District 150 has hired yet another consultant.
Jeanne Williamson, an assistant superintendent of school operations at District 150 before she left in 2002 to become superintendent of Dunlap School District 323, was hired as a consultant. She retired from District 323 at the end of June.
Williamson’s job will be to devise a plan to reconfigure the district’s high schools, board President Debbie Wolfmeyer said. […]
Williamson is to be paid $350 per day up to a maximum of 120 days.
Given the number of administrators and consultants already on District 150’s staff, is there honestly no one in house who can do this job? Like, for instance, Ken Hinton?
Hat tip: MiddleAgedWomanBlogging
It makes perfect sense to hire a consultant. If the resulting plan doesn’t work out, it’s the consultant’s fault.
mdd beat me to it! It’s called “risk reduction” or, Better to destroy someone else’s career and reputation than one’s own!
$42,000 !?!?!?!?!?! for 6 months …????
Are you kidding? Let me recheck my calculator…. GASP! Good thing she is retired or she couldn’t afford to take the job… (insert sarcastic smilie, here)
Those that can’t do… hire consultants.
Please, and I mean this sincerely… Hinton and the other administration at District 150, School Board members and the rest of you idiots swinging blindly in the dark trying to fix an impossibly broken system…
JUST STOP! STOP DOING ANY MORE DAMAGE! Walk away, retire, go someplace else… Florida, Arizona, South of France (you can afford it now). Just get the hell out of the lives of children of Peoria. You have done enough damage.
Uhhhmm………………………..
kcdad said “idiots.”
Does that mean I am going to have to make room up on the cross for him?
scoot on over…
For one percent of the combined consultant’s wages for the past five years I could live very happily.
What does Hinton get paid to do anyway? Spend money or does he hire consultants to do that also?
I’m trying to figure out why Williamson would be considered an expert in redistricting 150 school boundaries. I think there are areas of Peoria that she knows nothing about. She did live in Peoria–I believe, on one of the brick streets that seem to be in West Peoria but aren’t. I believe she left to avoid a Peoria school for her high school children. How many years total did she spend as a 150 employee? Of course, any boundary changes will probably be an attempt to place more students at Manual. I hope all parents know that Manual no longer follows the District 150 curriculum. Reducing all academic courses from one year to one semester certainly is a warning sign that Manual is no longer a good place for college-bound students. I contend that up until this change, college-bound students did receive a good education at Manual.
kcdad, you must be a multi-millionaire! How many people have bought into your educational plan? You seem to have all the answers. As for the South of France, I’ve been there… When you are willing to pay to have all of my furniture shipped, please let me know!
And CJ, thanks for the hat-tip!!
MiddleAgedWomanBlogging,
Really though, kcdad may be a little ruff around the edges, but what part of his last post do you have a problem with?
Is he wrong?
The time and money spent [wasted] by Dist 150 is downright criminal.
WHO DO YOU HOLD ACCOUNTABLE?!?!?
Do you really believe Hinton & Co. deserve to make the kind of money they do?!?
The time for tough-love is over.
I can’t believe there isn’t some administrator over there that can handle the re-districting issue w/o hiring yet another consultant. Those consultants are really raking the dough in … collecting their pensions and drawing a huge salary in addition. Yes, consulting happens everywhere … but do we really have the $$$ for it? Where are the priorities here?
They keep saying they’re putting the kids first … seems like kids and parents are the last thing they think about. I especially appreciated the comment from a gentleman at last night’s Board Meeting stating that the Board Members should begin thinking more like parents FIRST. If they followed this advice, I would imagine “plans” would be much better thought out, communication with teachers and the public would improve drastically (this has ALWAYS been one of 150’s biggest problems), and the decisions they make would truly illustrate that they are, indeed, putting children FIRST. What a mess we have over on Wisconsin.
Can the public ask Hinton to resign? He is paid by our tax dollars, why isn’t anyone asking him to step down?
What I don’t get is why the district says they don’t have enough money to pay the teachers a decent salary and yet they can, somehow, mysteriously, magically, create money to rehire retirees as consultants. Yeah, they are in the business of educating our children. Excuse me while I consider homeschooling my kids, yet again! As far as I am concerned, the school board and the administration are all about their “hidden” agendas and padding their retirement pension funds and current bank accounts.
And yet, I still want to teach these students. I guess my passion is stronger than their stupidity.
last time I looked the teachers were making a decent salary.
http://petelle150.wordpress.com/board-of-education-info/
The above link is to Laura Petelle’s blog page.
It is specifically for Dist. 150.
Considering posting some of these comments there.
Thanks for the reminder JV.
Peoriafan—they make an OK salary (at least, the ones that have a few years of experience), but it is nothing compared to what King Ken makes, or his posse.
Mary Davis is STILL drawing a paycheck and has an integral part in the curriculum and teacher placement of D150.
I owe Kcdad an apology (yikes! did I just say that) I read his comments so fast this morning I thought he wanted those of us who were complaining about 150 to move… duh!
