It will come as no surprise to anyone that I’m endorsing Beth Akeson for the District 150 Board of Education. I serve with her on the Heart of Peoria Commission and have seen first-hand how she works with a team of people toward a common goal.

Akeson does a lot of research. She’s relentless in educating herself about topics on which she needs to make a decision both through written materials and personal interviews. She is committed to getting public input before making decisions. That’s important, since the current school board has a habit of making poorly-researched decisions first and then getting public “input,” which they summarily ignore anyway.

Perhaps most importantly, she believes we need to raise the expectations of children in our education system. It’s not enough for the district to make “adequate yearly progress” its goal. District 150 needs to aim higher than minimum standards. And that’s what being on the school board is all about — the children. The school board should be doing everything it can to facilitate educational excellence (not just adequacy) for all students.

I’m confident Beth Akeson will be an excellent addition to the school board. She’s strongly endorsed.

Rachael Parker works for the City of Peoria in economic development. While we all recognize that the city and the school board are two completely separate governmental entities, they are nevertheless interdependent. They both draw from the same tax base, so the health and success of each body depends in large part on the health and success of the other. With that backdrop, I believe Parker would be an asset on the school board to help foster understanding between the two bodies.

Parker is also a proponent of inclusive decision-making. It’s sad that the school board has such a bad reputation in the area of listening to the community that this is such a big campaign issue. But the fact is, it is a big issue. We need people on the board who will really listen to the people whom they are representing and treat them with respect. Parker will do that.

She’s also a proponent of vocational education. I believe vocational education is important whether students are able to go to college or not. It teaches job skills and attitudes that students can begin using immediately in their summer jobs as they’re just beginning to enter the workforce and build their resume.

Finally, Parker (as well as Akeson, for that matter) understands that the Board of Education sets policy, vision, and direction for the school district and then lets the superintendent carry it out. Currently, the board appears to be led by Mr. Hinton. Getting the chain of command righted and having the school board do the leading will do wonders for improving District 150.

The rest of the candidates

It was a little tough coming up with endorsements since there was such a good pool of candidates this time around. It was a toss-up for me between Parker and Bill O’Brien, but I gave the edge to Parker for her city connections and because she would bring more diversity to the board. I feel that Linda Butler is what I would call a “status-quo” candidate. That is, I feel her platform is in line with what the current school board is already doing. She’s the only candidate who has continued to support the Glen Oak Park site for an East Bluff school.

As for the embattled Alicia Butler, I’ve maintained all along that if the controversy surrounding her honesty and integrity were not cleared up before the election, then I can’t in good conscience endorse her. If she is able to clear her name after the election, she can always run again the next time around. But it’s too much for me to believe that this is some sort of vast political conspiracy involving both the Journal Star and Bradley University to remove her from the board and ruin her life.

There’s a logical principle that the simplest explanation tends to be the correct one, and in this case the simplest explanation is that Alicia fudged her resume and is trying to cover up her mistake. I’ll give her credit for chutzpah, but I’m afraid I can’t give her my vote.