Little new was discussed at last night’s community forum on where to locate District 150’s planned new school(s). But I had to chuckle when district treasurer Guy Cahill explained why the existing buildings couldn’t be fixed up. He said that the buildings had been evaluated and determined to cost more to repair than to replace (although I believe those estimates are suspect), so the Illinois State Board of Education will not allow tax money to be spent fixing up the buildings in order to protect the taxpayers’ interests.
Of course, the reason the buildings are in disrepair is because of the poor maintenance the school district has done. That didn’t protect the taxpayers’ insterests.
The district spent $877,500 on properties on Prospect Road that it can’t use, doesn’t need, and won’t sell off — with taxpayer money. That didn’t protect the taxpayers’ insterests.
Senate Bill 2477 was recently passed by the state at District 150’s behest and will allow the school board to raise taxes for new school construction without a referendum via the Public Building Commission. That — by definition — doesn’t protect the taxpayers’ interests.
But now, we’re supposed to believe that consolidating three older neighborhood schools into a big, new, consolidated school is in the taxpayers’ interests — that it will be better “both financially and educationally,” according to school board president David Gorenz. From listening to the community forums, it doesn’t sound like the community believes it.
Although the last time we communicated, you suggested that a fight was in order, I would be interested in your reaction to the following. In my opinion, another serious Dist 150 problem is the fact that they do not really need to nor can they afford to operate four high schools. What if the Woodruff High kids were integrated into Central, and the Woodruff building was transformed into a fifth thru eighth grade middle school. Then the district could perhaps build two smaller pre-school thru fourth grade neighborhood community schools. It disturbes me to think that the proposal is to have a single very large facility with pre-school thru eighth graders in the same facility. That doesn’t really seem to be focused on maximizing the educational opportunity for students. Remember, it’s all about the kids, right.
repairing an old building (pre-1950, at least) is almost always cheaper, and you get a better result because the old building is better built than any new one. Problem is, you can’t give out as much taxpayer money to your buddies in the construction industry, I suppose. And there’s always resistance to renaming an old building for yourself (not so much of a problem if you are buidling a new building to name after yourself). But I forgot, the older buildings are designed as schools, and new ones are designed more like prisons.
Getting too old, I guess, you start to forget things that matter to the decision makers.
The only thing that stopped the school board and school disrict from going forward with the school-in-the-park plan was the park district. They still haven’t sold the property they bought for that – what’s the hurry? They can have a public forum every week – call me a cynic – but they will do what they want to do.
Kat — I meant that “fight” comment tongue-in-cheek, of course. 🙂
I haven’t really researched whether Peoria needs to downsize the high schools, so I don’t have an opinion either way on that at this time. But I will say this: if one high school needs to go, Woodruff would be the most logical one to close, at least geographically. The other three high schools are well-spaced throughout the city, but Woodruff overlaps a lot of Central’s area and is kind of a misfit. Interestingly, that fact has been recognized for over 50 years — educational consultants hired by the school district have been saying that about Woodruff since shortly after it was built.
I personally don’t have a problem with the K-8 concept. I suppose that’s because when I went to school in District 150, that’s the way it was. All the elementary schools were K-8. That said, I’m not opposed to a primary/middle school model either.
If a high school needed to be closed, turning Woodruff into a junior high might not be a bad idea. It’s definitely worth considering. And it would certainly be better than the current plan.
Kohlrabi — Indeed, the fact that they’re holding on to those properties leads many to believe the school board hasn’t really taken that option off the table, even though they say they have. One sure way to show the public they are abandoning that site would be to sell as many houses as they can. Not only would that be a gesture of good faith, but it would also give them more money for property acquisition at another site.
Turning Woodruff into a middle school would make it immediately adjacent to another relatively new middle school – I think it’s Lincoln – what would go in there?
Good question, kohlrabi.
Here’s the study I talked about in an earlier comment. You can look this up yourself in the reference section at the Peoria Public Library. It’s called A Comprehensive Survey and Building Program with Reference to Education, School District 150, Peoria, IL, developed by J. Fletcher Lankton, John N. Ziegle, Architects, Engineers. The year: 1945. From page 6:
There’s nothing new under the sun, is there?
You people want to close Woodruff rather than Peoria High? Compare the facilities, the kids who go there, the activities, the athletics-just exchange Principals and you have it solved.
CJ: The school concept has reported as K-8 then Birth-8 and recently K-8 … what type of school has been presented at these forums? K-8 or Birth-8?
With the housing market in the condition it is today District 150 is not going to get its money out of the Prospect Rd properties if they try to sell now. So the taxpayer will lose again.
SD: Better to sell now and at least give the appearance that D150 has actually taken the GOP site off the table. Also, if the housing market continues lower, then even more taxpayer dollars willl be lost. One would think that D150 would take every available step to repair image ….
Oh, exactly when did the D150 Board approve in a public meeting that all the funding for Harrison School was to be through the PBC (per today’s PJStar article)?
District 150 will not get the money they paid out of the properties because they overpaid for them. Such a rush to build the school in the park. The condition of the real estate market is down but it sounds like a convenient excuse for D150 holding on to the houses. They need to sell them now – maintenance obviously isn’t their forte -and the properties will lose even more value if it’s up to D150 to maintain them.
We have a two sided coin here. If they do as suggested and sell now it is supposed to save money and maintenance in a low selling market, perchance it goes lower. The other side of the coin is when things get down like the housing market is now, we should not panic and start selling in fear it will go lower. It might, but it will also come back. The key to investment is to know when to keep something and wait for it to come back in value and get your money back, plus more. Panic does nothing but create more panic and more losses. We’re already in this hole with these properties, lets don’t make it worse by panic selling.
Kohlrabi — I agree with you that with D150’s maintenance record, best to sell now while there is some value left in the houses. Anyone know how many of the houses are occupied by D150 teachers or was that plan changed too?
Karrie, one thing I’ve noticed about 150: They don’t give a crap about the public’s opinion of them. They’re going to do what they want, when they want, taxpayers be damned.
RomanII – don’t think we said we wanted to close Woodruff as a HS, just said it ought to be considered, and here’s why, it’s pretty much well accepted that the Dist 150 School Board will never have the “kahunas” to propose closing down Central, what with it’s alumni and history as the oldest High School west of the Allegany Mtns. So if Central is untouchable, then the only other option if Woodruff.
Kohlrabi – man, I use to love you when I was a kid, fresh out of Mom’s garden, what a great snack. Well couln’t the relatively new Lincoln facility be made into a pre-school thru 4th grade facility if Woodruff became the 5th thru 8th grade middle school? ? ? Maybe then you’d only have to build on other pre-school thru 4th grade facililty and you’d be able to resolve the student population issues CJ discusses on his more recent post.