Category Archives: Peoria Public Schools

2011 Election, City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Public Schools

Election Results 4/5/2011

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Here are Tuesday’s election results for City Council and District 150:

Peoria City Council

# Candidate Votes Pct
1 Chuck Weaver 14,784.5839 24.95%
2 ♦ Ryan M. Spain 10,071.9164 17.00%
3 ♦ Gary Sandberg 8,390.0000 14.16%
4 ♦ W. Eric Turner 6,911.3335 11.67%
5 Beth Akeson 6,040.0832 10.20%
6 Charles V. Grayeb 5,559.3335 9.38%
7 Jim Stowell 2,402.7500 4.06%
8 André Williams 2,261.2499 3.82%
9 Christopher (C.J.) Summers 1,812.4167 3.06%
10 George Azouri 1,011.3333 1.71%

District 150, Ward 2

Candidate Votes Pct
♦ Debbie L. Wolfmeyer 1,150 55.66%
Mike Mitchell 916 44.34%

District 150, Ward 3
(All candidates were write-in candidates)

Candidate Votes Pct
Rick Cloyd 2,120 67.11%
Janice K. Deissler 759 24.03%
Jody Pitcher 181 5.73%
Phillip E. Cline 99 3.13%

♦ = Incumbent

Peoria Public Schools

New principal assignments at D150

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District 150 recently announced numerous reassignments of school principals. They are listed on the district’s website, but as a service to my readers, I’m reprinting them here:

Name Current School 2011-2012 Appointment
John Wetterauer Charter Oak Charter Oak
Jane Cushing Franklin Franklin
Kevin Curtin Garfield Irving
Annette Coleman Glen Oak Glen Oak
Veralee Smith Harrison Harrison
Jamie Brown Hines Hines
Michael Barber Irving Rolling Acres
Patsy Santen Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson
Ken Turner Kellar Kellar
Nicole Woods Northmoor Northmoor
Renee Andrews Whittier Whittier
Angela Stockman Woodrow Wilson Trewyn
Diann Duke Valeska Woodruff Career and Technical Center
Tom Blumer Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge
Cindy Janovetz Columbia Manual Chief Turnaround Officer
Ursula Brown Lincoln Lincoln
Michael Plunkett Lindbergh Lindbergh
Scott Montgomery Mark Bills Woodrow Wilson
Deloris Turner Rolling Acres Retiring
Noly Branscumb Roosevelt Roosevelt
James Jemilo Sterling Jamieson
Eric Thomas Trewyn Knoxville Center for Success
Dave Obergfel Von Steuben Retiring
Joan Wojcikewych Washington Director of Curriculum for Peoria High School
Sharon Kherat Manual Manual
Randy Simmons Peoria High School Von Steuben
Karen Orendorff Jamieson Retiring
Paul Monrad Peoria Alternative High School Director of Student Affairs
Brandon Caffey Greeley Assistant Principal at Richwoods High School
Donna O’Day Knoxville Center for Success Sterling
Additional Appointments
Name Current School 2011-2012 Appointment
Laura Rodgers Trewyn, Assistant Principal Principal, Mark Bills
Dave Poehls Richwoods, Assistant Principal Principal, Washington Gifted
Brett Elliott Richwoods, Assistant Principal Principal, Peoria High School
Cindy Clark Peoria High School, Assistant Principal Principal, Richwoods High School
City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Public Schools

Van Auken begs school board for what the Council denies

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I about spit out my soda when I read this in an article about District 150’s board meeting Monday night:

Some, including City Councilwoman Barbara Van Auken, asked the board to halt any decisions.

“I’m here to beg you — defer these decision until you have some community outreach,” said Van Auken, who represents District 2, which includes Columbia Middle School, 2612 N. Bootz Ave. “If you have a bad process, you’re going to have a bad outcome.”

Well, I agree with that statement 100%. But I have a few questions: Where was Council Member Van Auken when the City Council rammed through a $39 million hotel deal with only a single business day of public notice and no “community outreach” whatsoever? Where was her concern over “bad process” then? Why didn’t she “beg” the council to defer that decision?

Van Auken’s admonishment kind of reminds me of the Heart of Peoria Plan: something that’s adopted in principle but ignored in practice.

Peoria Public Schools

School board to vote on more school closures, cancelling Edison contract tonight

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Lots of controversial items on tonight’s District 150 Board of Education agenda. These recommendations were just revealed a couple of weeks ago by the Superintendent, Dr. Lathan. You can read more about the rationale behind these recommendations by clicking here (PDF).

12. CLOSING OF GARFIELD PRIMARY SCHOOL
Proposed Action: On the recommendation of the Administration the Board of Education closes Garfield Primary School at the end of the 2010 – 2011 school year and authorizes the Administration to set necessary school boundaries.

