Peoria Public Schools Board of Education member Martha Ross sent the following memo to Superintendent Ken Hinton and the other members of the board. I’m reprinting it here (with permission) for your information and comment:

Over the years I’ve served on the District 150 Board, when considering a vote, I have tried to make informed and sound decisions on all issues relating to the education and welfare of our children. What’s always foremost in my mind is that we hold the key to the future in how we treat, prepare and educate our students. I am of the belief that we pay now and use whatever resources we have to educate our students right or we pay later when we turn them out into the world unprepared to become productive citizens. I do realize that we cannot save all that come through our doors, but I feel that we are too quick to label, discard, discount, and or not give serious thought to what’s in their best interest.

My opinions are not intended to imply that any of you do not care and or are not interested in the children’s education, it is merely to voice my concerns, share my observations and offer my suggestions. That said, it is my opinion that some of the suggestions for “cutting” the budget bear a lot more thought to be able to avoid damaging the education and safety of our students.

The way I see it is that the following facts are apparent:

1. We have far fewer students than we had 10 years ago
2. We have far more staff than we had 10 years ago
3. We need to balance our budget using sound strategies that can be duplicated
4. We need to decrease this year’s proposed budget according to the financial information we have received
5. We need to make those decreases without risking the quality of education and or the safety of the students
6. We should value our staff, students, parents and community stakeholders

That said, I would like to offer some suggestions that have come from taking the time to think about this situation as well as listening to my community:

1. Immediately affect a complete moratorium on all hiring, and freeze wages. It will soon be time for the March mid-year increases and this would protect the district from that additional outlay for salaries.
2. Immediate and complete moratorium on all travel – except that paid for 100% by grants.
3. Really close Blaine, place the property on the market and move those staff members back to the DLC. That makes more sense from a long-term cost savings standpoint.
4. Keep all four high school sites but change the configuration to schools-within-schools
5. Proposed vocational program could be located within Woodruff as a school-within-a-school.
6. Current Fine Arts program could remain at Peoria High as a school-within-a-school.
7. Since it’s been implied that Peoria High can accommodate a lot more students, leave the current 9th grade academy as a school-within-a-school.
8. Create a 9th grade academy at Woodruff and Richwoods as a school-within-a-school with the separations needed to promote this concept.
9. Create the “small” high school concept for the 10 through 12 in all four schools.
10. Seek to qualify PHS and Woodruff as Title I schools to position them to receive more funded monies noted in President Obama’s economic stimulus proposal.
11. Decrease transportation expenses by developing a plan to establish k-8 neighborhood schools so that most children can walk.
12. List for sale or auction, real estate currently held by the district in inventory, including but not limited to the following parcels:
    • Riverfront (if any is left)
    • Prospect Road Property
    • Blaine Sumner Campus
    • Harrison – old campus and building site parcels
    • Irving campus (Future)
    • Kingman campus (Future)
    • Washington Gifted campus (to be explained later)

    This would also result in a cost savings in insurance premium expense and any custodial/maintenance and utilities expenses – if any – incurred by these sites. Additionally, the sale of these parcels would return them to the tax rolls and create a revenue-enhancing opportunity to the district for an increase in EAV.

13. Look at savings related to the loss of the Medicaid Contract
14. Close Washington Gifted, returning the kids (and their test scores) to their home schools. Offer a gifted component at each neighborhood school as Mr. Hinton mentioned will be included in the new Harrison model. Cost to run Washington Gifted is $1.325M. District no longer receives separate funds to operate the program — all costs now accrue to Ed Fund.
15. The anticipated cost savings of a Peoria High/Woodruff merger are primarily derived from having larger classes (and hence fewer teachers). These savings can be achieved right now, in the current high schools without the disruption of these two schools which are located in the heart of the neighborhoods. Moreover, I am not suggesting that we do this in absence of a plan that includes working closely with the union groups, decreasing staff through attrition whenever possible and offering incentives.
16. Right sizing is going to require time and planning so that we do it right the first time.
17. The citizens of the Woodruff community and other supporters have expressed their willingness to pitch in to help us.
    
    Finally, perhaps we should take advantage of the benefit of the HB0217 that is an act that amends the property tax code to allow a certain area to be named a special service area.
18. 35 ILCS 200/27-60 provides that the corporate authorities for a municipality that establishes a special services area may petition the circuit court to make the Woodruff community a special service area. This could bring in the immediate revenue needed to provide the time needed to address the right sizing of the District as well as time to develop a sustainable plan for District 150’s future health.

This plan makes a lot of sense. Of the plans I’ve heard so far to fix District 150’s budget woes, I like this one the best. It’s worth some serious consideration. I especially like items 1, 2, 3, 11, and 12 because they deal directly with many of the issues on which District 150 has received the most criticism.