Hi all. I’m still on vacation, but will be back soon. Just a few odds & ends I wanted to mention:
- I did a little catching up tonight and looked at the recent comments on Beth’s guest editorial. That’s a really interesting discussion. I also checked my Akismet spam filter and found a couple of comments that were erroneously caught. So check out the comments again to make sure you didn’t miss any.
- If you’re wanting to comment on something else in the news, you can use this as an open thread.
- I checked with Terry Beachler about his court date on May 1; he said no charges were filed, but the statute of limitations isn’t up for a year, so I guess he could still be charged if the Peoria PD has a change of heart. I wouldn’t want that hanging over my head for a year
- From the Journal Star: “‘I think overall we [the District 150 school board] feel that if you look at the status of the district today compared to two years ago that there have really been significant improvements,’ board president David Gorenz said today.” He was referring to the likelihood that Superintendent Hinton’s contract will be renewed for two more years at Monday’s school board meeting. What exactly has improved under his leadership? Better test scores? Fiscal improvement? Intergovernmental cooperation? I’m drawing a blank here.
- Speaking of District 150, they’re selling property, but not the properties on Prospect that they no longer need. Rather, they are selling some land down by the river — one lot is being sold to ADM for $650,000. They’re selling another lot to A. Lucas & Sons for $200,000. And then there are two lots they’re selling to Tri-City Machine for $40,000 each. And they’ll be selling the Meyer building at auction, if that item passes Monday night. Not including the Meyer building, that’s $930,000 the school board will be raking in. Is this the same school district that says they can’t afford to keep their truancy center open?
That’s enough for tonight. Talk to you more later when I get back in town. By the way, are you all enjoying the Duany presentation I’ve been putting up on the site?
CJ
For the life of me I do not understand the reason to rush into extending King Hinton’s contract – let alone even extending it at all! The board prez says the King has raised scores and lowered the deficit – gosh, Dr. Gorenz, my calendar reads May 6 so Hinton’s second year is not over – much less been audited, much less had scores evaluated! So, in essence after just one year out of a 3 year contract and they want to mortgage the future for 2 more years yet? Give me a break! Hinton retired the first time as a has-been principal well known for his fiscal irresponsibility and heavy-handed “managerial†style when the board at that time even refused to interview him for the superintendent position. Yup, he left in a huff and took a job with The Edison Schools. Then another BOE hired him and he brought back to 150 his fiscal irresponsibility and new blind dedication to the Edison Company. It is really a sad state of affairs that this BOE is telling the public Hinton is the best they can do for Peoria’s children let alone the future of Peoria! What’s the matter BOE? You guys and gals afraid some BOE somewhere is going to be more ignorant than you and try to hire him away from you? Is that why you need to take this action on May 7, 2007 to extend his contract that already still has over a year to go? Oh, that’s right you’re the same BOE who rubber stamped Hinton’s squandering of nearly $1 million on those low valued Prospect properties! You have adopted the King Hinton attitude of scoffing at the stupid Peoria taxpayers. Shame on you – ALL of you! ^oo^~
I agree CJ…
I would love to be a fly in the D150 “war room” that manages the finances of the district. I would love to have someone explain to me WHY D150 is in the “crapper” money wise. They should take a page out of the book of D303 in Pekin who is running millions of dollars in SURPLUS! Can someone explain?
Jazzbass
P.S. Looking at my property tax bill, assuming I read it correctly so correct me if I am wrong, D150 ate up alomst $2500 of my $5000 bill! Not a math major but that is approx. 50%! Is that the same for everyone…if so, that is a LOT of bread…where does it go?
P.S.S.
On a rant: Not that I am sold 100% on the idea of private investment in our public schools but let’s live in a dream world for a while.
Can you imagine the opportunties presented if a Fortune 50 company like CAT would invest in D150? What a symbiotic relationship…CAT gets better educated people homegrown while D150 gets cash (if managed right) to take our district out of the “shitter.”
**Disclaimer..before I continue, let me say I am DREAMING here…you all can find I am sure hundreds of reasons why this wouldn’t work but bear with me here!**
And then, the improvement of our education system has two great benefits.
ONE: We curb this “white flight” to Dunlap scenerio which only helps the city with regard to increased tax revenue. Considering I have heard, by directly talking to some people, that the move to Dunlap for these young families was made in fairly large part to the education OR future edcation of their kids.
TWO: A better educated public also attracts NEW and inovative industries to the community. Which boosts our economy AND, imagine this, ALSO increases city tax revenue.
Then, with more industry, a better economy and more tax revenue, the city could afford things more easily…I dunno..like FIRE protection, and recycling and other CITY SERVICES. That one goes out to honorable councilman Sandburg. 🙂
So..in short, this scenerio makes people like me (a stewart for better education and economic growth in Peoria) happy and the great majority of Sandburg voters happy by making those cherished city services better funded.
