All posts by C. J. Summers

I am a fourth-generation Peorian, married with three children.
Peoria Mayor, Peoria Public Schools

Ardis asks Sec. Duncan for help for D150

28 Comments

Arne DuncanFrom the Journal Star:

Mayor Jim Ardis said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is pledging his department’s assistance to help Peoria turn around its schools…. Ardis, along with Lee Graves, CEO and president of ELM Group, and former state Sen. George Shadid made a whirlwind visit to Washington, D.C., this week, meeting with Duncan, a former CEO of Chicago Public Schools who once served under CEO Paul Vallas….

There’s no easy answer, Ardis admitted, noting that Duncan believed it will take a combination of Race to the Top, strong emphasis on charter schools and performance-based teaching as well as more municipal involvement to get poorly performing school districts headed in the right direction….

Ardis said he wanted to find out what’s available and what Duncan would recommend for improving school performance.

“We haven’t seen any movement by this board or past boards to go out on their own initiative to speak to with the secretary of education, or anyone else,” he said.

A couple things about this story:

First, kudos to Mayor Ardis for taking initiative and doing what he can to help District 150. It’s unfortunate that his past efforts (to bring in Paul Vallas for some consulting advice) have been rebuffed by District 150 administrators and board members. The district should be welcoming the mayor’s overtures.

Second, Secretary Duncan’s reported response is interesting: “…it will take a combination of Race to the Top [additional federal funds allocated to school districts through state governors], strong emphasis on charter schools and performance-based teaching [emphasis added] as well as more municipal involvement to get poorly performing school districts headed in the right direction….” Doesn’t this sound like the Secretary is implicitly suggesting union-busting? Performance-based teaching is a repudiation of the tenure system, and charter schools can hire teachers who are not union represented.

Well, as it turns out, teachers are catching the same vibe. In a speech to the National Education Association (NEA) in July, Education Week reported that Duncan said “[t]eachers’ unions must be willing to reconsider seniority provisions, rework tenure provisions, and work with districts to create fair ways of incorporating student-achievement growth in teacher evaluation and compensation.” As you might expect, this wasn’t well-received by teachers:

Delegates applauded Mr. Duncan’s calls for continued federal funding for education, better training for administrators, and for improved teacher-mentoring experiences. But in an indication of the challenges that the federal government will face as it pushes for reforms to compensation and evaluation, they booed and hissed through those parts of Mr. Duncan’s address.

Booed and hissed! And here I thought incivility was invented by Rep. Joe Wilson just a few weeks ago. Imagine teachers booing and hissing (the hissing is what really gets me) the Secretary of Education during a speech. One more quote from the Education Week article: “‘Quite frankly, merit pay is union-busting,’ said another delegate, to applause from her peers.”

So, my guess is that District 150 will have a similar reaction. They will likely embrace efforts to capture more federal dollars through the Race to the Top Fund, but efforts to implement performance-based teaching initiatives will be rebuffed in teacher contract negotiations. Realistically, that would mean Peoria would receive no benefit because the Race to the Top dollars are tied to just the kinds of reforms teachers unions find objectionable. As for charter schools, the only one proposed recently — the Math, Science, and Technology Academy — has yet to have its charter authorized by District 150.

However, teachers will be happy to hear that Duncan is no fan of No Child Left Behind. Here’s his assessment, according to a recent report from ABC News:

“It unfairly labeled many schools as failures even when they were making progress,” he said. “It places too much emphasis on raw test scores rather than student growth. And it is overly prescriptive in some ways while it is too blunt an instrument of reform in others.

“But the biggest problem with NCLB,” he added, “is that it doesn’t encourage high learning standards. In fact, it inadvertently encourages states to lower them. The net effect is that we are lying to children and parents by telling kids they are succeeding when they are not.”

That’s certainly been true in District 150, as recent changes to the district’s grading scale can attest.

City Council, City of Peoria

Liveblogging the City Council 9/22/2009

5 Comments

It’s Tuesday evening, and time for another Peoria City Council meeting. I’m coming to you live from Peoria City Hall, Council Chambers. I’ll be updating this post throughout the evening, so refresh often.

Absent tonight are Mayor Ardis and 5th District councilman Dan Irving. Mayor Pro Tem is At-Large councilman Eric Turner.

Continue reading Liveblogging the City Council 9/22/2009 →

Peoria Public Schools

Surprise! Shuttering high school may not save as much as we thought

65 Comments

Here’s part of Laura Petelle’s rationale for voting to close a high school:

These planned 43 staff reductions will total approximately $2.7 million in savings. [emphasis added]

An additional $800,000-$900,000 in savings may be realized by shuttering a building for the year and not paying operating costs (operating costs are somewhat, but not astronomically, higher at Woodruff than at Peoria High).