MAWB: Did you have a point you were trying to make? What exactly do you disagree with?
1) That the administration has been trying to fix the same problem for more than 20 years?
2) That they have failed?
3) That we would be better without them?
4) That they have taken enough money out of the system to afford to retire comfortably? (with little or no results to show for their “work”)
Or are you just raising the “establishment” flag again?
As to how many “bought into” my plan…
here’s a short list:
Jonathon Kozol
John Taylor Gatto
John Holt
John Dewey
Michael Apple
Paulo Freire
Frank Smith
Jill Bloom
Michael Katz
Allan Bloom
That’s just some of the authors on my shelf proposing a rethinking of our educational philosophy.
Perhaps this quote will ring in your psyche somewhere:
The purpose of education should not be to make carpenters out of men but men out of carpenters.
or this:
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
So… MAWB… you DON’T disagree with what I wrote? Why not?
Kcdad: Did you forget John Stuart Mill?
Sharon:???? I don’t think I have ever read anything by that philosopher.
“$42,000 !?!?!?!?!?! for 6 months …????
Are you kidding? Let me recheck my calculator…. GASP! Good thing she is retired or she couldn’t afford to take the job… (insert sarcastic smilie, here)
Those that can’t do… hire consultants.
Please, and I mean this sincerely… Hinton and the other administration at District 150, School Board members and the rest of you idiots swinging blindly in the dark trying to fix an impossibly broken system…
JUST STOP! STOP DOING ANY MORE DAMAGE! Walk away, retire, go someplace else… Florida, Arizona, South of France (you can afford it now). Just get the hell out of the lives of children of Peoria. You have done enough damage.”
I agree with all of this….. I misread it the first time. Enough damage has been done! Shorter days, monies misspent, too many consultants, lawsuits, people hired that don’t seem to know what they are doing… the list goes on…. and on.
Someone on the inside should write a book…..
I believe that reading John Stuart Mill’s book about utilitarianism (in college) is the first time I ever thought about the ultimate purpose of education–which I believe is very much the same as “making men out of carpenters.” I certainly don’t disagree with you about the ultimate goal of education. However, I believe that is a very idealistic goal and not the only goal of education–but certainly a very important one.
Kcdad: There is a good chance that I have oversimplified or even misinterpreted Mill’s philosophy. I think the last time I read Mills was when I was 20 years old. Memory may not have served me well. He may or may not have espoused the “making men out of carpenters” philosophy, but that’s how I incorporated his views into my thinking.
What if this “professional” dedicates 10-12 hrs a day in order to correct past admin. misstakes and brings about a successful resolution (maybe not even close to the current plan) to this tremendous task/challenge. Is that not worth $30-$35 per hour? What are the other “plans” anyway? Could they be shared here?
What if???? Good joke. What’s the punch line?
Is that quote about carpenters from W.E.B. DuBois?
Kcdad: I don’t know–that was your quote. I’ve never heard it before but it does contain an obvious truth.
What the hell are you people talking about?
MiddleAgedWomanBlogging,
I am not going to write a book about Dist 150, but I am trying to purchase the movie rights………….
wacko,
I think we are talking about you.
Whether it be District 150 or Ciivic Center or Museum ,or City Council, all they KNOW{nothing} is HIRE A Consultant! How many have done the Block??Maybe we should use an IQ test before we hire and ELECT ?? All you have to do is look at a map and where the population lives that have kids in grade school that are coming up thru the system{if they stay we don’t know} and balance it. It can be changed as need be.
What’s between their EARS?
Popijw: Better yet–let’s see how many (including all of us on this blog) could pass the 11th grade NCLB test. I think it’s time we all found out how really difficult that test is–maybe we would begin to wonder what NCLB is really trying to prove. The ACT test used to be given only to college prep kids–those who were pretty much guaranteed to pass it. I know that I used to laugh because the Illinois report card would say that 95% of Manual students passed the test–when maybe only 30 kids took it. Now the ACT is part of the NCLB testing–and all students, including special ed students, are expected to pass it.
Wacko: Sorry–Kcdad and I just took a philosophical detour.
“Whether it be District 150 or Ciivic Center or Museum ,or City Council, all they KNOW{nothing} is HIRE A Consultant!”
– The trick is to hire a consultant that tells you what you want to hear. Look at the museum.
CONSULTANT: “Build a museum and your local economy will grow, you will put people back to work, your children will [finally] get an education, this will put Peoria on the map, quality of life will shoot through the roof…………………………..”
“What do you think?”
PEORIA REGIONAL MUSEUM: “BOOM!” “Your hired!”
Perhaps we should be organizing a slate of parents to run for the school board the next time the elections come. I honestly think it needs to be parents of students in D 150 schools.
I am not a parent and I have know nothing about running schools, but obviously, neither does anyone on the board now.
I would be happy to sign a petition demanding the resignation of King Ken. Who is going to start it?
In earlier years it would have been me, but today I am employed by the district. No need to shoot the hand that feeds you, especially in this economy.
