Who’s running phone survey about District 150? (UPDATED)

One of my readers has informed me that a phone survey is being conducted, and the questions are most intriguing. Here’s part of the e-mail describing the questions he was asked:

Some paraphrased questions I recall-

Do you approve or disapprove of the following people
Ken Hinton
Jim Ardis
Paul Vallas

Do you approve or disapprove of a take over of the district by the city
Do you approve or disapprove of a take over of the district by the state
Do you approve or disapprove of raising taxes to support a charter school coming into the district
Biggest issue for the district- crime, scores, money
A question on the teachers union- they are doing the best they can, they are in it just for them
Do you approve of the direction the city is heading
Do you approve of the direction the district is heading
What is your opinion of Dunlap 323

I would love to see the results of this survey. But even more than that, I would love to know who is conducting it. Anyone want to ‘fess up?

Even if you don’t know who’s conducting it, what do you think of the questions? How would you answer them?

UPDATE: I’ve gotten confirmation from District 150 and the City of Peoria that they are not conducting this survey. The Heartland Partnership has indicated that they’re aware of the survey, but they can’t get me any more details until Monday. I’ll pass along any new information I receive.

New embarrassment for District 150

The Journal Star has discovered more financial anomalies at District 150:

More than $24,000 was paid last year to several teachers at nearly a dozen District 150 schools for extracurricular activities that were approved but went beyond what those individual schools were allotted to spend.

The worst offender: Washington Middle School, where an estimated $8,370 was spent beyond what is allowed through contractual obligations at middle schools. That is one of the findings of a Journal Star analysis of a list received through the Freedom of Information Act containing the more than $1.32 million spent in the 2008-09 school year on extracurricular activities.

“It’s not a situation where teachers were getting paid for doing nothing,” Mary Davis, an academic officer for the district, said of the errors at many District 150 schools. Rather, there is “no checks and balance system,” Davis said.

And there you have it, right from the District 150 administration: There is no checks and balance system. Mary Davis should be familiar with that problem. She’s being sued by a former principal for misappropriation of school activity funds. Whether she is ultimately convicted of these charges or not, the fact remains that there is insufficient checks and balances of the student activity funds.

Unfortunately, this is a pervasive problem at District 150. Year after year, District 150’s annual audit has included this criticism, as reported earlier this year by the Journal Star:

The internal financial review controls at District 150 are at the very least inadequate, resulting in errors, unsubstantiated account balances and generally leaves the district without an accurate day-to-day report of its cash flow, according to a letter from the district’s auditors.

That audit report was rumored to have been the reason Guy Cahill was fired by the school district. And that made me wonder, why is there no quote from the district’s new controller/treasurer Pam Schau? Why is an academic officer answering questions about these improprieties? And why an academic officer who is under suspicion herself?