All posts by C. J. Summers

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

D150 reports 123 administrators and four consultants

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As District 150 continues to struggle with their structural deficit, calls for cuts at the administration building have started coming up again. I thought it might help the discussion to have some hard numbers with which to work. So I requested some information on administrators and consultants from District 150 and would like to share the results with you and ask for your feedback.

Consultants

According to information obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, the district employs just four consultants:

 

Consultant Per Diem Rate
Dr. Cindy Fischer $350.00
Dr. Judy Helm $500.00
Mary Ann Randle $315.83
Dr. Thom Simpson $476.44

 

As of February 23, 2009, District 150 had compensated Dr. Fischer $7,525 for 21.5 days and reimbursed her $3,161.92 in expenses. These expenses were not specified in the report. Total paid for September through November 2008 was $10,686.92.

Dr. Judy Helm, who has her own business called Best Practices, Inc., has been compensated $21,750 for 43.5 days between July 2008 and January 2009, and has been reimbursed $167.91 for expenses. Total compensation since July 2008 is $21,917.91.

Mary Ann Randle’s salary is paid for by two grants: “PAS” and “Prevention Initiative.” No further information was given regarding either grant. Since July 2008, she has been paid $17,054.95 for 54 days and has been reimbursed $1,743 in expenses. Total compensation since July 2008 is $18,797.95.

Dr. Thom Simpson, whose job is listed on the district’s website as “Strategic Planning,” has his compensation split up into a base per diem rate of $455.90 and a 4.5% ($20.54/day) contribution to his Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (non-certified state pension program). Since July 2008, he has been compensated $63,128.30 for 132.5 days, plus $2,000 for a “mentor stipend.”

That’s it for consultants. If they were to all be eliminated, it would come to $116,531.08 in cost between July 2008 and the present, which covers about 7 months. To extrapolate this out to an annual figure, it comes out to roughly $200,000.

Administration

The list of administration staff includes 123 employees at a total payroll of $9,312,462.41. This includes 35 principals, 13 assistant principals, and 7 deans.

PDF Link Read the whole report (PDF file)

I found it interesting that school principals and assistant principals are some of the highest-paid administrators in District 150. Of the 23 employees making over $100,000 per year, 16 are principals or assistant principals. Other administrators making six figures are:

  • Superintendent Ken Hinton ($202,389.98)
  • Assistant Superintendent Cheryl Sanfilip ($135,927)
  • Controller/Treasurer Guy Cahill ($130,889.98) — has since left D150, of course; this information was current as of February 23
  • Associate Superintendent Herschel Hannah ($117,183)
  • Human Resources director Tom Broderick ($110,472.24)
  • Academic Officer Mary Davis ($110,000.08)
  • Research/Testing/Assessment director Bryan Chumbley ($100,092)
  • “Teaching and Learning” director Susan Grzanich ($100,000)

As I’ve pointed out before, District 150 used to have just one superintendent, and that was when enrollment was larger. It’s hard for me to understand why we need to pay three superintendents a combined total of $455,499.98 — nearly half a million dollars! — to do the same job now that enrollment is so low we’re closing schools right and left. In fairness, this amount has gone down since Dr. Fischer left (and was subsequently rehired as a consultant); we used to have four superintendents. Still, I don’t see the need to wait for all these positions to be eliminated through attrition.

Also, in looking up Susan Grzanich’s responsibilities (I was curious what the “Teaching and Learning” program was all about), I found my way to this web page, which shows that this program has a staff of eight people, only three of whom show up on the list of administrators I received (Grzanich of course, plus Kathy Burke [$88,755.83] and Trish Guinee [$93,557.07]). The other five people are all listed as having offices in the administration building, but are apparently not considered “administration,” despite titles such as “benchmark specialist” and “instructional restructuring advisor.” It makes you wonder just how many non-administrators are employed at District 150.

I would be interested in my readers’ thoughts on this information. My overall thought is this: there is some fat that can be trimmed from the administration side of the district’s operations. I don’t mean that to sound harsh; I honestly don’t want to see anyone lose their job, especially given the current economic downturn. But the sad fact is that jobs are going to be lost. The district is already talking about closing a high school, some elementary schools, and laying off no small number of teachers.