13. CLOSING OF COLUMBIA MIDDLE SCHOOL
Proposed Action: On the recommendation of the Administration the Board of Education closes Columbia Middle School at the end of the 2010 – 2011 school year and authorizes the Administration to set necessary school boundaries.

14. BOUNDARY CHANGE FOR WHITTIER PRIMARY SCHOOL
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education authorizes the Superintendent to make the necessary boundary changes to Whittier Primary School that were in force prior to the closing of Tyng Primary School.

15. CONFIGURATION FOR GLEN OAK COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education authorizes the Superintendent to change the configuration of Glen Oak Community Learning Center from K – 8 to K – 6.

16. CONFIGURATION OF TREWYN MIDDLE SCHOOL
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education authorizes the Superintendent to change the configuration of Trewyn Middle School to a K-8 school.

17. IB PROGRAM
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education authorize the Administration to implement The International Baccalaureate Program at the following schools: Charter Oak, Mark Bills, Sterling and Trewyn.

18. ESTABLISH A CAREER AND TECHNICAL CENTER
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education authorizes the Superintendent to establish a Career and Technical Center at the former Woodruff High School. The school will be named the Woodruff Career and Technical Center.

19. RESTRUCTURING OF PEORIA ALTERNATIVE HIGH SCHOOL
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education approves the restructuring of Peoria Alternative High School and relocation of the new program to the Woodruff Career and Technical Center.

20. RESTRUCTURING OF GREELEY ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education approves the restructuring of Greeley Alternative School and relocation of the new program to the Woodruff Career and Technical Center.

21. CONTRACT WITH EDISON LEARNING
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education terminates the contract with Edison Learning.

22. GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education increases the graduation requirements from 18 credits (16 academic and 2 physical education) to 22 credits for Peoria and Richwoods High School students and 28 for Manual High School students. The new requirements will apply to the 2014 graduating class.

23. HIGH SCHOOL REGISTRATION HANDBOOK
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education approves the High School Registration Handbook. The handbook reflects a change in how class rank is calculated, when the valedictorian calculation is completed and changes the PE requirement.

24. PARENT UNIVERSITY
Proposed Action: That the Board of Education authorizes the Superintendent to establish a District 150 Parent University.

a. The Parent University would be comprised of three academy sites located in the three high school regions within District 150 boundaries. There would be an academy site located at Glen Oak Primary School, Harrison Primary School and Richwoods High School. The responsibility for the development, implementation and coordination of the Parent University curriculum would be facilitated by the Family Community Coordinator in collaboration with the Title I Department. It is further recommended that the Parent-Teacher Advisory Committee serve in an advisory and advocacy capacity for the Parent University. Its primary role would be to oversee and promote the Parent University’s vision.

I haven’t seen an explanation of what’s going to happen to the vacated buildings as a result of these actions, except for the old social security administration office on Knoxville that District 150 inexplicably acquired and remodeled while trying to save money by closing other buildings several years ago. What will happen to Greeley? Or the old Washington School building on Moss? What impact will these decisions have on neighborhoods and transportation/busing overall? Perhaps these issues will be discussed tonight.

2011 Election, City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Public Schools

The District 150 conundrum

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I find it really interesting that, as a City Council candidate, I regularly get asked about what the City can do (or what I can/will do as a City Council person) to help District 150. Oftentimes, the questions go beyond the support areas over which the City has control, and gets into school board policy — concerns over school closures, returning schools to a K-8 configuration, and similar things. In fact, from the questions I get asked at forums and in personal interactions, it looks to me like the state of District 150 is, if not number one, at least the number two priority of Peoria residents.

And yet…

Not a single person circulated petitions for the third ward school board seat. As a result, all the candidates there are write-in candidates. The third ward school board member vacating his seat this year is running for City Council instead. In the second ward, there’s only one challenger to sitting school board president Debbie Wolfmeyer. The last time Martha Ross was up for reelection, she ran unopposed. If I were to judge the public’s concern for District 150 by their efforts to change policy by getting on the board and challenging the status quo, I’d have to say it’s not a very high priority at all.

How are we to explain this strange phenomenon?

