Daily Archives: March 4, 2008

Peoria Public Schools

D150 shoehorning suburbia into urban neighborhood (UPDATED)

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District 150 will decide tonight whether the new, enlarged Glen Oak School campus will extend north or south of the current campus. The Journal Star reports:

“We need to make a definite decision,” Gorenz said Monday. He wouldn’t elaborate which direction, whether to the north or south, he thought the new school might extend, saying that would be made known tonight.

The district so far has discussed three proposals for expanding the Glen Oak Primary School campus from its current three acres to as many as 12 acres.

So, just what do these possibilities look like? Here are a few options that the school board is considering — two options to expand to the north, and one option to expand to the south. Rumor has it that the southward expansion is favored (click on each picture for larger image):

Glen Oak School North - Option 1

Glen Oak School North - Option 2

Glen Oak School South Option

They still insist on consuming more acreage than they need. These site plans would be appropriate for a suburban school. But for a neighborhood school in an urban area, this is not an appropriate use of land — especially the excessive parking areas. The staff parking lot is more than sufficient — why do they need “bus parking”? And why do they need another parking lot? Are the third-graders driving themselves to school now and need a place to leave their cars during the day? And why is the school building all spread out? Why not build up and take up a smaller footprint?

Is anyone on the school board asking these questions?

UPDATE: The school board did indeed decide on the southward plan. It was pointed out that these drawings (above) are conceptual. They’re not final site plans. The placement and configuration of the building, for instance, may be different than what is shown. It was stated that the public will have input — especially those who live in the Glen Oak School attendance area.

The cost of the project, including property acquisition, is estimated to be $27 million. And that’s the amount the school board will request from the Public Building Commission. School board member Jim Stowell suggested the City should help with property acquisition costs.

I wrote this post originally a bit in haste, as I wanted to get the pictures up as soon as possible. Thus, my comments sounded a bit overly negative. I should have stated that, on the positive side, I am pleased that the school board chose the current Glen Oak School site. It is by far the best location, and they should be applauded for listening to the wishes of the City, neighborhood associations, residents, teachers, et. al.

Nevertheless, I do still have the concerns I noted above. The excessive land requirements are unnecessary and needlessly inflate the price of the school project. Perhaps with some more public input, the school board will scale back the size as well.

Comcast

Surprise! Cable rates going up

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Well that didn’t take long. Comcast has sent out a mailing notifying its customers that it will be raising its rates effective April 2, 2008.

Basic service is going up a dollar per month, from $13.60 to $14.60. Expanded basic (formerly Classic Service) is going up two dollars, from $35.15 to $37.15. That means that a standard cable package that includes Basic and Expanded basic will be going from $48.75 to $51.75 per month, or about a 6% increase. DVR rental is going from $8 to $10. And all the various premium services are going up one or two bucks per month, too. There are various other changes in prices.

Comcast says, “Occasionally, we must adjust our prices to reflect the value of our services and the investments Comcast makes to bring you the best that technology has to offer.”

Meanwhile, satellite service only costs about $30 per month, and over-the-air broadcasts are free.

Healthcare

Autism linked to vaccine

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I understand why there has been such a concerted effort to convince people that autism is not connected to vaccinations. Vaccinations save lives. Just Google “polio” sometime and consider how much life has been improved through vaccines. And if parents think that getting their children vaccinated is going to give them autism, they might forego vaccines because they fear they’re too risky. Yet not getting vaccinated would actually open them up to greater risk.

So I get it. But there’s just one problem. There is a link between autism and vaccines. And the sooner the medical community comes clean about it and reduces that risk, the better off everyone will be. The Department of Health and Human Services has conceded the link in a document filed in a Federal Claims Court. You can read a verbatim copy here. The concession comes under the “Analysis” section and states:

In sum, DVIC [Division of Vaccine Injury Compensation, Department of Health and Human Services] has concluded that the facts of this case meet the statutory criteria for demonstrating that the vaccinations CHILD [name redacted for privacy] received on July 19, 2000, significantly aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder, which predisposed her to deficits in cellular energy metabolism, and manifested as a regressive encephalopathy with features of autism spectrum disorder. Therefore, respondent recommends that compensation be awarded to petitioners in accordance with 42 U.S.C. ยง 300aa-11(c)(1)(C)(ii).

There must be a way to be honest about these findings without scaring everyone into eschewing vaccinations. And there must be a way to reduce the risks — for example, maybe there’s a test that can be done to check for conditions that could be aggravated by the vaccination before the shot is administered. One thing that’s definitely not going help is pretending there is no link and stonewalling the public.

Hat tip: “The Mouse”