You see, after all the blog fighting over Spain, Sandburg and others…we really could work to ALL have our cake and eat it too…now…only if the Dems and GOP could quit their pissy fit nationally, the world really would be a better place!
And then…MY ALARM WENT OFF and I WOKE UP!
JB
Nothing has improved under Hinton’s leadership, with the exception of his salary and the salaries of his senior administrative staff. In fact, there has been a marked decline in student achievement (at least 14 schools are in restructuring or on a state watch/warning list), two underachieving schools were closed, in excess of $877,500 was expended on properties that now have no intrinsic value to the district, Hinton and the BOE managed to insult and alienate the city council, white-flight is escalating, student behavior has deteriorated even further, and employee morale and trust is at an all-time low.
If Hinton were employed as a CEO in the private sector, he would have been fired months ago. Why should we, the citizens of Peoria, accept such low performance from a highly compensated public administrator?
This is one of the most important issues facing our community, and yet the BOE is giving no evidence that much critical thought or analysis went into their decision. The vote on extending the superintendent’s contract two years in advance is part of his performance evaluation, and we are left to conclude that his evaluation is glowing.
Accordingly, today I researched the articles and comments on the Peoria Chronicle (using several different search parameters) and copied all of the articles about District #150 and Hinton into a word-processing document. This document represents over 240 single-spaced pages of reasons why the BOE should not extend Hinton’s contract. I forwarded the document to C.J. and asked him to send this document to every BOE member tomorrow.
This will not change enough of the BOE member’s minds to defeat the contract extension, but they will find out there is substantial opposition to their action.
Jellick has an article posted to her blog describing the BOE agenda for tomorrow evening. Among the items to be presented to the BOE is approval of the extension of the Edison contract.
Last fall, Hinton and Cahill made representations to the PFT to secure monetary concessions from the union during the collective bargaining process. One of those representations was that the 2006-07 school year would be the last year of the Edison contract. The union accepted Hinton’s and Cahill’s representation in good faith and made concessions based upon their statement.
Based upon the proposed agenda item for tomorrow evening, Hinton and Cahill were not bargaining in good faith; in fact they blatantly misled the PFT and lied to every one of the district’s teachers.
How much more evidence of Hinton’s and Cahill’s callous disregard for the principles of ethical behavior do we need?
Jazzbass – could the reason why Pekin SD has a surplus be that they fired Cahill?
PC:
Not 100% on this but I beleive there was a surplus even when Cahill was here…it must be investigated though for further discussion.
JB
Jassbass,
Whoa there feller! Before you suddenly start praising Cahill while at Pekin and suggesting that he was responsible for their surplus you need to know he was not in the same position of power and responsibility as at 150. On top of that he was fired, so a Pekin reject is good enough for 150! Oh well, the previous 150 BOE refused to even interview Hinton for the superintendent position but this bunch of yahoos not only hired him they also want to extend his contract in blind faith. Well, the idiots will get what their deserve – but at the immense expense of 150 students and taxpayers! Hold on Peoria this wild ride isn’t over yet! ^oo^~
One Feral —
Whoa there tiger…how does:
“Not 100% on this but I beleive there was a surplus even when Cahill was here…it must be investigated though for further discussion.”
sound like this?:
“Before you suddenly start praising Cahill while at Pekin and suggesting that he was responsible for their surplus you need to know he was not in the same position of power and responsibility as at 150.”
I just said I think and that I needed to investigate…GOSH!
JB
Jazzbass,
I just wanted to let you know that CAT has started investing in D150 in a major way in the last couple of years.
Machinist Assembler Program (MAP) is a program at Manual High School. The program is funded by CAT and they have either donated ir repaired machines at Manual. For projects that cannot be done at the school, ICC and CAT each give the students opportunities to use their facilities.
Project Lead the Way is an engineering program in place at Woodruff again thanks to CAT. This program teachs students many of the skills needed to become an engineer. This project has been successful enough to test a pre-engineering course at a middle school.
Both of these programs have led to D150 students gaining employment at CAT and other local companies.
It seems that #150 also had White School for sale and that they had an open bidding period. Since that parcel is not included in the list of pending sales on tonight’s BOE agenda, and the closing date for bids has passed, can we conclude that either they didn’t receive any bids for the parcel or that the bids received were too low? Does anyone know one way or the other?
PrairieCelt: Last I saw written about White School was that the minimum bid was too high and that OSF would not pay about double or more (minimum bid price) of the appraised value. Anyone else know?
Karrie that makes sense. The appraisal came in at something like $550K and they are asking $1.25M – quite a nice mark-up if they can convince anyone to pay it.