Peoria Public Schools

Big changes being considered at District 150

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Here’s a summary of the changes that were proposed at the District 150 Board of Education meeting Monday night, from the Journal Star:

  • Closing Columbia Middle School and splitting the students among Calvin Coolidge and Sterling middle schools; or reassigning all of Columbia’s students to Sterling.
  • Closing Garfield Primary School and sending about 50 of the nearly 300 students to Harrison Community Learning Center and the remaining 250 to Trewyn, which would change from a middle school to grades K-8.
  • Change part of Whittier’s boundaries back, alleviating some population there, increasing Harrison’s enrollment by 94 students, including those from Garfield.
  • Closing the Greeley and Peoria Alternative High School buildings and moving the programs to the former Woodruff High School, which also would serve as a career and technical education center. Relocate students from the Knoxville Center for Success to Woodruff and use the Knoxville site as a suspension respite program for high school students.
  • Severing ties with Edison but maintaining the program’s longer school day and additional professional development.
  • Eliminating Apex Learning, an online curriculum, in favor of expanding Compass Learning, which was just adopted at several schools last year.
  • Incorporate a 90-minute literacy block at primary schools using guided reading materials. Also include a daily schedule of a 30- to 45-minute intervention/enrichment period.
  • Increase graduation requirements from 18 credits to 22 for Richwoods and Peoria High School; and 28 at Manual, which has a block schedule.
  • Eliminate high school study hall in lieu of a “study skills” class that focuses on study and organizational skills and prepares students for life beyond school.
  • Alter how class ranking is weighted.

WEEK-TV has some additional information:

  • Those from Peoria and Greeley Alternative would head to a new proposed program in the former Woodruff High School building. It would be called the ‘Woodruff Career and Technical Center.’
  • District officials proposed restructuring Trewyn Middle School to accommodate it for grads K-8 and making it an International Baccalaureate school. That would result in the ‘release’ of the entire Trewyn Staff.
  • They suggested establishing a ‘Parent University’ to offer community resources to district families.

    • […]

  • Under the proposed changes, those schools would offer advanced Physical Education classes for credit, and revamp the traditional study hall. It would be called a ‘study skills’ class, and students would receive credit for that as well.
  • Officials recommended establishing bilinigual classes at Manual High School.

WEEK also states that the changes would “result in layoffs of at least 15 faculty members” and “save the district more than $1.4 million annually.” We all have two weeks to take it all in before the school board votes on the changes at their March 28 meeting.

2011 Election, Peoria Public Schools

How Debbie Wolfmeyer sees her job

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District 150 School Board president Debbie Wolfmeyer is up for reelection this year to another five-year term. You may recall that during her first term she sent a rather infamous e-mail to concerned parents.

In May 2008, Ms. Wolfmeyer told a concerned parent via e-mail, “I must respectfully decline your invitation to meet with you. It is not my role as a Board member to meet with individuals or groups. None of us as an individual Board member has any authority. Our authority comes as we work as a body. Also, I am not an educator. Therefore, it is important that any ideas, solutions, etc that are presented go through the administration so that they can assess them and report to us.”

At the Uplands candidate forum Thursday night, I asked Wolfmeyer if she would be accessible to her constituents were she to be reelected, and if she saw her role as representing her constituents to the administration, or vice versa.

Wolfmeyer said, first of all, that even though she’s elected from the second school board district, she sees her role as representing the whole school district (meaning all of District 150, not just the second board district), and specifically the children of the whole school district. Secondly, she said she will not “negotiate” with parents or constituents because she’s only one board member and cannot make any decisions unilaterally. She’s willing to sit down and listen to the concerns of her constituents, but in the end, she has to do what’s in the best interests of the children. I mentioned that many of these constituents of whom she spoke are parents who also have the best interests of their children in mind. Wolfmeyer said yes, but there are always parents and other constituents on both sides of an issue.

It doesn’t sound to me like Ms. Wolfmeyer’s views have changed significantly over the past three years. But second board district voters who disagree with her views don’t have many alternatives this election. Wolfmeyer’s only opponent is Mike Mitchell, whose appearances at recent candidate forums do not inspire confidence in his ability to do the job. He is a pleasant and sincere person, but doesn’t display an understanding of the issues facing District 150 or articulate any solution to them. He admits that he’s not a good public speaker, but invites everyone to sit down with him over a beer to discuss his ideas about District 150. I can only presume that he means he’s better able to communicate in a casual setting, not that his views make more sense when heard under the influence of alcohol.

Peoria Public Schools, State of Illinois

What will district consolidation mean for Peoria?

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Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced recently his intention to eliminate over half of Illinois’ school districts through mandatory consolidation. There are already bills introduced in the state legislature toward that end:

State Senator Jeffrey M. Schoenberg (D-Evanston) recently introduced a bill, SB1324, which proposes to amend the Illinois School Code to require the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to conduct a feasibility and cost-saving benefits study on the prospect of consolidating school districts in the same geographic area. The ISBE would be required to recommend specific school districts for consolidation in a report due to the general assembly and the governor on or before January 1, 2013. […]

State Representative Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora), Chair of the Illinois House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, has introduced HB1216 to create an 18-member School District Realignment and Consolidation Commission to report the “optimal enrollment for a school district and where consolidation would be beneficial.” The Commission would make recommendations to reduce duplication of efforts, eliminate obstacles between qualified teachers and students, lower property tax burdens, calculate the net costs savings of realignment, and advise school districts on reorganization.