These are lower-end estimates. [emphasis added] There may be more job cuts to be found, and there may be more savings from those initial 43 cuts. May.

Now, I’m not trying to pick on Laura. Lord knows she does her homework. She did more due diligence and was more transparent about her justification than any other board member now or in recent memory.

But imagine my surprise last night when I heard on the news that closing a high school would save “$1.5 to $2.7 million.” I could hardly believe my ears. I wasn’t home to watch the meeting, but I taped it, so I pulled out the tape of the meeting and, sure enough, there was Superintendent Ken Hinton saying that closing Woodruff would save “$1.5 to $2.7 million.”

I’ve been following this issue pretty closely lately, and I can tell you that I never heard an estimate lower than $2.7 million. Maybe they said it before, since I don’t hear everything. But I don’t remember it. And considering that Laura — who’s on the board — said that $2.7 million was a “lower-end estimate” just a week before the vote, I’m inclined to say that this new range of figures is brand new information, brought forth at the last moment from Mr. Hinton.

This raises several questions, none of which are very comfortable:

  1. How are these numbers derived? That’s a huge range. The difference between $1.5 and $2.7 million is $1.2 million.
  2. Why can’t the administration narrow down the savings more than that? Was it not based on 43 staff reductions as Laura’s blog post stated? What has changed?
  3. Is this an indication that Mr. Hinton has already started spending the projected savings (i.e., begun making plans to keep teachers/administrators on the payroll for other purposes), and is trying to mask it by lowering the savings estimate for closing the school?
  4. Would board members have been as inclined to close a school if they knew the savings might only be $1.5 million, or would they have looked for other cuts that total that amount (canceling the Edison contract gets you half way there instantly, for example)?
  5. Why wasn’t this new savings range made available sooner? Were the board members informed of the change in estimates before Hinton’s report Monday night?

This is the reason citizens don’t believe any numbers that come out of 3202 N. Wisconsin Ave. It always appears that the numbers are either (a) pulled out of a hat, or (b) deliberately manipulated to elicit the vote the administration desires. Or both.

Here’s one more question: Is anyone going to tabulate the actual savings next year after all is said and done to see if it matches the estimates? Considering they haven’t done that for any other school closing, my guess would be “no.”

State of Illinois

Illinois Senate redistricting hearing at noon today

3 Comments

From a press release:

PEORIA, IL— The Senate’s Redistricting Committee will meet Tuesday [Sept. 22] in Peoria to continue a series of subject-matter hearings regarding how Illinois should best approach its redistricting process. The hearing will include proposals for changing the current redistricting process in Illinois.

State Senator Kwame Raoul (D – Chicago) currently chairs the Senate’s Redistricting Committee. Amidst a fury of reform ideas on various subjects in the closing weeks of the legislative session, Raoul made it clear that the process – which only happens every 10 years – needed to be addressed free of distractions in a comprehensive manner. Since that time, Raoul has convened a series of subject matter hearings, with his fellow committee members, to take on this unique subject.

“Thus far committee members have learned new information about how redistricting processes across the country are conducted,” Raoul said. “This further proves the need for a comprehensive review.”

With all of the myths and spin regarding the upcoming redistricting process, Raoul aimed the first meeting of the committee at informing legislators and the public on the basics of the redistricting process. The hearing included an overview of the history of Illinois redistricting, census data and the legal requirements for redistricting.

The second hearing of the committee included an overview of redistricting legal principles and requirements. The hearing also included testimony on a review of the redistricting process in other states.

“We need to approach this in a workman-like manner. We need to be intellectually honest and try to do the best thing for the state,” Don Harmon, a member of the Senate’s leadership said.

Despite an ongoing push for a constitutional amendment to be voted on hastily, Raoul and Harmon remain steady to their commitment for a comprehensive review.

“We need to remember that some of today’s critics were yesterday’s cheerleaders, when they were in the majority and controlled the redistricting process. We need to be mindful that we don’t rush into a reform that’s not really reform but instead simply rearranges partisan advantages,” Harmon added.

During the last redistricting process, Senate Republicans were responsible for legislative maps which have drawn criticism from those familiar with the process. These districts include the obscure 17th Congressional District map which was sponsored by Senator Kirk Dillard, a Republican from Hindsdale.

Dillard now joins his fellow Republican colleagues Dale Righter, J. Bradley Burzynski and Dan Rutherford as they attempt to fix the gerrymandered maps they created during the last redistricting process.