Given that fact, it’s hard to understand why we would nevertheless need to maintain the same number of highly-paid administrators to oversee that shrinking student and teacher base. I’m sure all these jobs have value, but cost-cutting/layoffs should start in the places that have the least student impact. I would suggest that assistant/associate superintendents arguably have the absolute least student impact.

City of Peoria, Peoria Public Schools

Glen Oak School Neighborhood Impact Zone adopted

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For those who think the City isn’t doing enough to support District 150 schools, take a look at the Neighborhood Impact Zone that was adopted as part of the Comprehensive Plan Tuesday night. This was a collaborative effort of the City, School District, neighbors surrounding Glen Oak School, and Tri-County Regional Planning, led by Third District Councilman Bob Manning and At-Large Councilman George Jacob. You can download a PDF of the zone/plan from the city’s website.

Here’s what I found most impressive: it includes measurement and follow-up. They’ve set incremental four-year goals for homeownership, crime reduction, neighborhood satisfaction, business retention, infrastructure improvement, community involvement, and education. They measured all these before the plan was adopted so they had a baseline from which to evaluate changes from year to year.

I hope that this type of planning effort is next applied to the area surrounding the new Harrison school, as it could certainly benefit from a focused effort to improve all the items on the measurement list.

Kudos to the City, which has really gone the extra mile to improve this area. Although I’m still disappointed that the school district felt it necessary to purchase (for $3.2 million) and tear down three blocks of housing stock, an historic school building, and local business structures in order to build a suburban-style mega-campus, I applaud the fact that at least they stayed centrally-located in the neighborhood and are willing to open up the campus and building as a community center.

Peoria Public Schools

More debt for District 150

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I heard about this late last night:

The School Board on Tuesday approved seeking $14 million in tax-anticipation warrants, amounting essentially to a short-term loan, and spending tax money – now some $30 million – usually reserved for next year’s operations.

“We don’t have cash on hand to pay bills in a timely fashion,” said Brock Butts, a former longtime Tremont school superintendent recently hired as District 150’s interim controller, citing “concerns” of meeting payroll next week….

“In the future, we are going to have to do one of three things,” [Interim Treasurer Norm] Durflinger said. “One, significantly cut expenditures; two, significantly increase revenues; and the most likely is the third, which is both.

Hello, higher taxes.

Museum Block, Peoria County

PI reports on latest county advocacy meeting

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I couldn’t make it to the latest museum advocacy meeting held at Bradley University Monday night. But PeoriaIllinoisan was there and turned in his own report. He doesn’t know it, but he’s a mighty fine citizen journalist. I found this particularly interesting:

One of the speakers pointed out that several fliers and information was available at the back of the room, which they were, and just to show that he was fair, he said a flier of a dissenting opinion was also there… it was… on another table was a small stack, blocked and shielded from view by a very enthusiastic Museum supporter who made snide remarks about Merle Widmer, Gary Sandberg, and anyone else who dared to question the “facts”.

Classy.

UPDATE: I’ve been told by another source that it was county board member Andrew Rand — not Richerson — who made the comment about the flyers. PI has corrected his report and that correction is reflected in the quote above.

City of Peoria

Liquor license moratorium proposed

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Proposed Liquor License Moratorium Area, March 2009On Tuesday night, the Peoria City Council will consider a request to place a three-year moratorium on new liquor licenses in a three-block area downtown (see map to right for specific boundaries).

That’s what the council will consider. Why this moratorium is being proposed is sketchy. According to the Journal Star, it comes at the request of Deputy Liquor Commissioner Eric Turner.

Turner has gotten numerous requests from business people wanting to open taverns around the hotel area, which is currently home to several taverns, he said Thursday.

But in order to plan for development around the hotel, he said, the city needs to hold off before approving any more taverns. Earlier this year, the council voted down a request to open a tavern at 619 Main St., the former Dungeon Music & Apparel Inc., next to SOP’s.

“Let’s get a plan together before we know what the area should look like,” Turner said. “If someone is going to make this much investment in the city and the city puts up tax dollars, we need a nice area that will spur Downtown development. We are trying to do the right thing.”

