The city council approved a “memorandum of understanding” between the Renaissance Park Commission and District 150 school board “in order to research and develop a project proposal for a math, science and technology academy for Renaissance Park.”

This was an easy thing to vote on, frankly, since there is no financial obligation to any of the parties involved. It just says that they’re all in agreement on the goal. There was a lot of love to go around, and only one minor controversy.

That controversy was the last three words of the action requested: “for Renaissance Park.” Gary Sandberg objected to this wording because he felt it was a “hard boundary” that was unnecessary. He suggested that Peoria Central High School would be a good location to house a math/science academy, even though it’s not within the boundaries of Renaissance Park.

Van Auken amended her motion to strike the last three words of the action requested, and the motion passed unanimously.

Grayeb had a good point during the discussion of this item. He cautioned against focusing too much on science and technology in the younger grades because grade school children need a more balanced, liberal education, including history, social studies/government, literature, handwriting, etc. He felt the upper grades were the time to gear curriculum more heavily toward math, science and technology.

And, he had a little zing for the Journal Star. He intoned through his usual Tuesday-night grimace, “We have an excellent school district despite cartoons that appear in our monopoly newspaper.” Ha! Look out, Journal Star — he may ask the council to look into buying out the city’s newspaper of record. It’s owned by out-of-state investors, you know.

Just before the council voted, Gulley expressed concern about the school being built within Ren Park. Apparently he fell asleep during the first 15 minutes of the discussion when the council addressed that issue. Even the usually unflappable Ardis sounded exasperated as he explained to Gulley the council already talked about that, and quickly called for the vote.