An agenda was included with the press release, but it was in the form of an encrypted PDF file that doesn’t allow you to copy the text and paste it into another document or post. Also, did you notice that the press release doesn’t say where or what time the meeting will be held? All we know is that it’s today in Peoria. Helpful. If that’s any indication of the competence of these people to execute redistricting in Illinois, heaven help us.

The meeting is at noon in the Hartmann Center Theatre, Bradley University, 1453 St. James.

Peoria Public Schools

D150: Woodruff to be closed

61 Comments

The Peoria Public Schools Board of Education voted tonight 4-3 to close Woodruff High School at the end of this school year. Voting in favor of closing Woodruff were Board President Debbie Wolfmeyer, Linda Butler, David Gorenz, and Laura Petelle. Voting against were Rachael Parker, Martha Ross, and Jim Stowell.

What started in 1903 as Averyville High School was later renamed Kingman High School, then E. N. Woodruff High School. Averyville was annexed into Peoria in 1928, and a new building was erected at 1800 NE Perry in 1937. That was the year it was named after Edward Nelson Woodruff, who served as Peoria’s mayor for eleven terms. (Sources: Reading, Writing, and Religion by Monica Vest Wheeler; Woodruff High School website; Wikipedia)

Peoria Public Schools

Monday is the day of decision for District 150

37 Comments

Monday night, school board members will vote to close a high school. Two possibilities are on the agenda:

13. CLOSING OF WOODRUFF HIGH SCHOOL – Hinton
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education approve the closure of Woodruff High School effective at the end of the 2009 – 2010 school year.

14. CLOSING OF PEORIA HIGH SCHOOL –
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education approve the closure of Peoria High School effective at the end of the 2009 – 2010 school year.

There’s no telling what will ultimately be decided. Closing Woodruff is the administration’s recommendation, and the one that has been on the table the longest. It lacks an implementation plan. Closing Peoria High is an idea that was formally suggested for the first time last Monday night by board member Jim Stowell. It also lacks an implementation plan.

Adding more intrigue is the fact that the two closings are listed separately on the agenda, meaning that, theoretically, both schools or neither school could end up being closed. The odds of both schools being closed is practically zero, but there is a real possibility that neither school could get the necessary four votes in favor of closing. That outcome would leave everyone in limbo, since there is no Plan B for plugging the budget deficit.

For those who are placing bets, everyone tells me that the most likely outcome is that Woodruff will be closed.

Peoria County

Alas, poor Urich

6 Comments

I’ve been waiting for an excuse to use that headline. Today, I have one.

Journal Star county beat and occasional society reporter Karen McDonald writes in Monday’s “Word on the Street” column that County Administrator Patrick Urich is under scrutiny by some County Board members, “amid growing concerns of lagging communication and issues related to the museum, Bel-Wood Nursing Home and the deficit budget.”

“I think we need better communication. We need to tackle these problems. We need to build better policy,” said board member Mike Phelan…. “It seems like the board isn’t fully informed at all times about what’s going on,” board member Pat Hidden said. “It was my understanding that the County Board made the rules and we were his boss. Maybe I was wrong. It’s like the County Board is just puppets now.”

Board members now want to do a formal performance evaluation of Mr. Urich. My guess is that he’ll come through it with flying colors. In fact, board members might just discover a new-found appreciation for the job he does. It will also give disgruntled board members a chance to explain the reason for their displeasure with Urich’s performance, and give him the opportunity to mend those relationships.

I don’t always agree on policy with Patrick, who also happens to be my neighbor, but I’ve always found him to be candid, professional, affable, and accessible. We’ve sparred quite a bit over issues involving the proposed downtown museum (which is still underfunded, by the way), but our disagreements have never gotten personal. My guess this is just a misunderstanding among some board members and it will all get worked out once they get a chance to sit down and discuss it with Patrick.

Peoria Public Schools

D150: Failing students get scores artificially boosted

30 Comments

Part of the new grading scale at District 150 this year includes this directive:

If a student puts forth the effort and completes an assignment but receives less than 50%, the grade shall be recorded as 50%.

This means that when a student earns a low score, he receives a higher score. It means that if a student takes a quiz with ten questions on it, and he only gets two questions right, he’ll essentially be credited with getting five questions right. He didn’t really get five questions right, but we’re going to put it on the books that he did. We’re going to lie about his achievement. Call it what you want, justify it as you will, the bottom line is the district has now made it a policy that teachers must lie about their students’ achievement if that student earns a grade less than 50%.

It’s hard to fathom how a group of educational experts could come up with such a system — a system that gives credit where credit isn’t due — and defend it. The justifications I’ve heard for this policy seem to indicate that the most important thing in education is not actually learning (or, God-forbid, mastering) the material. Instead, the most important thing is to maintain a child’s self-esteem and motivation to learn. Getting low scores reduces the child’s self-esteem and lessens their motivation to learn. Hence, the solution is to artificially eliminate the lowest scores.