Hinton MUST GO!
NV: Sounds like Mr. Belvedere (Sitting Pretty) could easily write a Peoria version of “Hummingbird Hill”. Perhaps you can get the movie rights to that script! 😉
What we need is many, many more people to show up at board meetings just to sit or to speak. It is no wonder the board thinks that everyone agrees with them when they make their decisions in front of about 20 people, most of whom are regulars. Remember pobably none of them (except Jim) reads the blogs–and he isn’t allowed to respond any more.
Why is he not allowed to respond anymore? If he is giving accurate information and isn’t releasing private, personnel information, there should not be any problems. Laura has one.
Sharon – I disagree.There have been a lot of new faces speaking out at board meetings. I am very moved by what they say. Ben, it was parents who elected Laura to the school board. We can do it again with the Gorenz term. A big problem is that the terms are so staggered, and so long, it takes a lot of time to turn over an ineffective school board.
Diane–I agree that at the last two meetings, new people have been there–mostly, Woodruff employees (teachers, etc.) I am talking about the usual meetings–when there isn’t a hot topic–three meetings ago there were about 10 people in the audience. There just shouldn’t be any empty seats. Much more public pressure could convince even this board to be effective.
Am I correct in understanding that the public can come to the committee of the whole meeting next Monday when the closing of a high school will be discussed?
BAM: I’m sort of guessing about Jim, but I think he was doing a bit too much “negotiating” the teachers’ contract on the blog. Anyway he isn’t blogging, so there must be a reason. Yes, I will be curious to see how Laura fares with having her own blog.
Diane, P.S.–I still haven’t figured out why no Peoria High people are showing up at meetings or speaking out. Two meetings ago Simmons and Clark were there when the architect presented the possbile “repurposing” of Woodruff or PHS. Whichever school is closed PHS will be impacted; I just don’t understand why people from that community aren’t showing up. The vote could just as easily switch to PHS.
I am only speaking from my own experience-but many people are afraid to speak out or even be seen at the board meetings for fear of retaliation.
I agree about District 150 employees fearing retaliation. However, Woodruff teachers have been willing to speak–and they are setting themselves up for immediate retaliation because all of them will probably have to be reassigned–Manual comes to mind as a possible place for retaliation 🙂 . However, I don’t think the board is going to listen to teachers any way–when do they ever listen to teachers? I didn’t make myself clear–but I believe the public and parents are the ones who need to come to board meetings and to speak. The board (but especially the administration) would be more apt to listen to anyone but teachers.
Sharon – I had a Woodruff teacher in my office to discuss an alternate proposal today for over a half an hour today. He is both a respected teacher and parent of Dist. 150 students. Nice combination. We share many similar thoughts. The board listens. Some might not like my “mannerisms”. Sorry. Some who post here only listen if it is what they want to hear. Much of the reason I don’t post is the chronic misinformation, wrong insight into the actual dynamics that are going on, along with perpetually negative anonymous “voices” – some who still voice support for Royster – gets frustrating and tiresome. Change is afoot. I believe significant positive structural change is happening. Slow. Painfully slow, at times. Helping poverty stricken youth understand and continually act on the importance of becoming educated is one of our greatest obstacles. Come on down to the pancake breakfast @ Trewyn on Sept. 18th. @ 6:00 am. that I organize. We will be feeding close to 600 and always can use a hand or someone to personnally encourage the students. And yes, I am opinionated and need to learn to measure my words and responses. I’m working at it. By the way, Manual beat Central tonight in a benefit b-ball game at Central 102-94, despite Central playing four pros for much of the second half. Lots of fun and didn’t get injured. I hope CJ posts some of the various propsals here in the days ahead to facilitate broader discussion. With all candor, I do discount many of the anonymous posts, but I’m open to personal correspondence, calls, and e-mails. I don’t do facebook and I don’t know a tweet from the many twits. See, there I go……………..
Sharon, I went to a committee of the whole meeting a few months ago on the charter school and it was open to the public.
Jim, I just emailed you at your district website address. After I attended that meeting on the charter school, you were kind enuff to extend me an invitation to introduce myself at the next meeting. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend any meetings until just now, due to taking a few night courses that took place on Monday nights. I’m glad you extended the offer again.
That said, I can’t help but share this financial tidbit:
The 2008/9 school budget posted on the district website has at the end a special section comparing administrative costs for the budget compared to prior year. The budget is flat – 0% increase.
However, the total budget is $143,363,081 which is down from $161,209,034 shown on the 2008 school report card. That’s an 11% decrease in the budget, but admin costs are the same?
Sorry, Jim, I couldn’t help but question that one:) Oh, and I’d like to try and help with the pancake breakfast, but 6am!?!?! Way too early for late owls like me who stay up reading blogs.
Jim answered, but I was going to state that I have never had my posting on these boards questioned by anyone at PSD 150. So I didn’t think that Jim had been told that he couldn’t… he would be the one telling people not to..lol