Daily Archives: January 23, 2009

Chamber of Commerce, Peoria Public Schools

Chamber supports D150 “efforts to make tough decisions”

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Here’s a curious press release I received today:

Chamber Supports District 150’s Difficult Decisions

Peoria (January 23, 3009) –District 150 has some difficult decisions ahead due to significant budget deficit predictions. The Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce supports the district’s efforts to make those tough changes for the future of our educational system.

Members of the school board and the Chamber board met this morning at the Heartland Partnership office to discuss the status of District 150. Superintendant [sic] Ken Hinton said the district ended the 2007-2008 school year last July with a very small surplus (for the first time in nine years) of $300,000 on a budget of $140+ million.

They approved a balanced budget that same July for the 2008-2009 school year but almost overnight, the economic downturn set in and now there is a projected $9 million budget deficit for the 2010 school year due to a variety of funding changes.

Hinton acknowledges that some very tough choices will have to be made including whether to close or merge schools. While that is not a popular topic among many in the community, Chamber Board Chairperson Deb Ritschel says change is inevitable.

“We must focus on the long term effects this decision will have and the overall big picture.” Ritschel went on to say “Many people are emotional about the thought of closing or merging schools, but we have also [sic] look at the realities and focus on the business perspective of this issue which means dealing with capacity issues and matching revenues and expenses.” The goal, Ritschel noted, is to balance the business side of things while continuing focus on student achievement.

The Chamber Board was asked to help by getting community leaders to be a voice of this effort in hopes of changing the perception of the public schools in Peoria. Ritschel responded saying “The Chamber will support the district as it positions itself to ensure children today and children in the future have a stable school system providing a quality education.”

This raises a number of questions, so I’ll just start rattling them off: Which school board members met with the Chamber of Commerce? Was the Open Meetings Act followed (i.e., was the meeting properly noticed)? Who initiated the meeting, District 150 or the Chamber? Why?

And what is it with the tortured language of this press release? I’m having a hard time figuring out exactly what they’re trying to communicate. Can anyone explain to me what these two statements mean?

  • “The Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce supports the district’s efforts to make those tough changes for the future of our educational system.” There’s bureaucratic doubletalk if I ever heard it. What they’re literally saying is this: They’re not supporting any specific decisions, but just generally supporting the district’s efforts to make “tough decisions.” Way to go out on a limb. For the record, I support elected bodies’ efforts to make tough decisions, too. In fact, I support everyone’s efforts to make tough decisions. I mean, we all face tough decisions at some point in our lives, and, darn it, I support your efforts to make them.

  • “The Chamber Board was asked to help by getting community leaders to be a voice of this effort in hopes of changing the perception of the public schools in Peoria.” What exactly do they want community leaders to do here? Inform the community that District 150 is trying to “balance the business side of things while continuing focus on student achievement”? (I think we sort of expect that out of District 150; I mean, that is their job, is it not?) Or “[support] the district’s efforts to make those tough changes”? (See the previous bullet point.)

More questions: How many of these Chamber Board members have children who are attending District 150 schools? How many of these Chamber Board members currently operate a business that “match[es] revenues and expenses” (i.e., has a balanced budget)? (Hint: we know one who doesn’t.)

Perhaps the biggest question is, shouldn’t the district be more interested in getting the parents’ support than the Chamber’s?

Peoria Civic Center

Peoria Civic Center cuts jobs, benefits

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The following announcement was made by the Peoria Civic Center yesterday:

At the direction of the Peoria Civic Center Authority, I am attaching a recent memo regarding the adjustments that SMG management is making for the rest of the seven months of our fiscal year.

We felt it would be prudent moving forward to budget very conservatively due to a very uncertain immediate future. While we are not far off budget through December, 2008, we do not currently see a clear line of sight to August 31, 2009 as compared to our budget, created in May 2008.

Our goals are to preserve cash flow as well as monitor revenues and expenditures very closely in times that could very well see a downturn of activity.

The Peoria Civic Center Authority and SMG and Centerplate take our stewardship of the Peoria Civic Center and all its assets very seriously. Our hope is that we will be able to improve upon our conservative budget estimates in the months to come.

Councilman Manning may be able to answer questions you have or please don’t hesitate to call others or myself.

Thank you,

Debbie [Ritschel]

Here’s the text of the memo:

Fiscal 2009 Budget Cuts Outlook
January 2009

As we have been discussing for several months at the PCCA meetings, in the current economic uncertainty it is prudent to be conservative in projections of revenues and work toward significant budget cuts to balance a probable loss of revenues.

After the first four months of our fiscal year, we are between $150,000 and $200,000 behind budget. While we have said that this is not unusual for this early in the fiscal year, the current softening of touring concert ticket sales and fewer corporate meetings will make the recovery of these dollars more difficult. We therefore are making fiscal assumptions that our year end revenues beyond expenses will not meet the $109,000 loss that was budgeted. Trying to quantify what that year end number will be is far more difficult this year with so many uncertainties in the national marketplace which affects our local consumer confidence. It is this consumer confidence that encourages people to buy tickets to so many of events or allows show promoters to book shows of all types at PCC.

The SMG staff in communication with SMG Corporate and Finance Committee members has initiated the following budget adjustments totaling about $300,000-$350,000 in expenditure reductions by August 2009:

Executive pay reductions
Elimination of five full time positions
Hiring freeze for positions vacated by attrition
401 K match temporarily suspended
Travel and other regular department line items cut
Favorable business and health insurance renewals

The Capital Committee has agreed to freeze all further capital expenditures unless it meets a life safety or emergency repair threshold. This will result in an additional $300,000 positive cash flow. Combined with the above expenditure reductions, the improvement to cash flow will be $600,000-$650,000.

We are encouraged by the staff attitude of finding ways to economize and increase sales. We have a talented group of dedicated professionals who are ready to meet the economic challenge head on. We will continue to keep the Commission informed on our progress.