So, evidently the city is going to “plan for development around the hotel” and determine “what the area should look like.” And apparently they expect this effort to take three years. Mayor Ardis mentioned elsewhere in the article what they don’t want the area to look like: “We don’t want to stifle new business Downtown, but we don’t want the entire area surrounding the new hotel to be gin joints, with all due respect.” The council communication further states, “The moratorium will not affect the liquor establishments already site approved for the retail sale of alcohol and would not prohibit site approvals for assembly halls or stadiums, hotels or rental halls.”

Is it just me, or does this seem to be an attempt to protect the new hotel’s bar and restaurant(s) from competition? There is no agenda item establishing a process to develop a “plan for development around the hotel.” This plan didn’t go before the liquor commission for a public hearing. This plan has seemingly come completely out of the blue.

Also hard to understand is why the council is concerned about “gin joints” around the new hotel, but doesn’t have any problem allowing a strip club in the same area. They even changed the adult use ordinance to allow it into the area. Now they want to change the liquor ordinance to keep new bars and pubs out. I can’t put my finger on it, but something just doesn’t add up.

Museum Block, Peoria County

Advocacy by any other name is still advocacy

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The first town hall meeting on the Peoria County public facility sales tax referendum took place Thursday night at Kickapoo Creek Winery. The event was sponsored by County Board members Carol Trumpe and Bob Baietto. Presenters were Jim Richerson for the museum group and Scott Sorrell for the County. Questions had to be written out ahead of time, so attendees weren’t allowed to verbalize the questions themselves. Everything was highly controlled.

The meeting is billed as informational, not advocating for or against passage of the referendum. But if Thursday’s meeting wasn’t advocacy, I sure don’t know what is. Richerson gave his pitch piece for the block and used phrases like “when [not “if”] the referendum passes.” Questions were answered by board members, Sorrell, Richerson, and Mark Johnson from Caterpillar. Obviously, Richerson and Johnson are for the referendum. No one who is against the referendum was allowed a place at the table. The county did not present any risks, cons, or critical information. Everything shared at the meeting was positive toward the referendum. Yet we’re expected to believe we’re hearing an unbiased and fact-based presentation.

In the back of the room was a table full of materials from the the pro-referendum advocacy group Friends of Build the Block, including a flyer that said flat-out, “Vote Yes.” No advance effort was made to contact the anti-referendum advocacy group Citizens for Responsible Spending and offer them a table for their materials.

So, we have an event at which only pro-referendum presenters are invited, only pro-referendum materials are provided, and passage of the referendum is only shown in a favorable light. There’s an old saying: “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” So if the event looks like advocacy and sounds like advocacy, guess what?

City of Peoria, Crime

Van Auken, Rand, and Ruckriegel sued by Sigma Nu

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Sigma Nu Fraternity and Caleb Matheny are suing Second District City Council Member Barbara Van Auken, District 4 County Board Representative Andrew Rand, and City Historic Preservation Commissioner Sid Ruckriegel over an incident that happened last fall. Matheny and his lawyers (with the firm of Hall, Owens & Wickenhauser, LLC) held a press conference at 10:30 this morning in front of the fraternity, 1300 W. Fredonia.

The attorneys stated that this isn’t a political issue, but “a justice issue.” They allege that Van Auken abused her power as a City Council member, and that justice must be served to protect their client and other Peoria citizens from such abuse. They said they were taking the case pro bono and that Sigma Nu will donate any monetary damages they receive to their charity, Children’s Hospital of Illinois. They called on Van Auken not to use city legal resources in her defense, but to retain a lawyer at her own expense.

You can read the suit here (PDF file). Attorneys also stated that the City of Peoria has been uncooperative in providing information requested through the Freedom of Information Act, which is why there has been such a delay in filing this suit. However, they did get a copy of the surveillance video of the incident — with audio — which they will be releasing to the press; no timetable was given for its release.

Van Auken, Rand, and Ruckriegel declined to comment on the suit. Van Auken is currently in the middle of a reelection campaign against challenger Curphy Smith. Smith also declined to comment on the suit, saying he wants to “stay focused on the issues that are important to the people of the 2nd district and the city of Peoria.” At-large City Councilman Gary Sandberg didn’t have any comment on the suit itself, but did say that he had also had trouble getting information from the City and police department regarding the incident.

