District numbers don’t add up

Each District 150 public forum begins the same way — with a PowerPoint presentation from the administration. One of the slides that is flashed up is titled “Enrollment to House,” and it shows these numbers:

Item By the Numbers
Kingman, Irving & Glen Oak 2008 Enrollment 1164
Capacity Remaining at Other WHS Attendance
Area Schools
670
Planned Building Enrollment 650
“Choice” Enrollment Unlimited

One person at the Irving School meeting asked how you could replace three schools — total enrollment of 1164 — with one school that would only be able to house 650. She understood the school district’s vision of having magnet, or “choice,” schools. But she wondered why anyone wouldn’t want to send their kids to a brand new school closest to their neighborhood. Answer from School Board President David Gorenz: he couldn’t answer at this time because the board is still studying how it will all work.

In other words, the school board has leapt before looking again.

The whole thing doesn’t make any sense. They’re building a brand new, state-of-the-art school that can only hold half the population of the three it’s replacing and calling it progress. They say that the children on the East Bluff and North Valley deserve a new school, yet they’re simultaneously banking on half of those children opting out of it — i.e., “choosing” to go to another district school. If not enough kids opt out, I assume the district would have to make them go somewhere else, perhaps taking enrollment on a first-come, first-served basis.

The end result is that not only will kids be losing their neighborhood schools, they may be losing their new replacement school, too. Five to six hundred children will be bused to other “old” school buildings around in the city. This is a lose-lose for everyone except the small set of students who will (a) get the new school building in their neighborhood, and (b) be lucky enough to attend it.

And there’s another problem: can Health/Life Safety bonds for Irving, Kingman, and Glen Oak (1) be combined to build only one replacement school, and (2) can that replacement school be smaller than than the three schools it’s replacing? It would be worth a call to the Illinois State Board of Education to find out. Of course, if it turns out they can’t be used for that, I suppose the district would just get its funding elsewhere, like the Public Building Commission.

Policy session planned for tomorrow night

Tomorrow night, October 2, the Peoria City Council will have a special meeting to discuss the use of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds for projects such as ornamental street lights in the Orchard District. Since it’s during the regular council meting time, I wonder if it will be broadcast on WCBU and/or Insight channel 22. Anyone know?

Here’s the official agenda:

SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA
POLICY/WORKSHOP SESSION
CITY HALL, COUNCIL CHAMBERS
6:15 P.M.

ROLL CALL
INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
PETITIONS, REMONSTRANCES & COMMUNICATIONS

POLICY SESSION
ITEM NO. 1 Communication from the City Manager and Director of Public Works Regarding a POLICY SESSION Pertaining to SPECIAL ASSESSMENT GUIDELINES Regarding ORNAMENTAL STREET LIGHTING and the USE of CDBG FUNDS with These Projects.

EXECUTIVE SESSION
ADJOURNMENT