So what will this mean for Peoria? The City of Peoria includes three school districts: Peoria, Limestone, and Dunlap. Peoria Heights’ district is completely surrounded by Peoria. Analysts say, “Anticipated targets of the legislation are small school districts with low staff-to-student ratios.” But, they add, “A less obvious aim of the bill is the opportunity to merge small, well-financed school districts with disadvantaged ones to balance economic inequities.”

At first glance, it would appear that Peoria would be a prime candidate for merging school districts. This would mitigate one of the major factors leading to population migration to the north by putting the whole city under one school district with a unified tax rate to support it.

But there’s always been a complication to reforming District 150. The makeup and election of its Board of Education is set by court order, not legislation, as the result of a civil rights lawsuit back in the 1980s. Will this be able to keep the State from consolidating this board with other districts in the region? Or can the State get around the court order by dissolving the various school charters and creating a new district from scratch? Will the State have the political will to make such a move?

The process as currently defined boils down to recommendations from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). It will be interesting to see what they recommend … if the process gets that far.

City of Peoria, Peoria Mayor, Peoria Public Schools

Education Forum to be held this week in Peoria

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From my inbox:

Reforming Schools in Peoria

On Friday, February 18, 2011, Mayor Jim Ardis will host a community meeting that includes elected officials, governmental bodies, educators, business leaders and staff members.  The meeting will be held from 8:00 a.m. until 9:30 a.m., at Peoria City Hall, in Room 400.

The forum will include a presentation by Bob Darling, President of the Peoria Federation of Teachers Union, in conjunction with Dr. Patrick Dolan, a nationally recognized consultant in the field of education change and structure. The presentation is entitled Reforming Schools in Peoria.  The topic relates to efforts by Mr. Darling and Dr. Dolan to move into a new era of education unionism. 

And this:

AFT President Randi Weingarten to Visit Peoria Mayor, School Teachers and Education Leaders

WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten on Thursday will visit teachers and students at Glenn Oak Primary School, and later meet with Mayor Jim Ardis and representatives from Peoria’s education community to discuss the ways that teachers and school district officials are collaborating to improve public education in the city as many are now opting for Trilogy Education Services.

“In a time when there’s so much finger-pointing around education, it’s exciting to see the union, school district and other stakeholders working together to support teachers’ efforts to improve the lives of children,” said Weingarten.

Peoria is the first stop on the AFT’s “Making a Difference Every Day” tour, which highlights the positive influence educators and public employees have on the people and communities they serve.

WHO: Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis; AFT President Randi Weingarten; Peoria Education Liaison Bob Collier; Peoria Superintendent Grenita Lathan; Illinois Federation of Teachers President Bob Montgomery; Peoria Federation of Teachers President Bob Darling

WHAT: “Making a Difference Every Day” in Peoria

WHEN: Schedule for February 17 (Members of the media are invited to attend)

8 a.m.: School visit to Glenn Oak Primary School for a closer look at the school’s successful teacher mentoring and induction program. Meet at 809 E. Frye Ave., Peoria.

1 p.m.: Luncheon and education discussion with Mayor Jim Ardis and members of Peoria’s education community. Meet at Jim’s Steakhouse, 110 SW Jefferson Ave.

Peoria Public Schools

Charging gun owner right move

34 Comments

State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons isn’t charging an eight-year-old boy who brought an unloaded gun to school, but he is charging the gun owner with whom the boy lives.

Arwon Clark, 30, of 1401 NE Glendale Ave. will face charges of endangering the life or health of a child, a Class A misdemeanor, and failure to secure a weapon, a Class C misdemeanor.

This is the right move. Media reports indicate that the kid didn’t know what he was doing and was not bringing the gun to school with the intent to harm anyone. Specifically, he removed the magazine from the gun before bringing it to school (can’t hurt anyone with an unloaded weapon), he may have broken the magazine when he removed it, and he “showed it to a group of boys in the bathroom.” I think it’s pretty clear that he was not taking it to school to shoot anybody, but just to show it to his friends for whatever reason.

The adult in the household (nobody know what relation the man is to the boy, if any) is the right person to charge. Leaving a loaded gun where the kid can get to it is a recipe for disaster. The kid could have shot himself (or others) playing with the gun and trying to remove the magazine.

Apart from legal charges, however, the boy still needs to face school discipline for bringing a gun to school. Bringing weapons to school cannot be tolerated or excused. Even unloaded weapons could be used to intimidate since only the person holding the gun knows whether or not it’s loaded. According to the Journal Star, “Peoria Public Schools District 150 spokesman Chris Coplan declined to discuss specifics of the case Monday, saying generally that the boy would be subject to the same weapons policies as other students.”