My take: Had this happened anywhere besides a fraternity house, I believe there would have been universal outrage at Van Auken and the others involved. But because Second District residents have had so much difficulty with unruly Bradley students through the years, many residents automatically prejudge the situation and assume that the fraternity must have been in the wrong, and that Bradley police were not doing an adequate job of keeping students quiet. In fact, Van Auken is actually seen by many in a favorable light because of this incident — like a Charles-Bronsonish vigilante hero, who finally gave those Bradley kids what they had coming. This lawsuit will only add to her “martyr” status with those supporters.

Further muddying the waters is the timing. This incident happened over five months ago, yet it’s resurfacing right now — during an election campaign — just a few weeks before residents will choose whether to give Van Auken a second term. That makes the suit look fishy to many observers, despite the plaintiffs’ protestations that it’s “not a political issue.”

And then we have the facts. Police reports and eye-witness accounts agree that Van Auken was acting intoxicated, that she did poke a Bradley police officer and show contempt to all Bradley police officers by saying they weren’t the “real” police, that she did try to intimidate the fraternity and the Bradley police by calling Peoria police to the scene and calling Bradley Vice President Gary Anna to complain about the fraternity, and that she did trespass on private property and refuse to leave when asked. Nevertheless, Van Auken and her friends were not the ones ticketed. The only ticket issued was to Matheny for violating a noise ordinance, even though the officer writing the ticket did so because he was ordered to do so by his superior officer, not because he actually witnessed any violation.

Despite the fishiness of the timing of this suit, I do not think it’s frivolous. In fact, I think it’s a win/win for the citizens of Peoria. If there was indeed an abuse of power, it needs to be dealt with for the protection of all citizens. And if Van Auken, et. al., are found innocent, then it will restore the public’s trust in these officials.

However, it doesn’t look like this is going to see a courtroom until at least August of this year, and in the meantime, things are going to get ugly. Just tonight, I got an anonymous e-mail from an address called “Anti Van Aucken” [sic] pointing me to this website. It has all the police reports and says it will have audio and video soon.

State of Illinois, Streets

I-74 resurfacing gets stimulus funds

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The New York Times has an interesting sidebar on “State government proposals for spending transportation money from the federal stimulus law.” I clicked on Illinois just for fun. Not surprisingly, most of the money goes to Cook County. I scoured the document for Peoria County and found just two items:

мебели пловдив 

Route/Street Location Improvements Est. Cost
I 74 W OF KICKAPOO-EDWARDS RD TO E OF I-474, Miles = 5.71 RESURFACING, COLD MILLING $9,180,000
I 74 KICKAPOO CREEK TRIB 0.7 MI W OF ILL 6 CULVERT REHABILITATION $60,000

 

Kind of disappointing, if you ask me. Why not use those millions to improve Route 40 between I-474 and I-74? They could use that money to construct a new entrance to the Eagle View area to make it more viable, remove the median near I-474 to make that commercial area more viable, and improve the Warehouse District area to allow more economic development to happen there. There are a lot more benefits to that project than resurfacing I-74, which would be done anyway regardless of the stimulus.

Peoria Public Schools

Could District 150 be getting their act together?

78 Comments

This is promising:

[Morton Mayor Norman] Durflinger, former superintendent of Morton Unit District 709 and who also sat on the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University, was hired as the interim treasurer for District 150.

Joining Durflinger as the district’s interim controller is Brock Butts, former Tremont superintendent. The pair will be paid a combined $500 a day, until District 150 is able to find a permanent replacement for the vacancies, made Feb. 17, when the School Board approved putting treasurer/controller Guy Cahill on administrative leave. That contract officially will end in April.

Additionally, the School Board approved hiring Michael J. McKenzie, a certified public accountant, to fill a new position: chief accountant and director of internal audits and external assurances. He will be paid $90,000 annually.

I don’t know about you, but this certainly helps my confidence level in the school board. It looks like they’re making a serious effort to get the finances under control and finally address auditors’ concerns that have been ignored for several years. This is the best news to come out of 3202 N. Wisconsin in a long time.

