoods for decades? The city government is as responsible for the status of Dist 150 on several fronts than is any other entity.
Bob, stop your whining and start facilitating stabalization for your district by supporting and assisting folks like Ken Hinton who have spent their lives making a difference in more lives than you have touched or likely will touch in your lifetime. Get off your high horse and do more than a drive by through a neighborhood your own family long ago abandoned. Stop worrying about what you don't know and find out what you should know, much of which you should have attempted to understand and accept before you took office.
And shame on the spineless dipsticks who serve on the school board who initially recognized this was a great opportunity for the long term goals of the district but then caved to the misdirected ridicule led by Bob Manning. Folks, you don't get paid, you get little thanks, what is the risk in standing up for what you believe is in the best interest of the kids of Dist 150 as opposed to your own reputation. What is the worst that can happen, you get voted out? Butler shouldn't wait that long. This isn't Key Club or Student Council Alecia and you aren't a cheer leader for PHS, you are the school board president, act like it.
All of these "elected" officials need to be spend a little time in Glen Oak school, not on a nice little tour but helping in the classroom for a day or two. Then they need to go to a facility like Valeska Hinton and spend the day. After that they need to take a breath and a long and objective look at the proposed new school.
You can't have it both ways. Change is necessary and unless you want the new schools build in corn fields it will require some people being displaced. If I were the district I'd focus on the new Harrison and forget the northside for now. Once they see this concept in action they'll be crying that they need a similar facility.
Sorry, C.J. but I never post anonymously.
Anon, Bob Manning LIVES in the East Bluff, with his wife and two little kids, on Embert. He certainly hasn't abandoned it. Glen Oak Park falls well with in his District, and he has every right and responsibilty as to what happens to it on his watch.
That said, a school in Glen Oak Park is a good idea.
Anon, Bob Manning LIVES in the East Bluff, with his wife and two little kids, on Embert. He certainly hasn't abandoned it. Glen Oak Park falls well with in his District, and he has every right and responsibilty as to what happens to it on his watch.
That said, a school in Glen Oak Park is a good idea.
Can we still call it a park? Doesn't seem like there will be much park left once it is all carved up.
We'll have to take a page out of Prince's book and rename it "the Park formerly known as Glen Oak". If I start to see people grilling out in my back yard I'll know that there are more than a dozen people in the "park".
C.J., Play nice with the other children. Poor Sean, can't catch a break. I don't think C.J. will be satisfied with District 150 unless or until every last child who attends is god fearing, comes from a responsible two parent home, and never skips breakfast. C.J. will also only give his blessing to a new school when and if it guarantees all the afore mentioned AND can cure erectile dysfunction. If you find such an Utopia here on Earth please do let us the rest of us know...
BTW, anyone else find it a bit strange that Manning isn't jumping for joy at the fact that District 150 wants to build its new school in his District? Could be a real credit to him if he got behind the plan. I know it isn't a Mienke Brake Shop, Starbucks, or spiffy facades for Prospect
Road Businesses, but heck, it is something!
It all boils down to this: It's a stupid location for a new school. Period. If it was such a positive, grand spot to drop a spankin' new school, the public would have been invited in the decision making from the beginning, and everyone woulda been smilin' their Pepsodent smiles. There's a REASON why it was done behind closed doors... because it's STUPID, and Beaver Cleaver and all of the rest of the school board KNEW the public would not be in favor of it.
Prego, I think the School Board has always met in secret whether warranted or not. I don't think it is a stupid location. Glen Oak Park is under utilized. Something Manning mentioned in his pre-election interview with Johnathan Ahl on WCBU. A new school would bring folks back to the park, zoo, and would help the children's museum along. There is plenty of room in Glen Oak Park. If a school were located there it would return the Park to the people by making it immediately less appealing to East Bluff thugs and gangs.
I think Bob Manning would be jumping up & down at the prospect of a new school in his district if: a. he thought the location was the best overall location for a new school b. the school & park boards were more upfront about their dealings, which is more about principle than location. c. I can't imagine he is too thrilled about turning the old location into public housing, either. Would you? How' bout in your neighborhood?
I've said it before & I will say it again: I really don't think that the corner of Frye & Prospect with it's vast array of "creative driving" plus the fascination aspect of the lagoon and the drug, er I mean convenient store across the street make that a safe location. Those issues alone would have to be solved before I could be convinced this is the correct location for the school.
Polly, you're danged lucky that you look like Jennifer Aniston, or I'd be calling you out "blog-style," by gum.
The PJS editorial on this issue was right on point today. And if the taxpayers don't wake up and take notice the ICC president and board will have us in the same predicament as district 150 on a much wider scale, all with the same excuse "lack of state funding". They are slowly blowing reserves and increasing tuition but little of what they spend has gone directly to education in the past 5 years. Seems to me the state (we) have given them plenty of money lately and they've blown it on buildings they don't need, six sigma and a bunch of other things like changing their logo, renaming roadways and building apartments that are half empty.
This affects more than Peoria and the area covered by district 150. It's what, maybe 10 counties that cover the ICC district. Go to their website and read the minutes of their meetings. They are out of control.
See Pundit at: http://peoriapundit.com/blogpeoria/2006/04/28/hubris-anyone/
As I have stated in previous comments, what is going on with District 150 can and will take place in other areas of Peoria unless we all start making our statements and standng up for OUR rights and needs; not what someone else THINKS we need. i believe that this whole thing is staring to "wake" people up. They are beginning to take a stand and it's about time that we don't let large entities run over us, the people that pay the property taxes that fund many of these proposed projects.
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