Did you see that? The blame is placed on the scoring, not on the performance. If we can just fix the scores, then we’ve solved the problem! That’s like seeing the check engine light go on in your car, taking the bulb out so it doesn’t light up anymore, and thinking you’ve fixed your engine.

One of the things that lowers a student’s motivation, they say, is if he somehow misses a big assignment (earning a “0”) or really blows it on a test (earning a very low score), and discovers that it will be mathematically challenging to bring his semester average up as a result. Now, back in the educational dark ages when I was a child, that student could dig himself out of that hole by doing extra-credit assignments to bring up his overall grade. That is, he could do extra work to earn that higher grade. But in our more enlightened era, educational experts have determined that it’s better to just give the student credit he didn’t earn instead — and you’re just an old fuddy-duddy who probably favors nuns rapping students’ knuckles with a ruler if you believe in those old, hackneyed values of earning the grade.

I’m surprised the district didn’t just decide that 60% would be the lowest grade attainable — 60 being the new passing-grade cutoff. After all, under the new grading system, it’s still possible (albeit difficult) for a child to fail. Why not remove the possibility completely? Instead of giving out failing grades for failing work (and risk demotivating the students), why not just declare that all work (or even no work) is passable? Imagine how happy (and presumably motivated) our school kids will be then!

I probably shouldn’t have suggested it. The district just might do it.

Peoria Public Schools

D150: That’s one way to improve scores

42 Comments

Get ready for student achievement to improve this year — not because the kids are actually performing any better, but because District 150 has decided to lower the grading standards. For decades, the school has employed the traditional scale:

A = 93 – 100
B = 86 – 92
C = 77 – 85
D = 70 – 76
F = 0 – 69

Starting this fall, they switched to this scale:

A = 90 – 100
B = 80 – 89
C = 70 – 79
D = 60 – 69
F = 50* – 59

*Note: The student handbook says an “F” is 40-59, but a handout I recently received from the teachers said 50-59. Either way, it’s unclear to me why it wouldn’t be 0-59. What grade is it if the student earns something less than 40 or 50? Is it not still an “F”?

Obviously, this new scale makes it significantly easier to get higher letter grades, which are the only ones that go on the student’s permanent record and make up his or her grade-point average. It means that students who do work in the 60-69 range will now receive passing grades instead of failing grades. And it also means that District 150 scores will look inflated when compared to other area school districts. Here are elementary school grading scales for some surrounding communities (based on grading scales published on their school websites):

Grade Dunlap Morton G’town Hills
A 92-100 93-100 94-100
B 84-91 85-92 86-93
C 74-83 77-84 76-85
D 66-73 70-76 70-75
F 0-65 0-69 0-69

I’ve searched the school board minutes for some mention of this change to the grading scale and have yet to find it. I’m not the only one who was surprised. The teachers I talked to said they found out about it the first day of school via memo. Furthermore, the teachers I spoke with said they are not in favor of the easier grading scale, nor were they consulted.

So, the question is, when was this decision made, and why?

City of Peoria, Peoria Mayor

Mayor Ardis asks for feedback on budget

5 Comments

I received this yesterday but haven’t had a chance to post it until today:

September 15, 2009

As many of you know, the City Council has been wrestling with our 2010 budget for several months now. We have been working to balance the City’s budget like you have to balance yours……. Identifying needs vs. wants and being more efficient with the income you have available. During this challenging economic situation, the process has not been easy.

To this point, the City Council has already trimmed over $8.5 million dollars from next years budget. If sales tax revenue continues to come in below our expectations, it may be necessary to trim another $4 to $5 million to balance our budget. We’ve made significant reductions in our operating budget next year and identified over 40 positions that will not be filled throughout all city departments, including police and fire. In the coming weeks, we may find it necessary to lay off 20-30 more employees. This all equates to a drastic cut in service to our constituent taxpayers.

During this process we have focused on being open and transparent. With this in mind I’d like to solicit your input as we move towards making final decisions on next years budget. This will not be a scientific poll by any stretch, but an opportunity to provide me with your thoughts on a few budget related questions. I will share your responses with the rest of the City Council and the City Manager.

These are tough times but I am confident the City Council will make the right decisions to get us through this with the least amount of additional cost to you. And we hope to get this done with the least amount of job losses possible. Thank you for taking the time to respond. Feel free to pass this on to other concerned citizens.

Please click here to take this short, 3-question survey

Jim Ardis