Television

Peoria loses another independent news source (UPDATED)

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The rumors have been flying for weeks. We all knew it was coming. And now it’s here: WEEK has taken over the operation of WHOI:

March 2, 2009 – Granite Broadcasting Corporation and Barrington Broadcasting Group, LLC announced that, effective March 2, 2009, WEEK-TV and WHOI-TV will be operated jointly from the WEEK-TV studios in East Peoria, Illinois. Granite will operate both stations under a shared services agreement (SSA) with Barrington, owner of WHOI-TV.

Under the terms of the agreement, Granite will continue to operate WEEK-TV and provide advertising, sales, promotion, administrative services and selected programming to WHOI-TV. This arrangement between Granite and Barrington will create a better and more efficient operation, which will enhance these outstanding local television stations. A similar arrangement provides that Barrington will provide advertising, sales, promotion, administrative services and selected programming to Granite’s Syracuse, New York station, WTVH-TV.

In making this announcement, Granite Broadcasting’s Chief Executive Officer Don Cornwell said, “This arrangement is an important step in the implementation of Granite’s strategic vision to capitalize on our core strength of operating leading local stations in the nation’s mid-size markets. It provides opportunities for substantial operating efficiencies by allowing us to use our existing infrastructure to expand the breadth of local news and services provided to the viewers of Central Illinois, while enhancing the revenue and profitability of both stations.”

Barrington Chief Executive Officer Jim Yager stated, “We are delighted to be working with a forward-thinking company like Granite. Together, our companies and stations will focus our combined resources on making these great stations more efficient, becoming even better community citizens and, at the same time, providing measurable benefits for our viewers.”

Under the terms of the SSA, Granite and Barrington expect to realize a number of expense efficiencies through the combining of resources and the reduction of some staff positions. Affected employees will receive a generous severance package and extensive job placement assistance will be offered at company expense.

One of the chief advantages of operating WEEK and WHOI under a shared services agreement will be the ability to offer local and national news, as well as programming of community interest in new and varied time periods, giving viewers greater opportunity to watch at their convenience. The Granite and Barrington plan will fully develop this opportunity, offering local newscasts expanded in both breadth and amount. Specifically, the stations will provide newscasts in time periods not currently programmed with local news and extend local news to other time periods, allowing viewers more access to Central Illinois reports and information. Another Granite objective is to improve the emergency weather forecasting and daily forecasting by bringing the latest and best technology to both stations. New programs focusing on all important medical issues and franchise segments highlighting critical issues of public service will also be added to the stations in the next few weeks.

In addition, community charitable organizations presently on either WEEK or WHOI will receive increased exposure using the power of the two stations working together. One example is WEEK’s highly successful Buddy Check and Prostate Awareness programs. Also, the St. Jude Telethon, now in its 35th year on WEEK, will air on both stations. Another is the 25 Women In Leadership program. WHOI’s One Class at a Time, Relay for Life and special programs for the Peoria Zoo, along with numerous other community programs will continue. The stations will now concentrate on these highly popular outreach campaigns to further drive the focus on those deserving of recognition within the community.

Other plans include production of town hall meetings and a variety of community forums on WEEK and WHOI stations at different times, so viewers have greater access to information of local relevance. Granite also will expand its policy of sponsoring political debates and offering free airtime to candidates in every national election on both of the stations.

So now, although we have five commercial station owners, we have only two commercial station operators. And so, practically speaking, we have only two local TV news organizations now. One is the WEEK/WHOI/WAOE organization and the other is the WMBD/WYZZ organization. I fail to see the benefit to the Peoria area of all this media consolidation.

UPDATE: Here’s some more information on personnel and schedules from WEEK’s site:

For you viewers, here are the changes, HOI-19’s early news moves to 5:30 p.m. Then ABC’s World News Tonight on WHOI moves to 6:00 p.m., providing nightly national news so those working later now have access to the national and international information in a new and more convenient time period.

News 25 at 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. stays the same as will the morning and 10 p.m. newscasts on both stations. Jen Christensen will continue to anchor HOI-19’s newscasts and HOI-19’s popular Sports Director Jim Mattson will join forces with News 25’s Lee Hall to make up the best and most aggressive sports team in Central Illinois. News 25’s popular Weather Man Lee Ranson will give the forecasts for both stations.

The two stations will produce newscasts with the combined staffs of both broadcast teams.