Back in April when the District 150 Board of Education decided to discontinue live broadcasts of the board meetings, they presented it as a cost-saving measure. I had this to say:
In other words, this move has little to do with cost savings. It’s simply a further manifestation of the district’s desire to minimize, if not eliminate, public input and public access to the school board meetings.
Last night, board members admitted that was indeed the case. From Peoria Story:
Board members acknowledged that the reason they stopped the broadcasts was not, as was initially reported, to save money, but because they objected to negative comments from the public during the public comment portion of the meeting. “It (the money) was never my reason,” Jim Stowell said. “Nor mine,” board president Debbie Wolfmeyer said.
And the Journal Star adds these quotes:
“. . . The board has tried, but I think the board has the responsibility to try to shape the message they want to convey to the public. . . . I’ve heard the same four people at 70 percent of those meetings. . . . and I doubt that very few of them, if any, have any children in the district.” . . .
“I was in favor of taking the broadcast off until we could do something about how to answer people or how to tell our own story – we don’t answer people or questions or rebut anything, so all the public really hear is what other people are saying,” board member Martha Ross said, wanting to revisit the idea because community members have asked her to do so. “It’s their only connection to what’s going on at the school district.”
I would submit that these board members don’t quite understand the concept of petitioning the government for redress of grievances. They think they should get to take our money and feed us back a message they “shape” and “want to convey to the public.” All dissenting opinions should be censored or effectively hidden from the public.
TR64, do you know who the appeal involved?
Dennis in Peoria, I doubt that Friday’s termination would be Valda Shipp because she has already retired (probably not willingly)–she wasn’t terminated. Also, I am more concerned about a district run only by women. 150 now has a record number of women in key positions. District 150 has traditionally put women with primary experience only in key positions–maybe Dr. Lathan is choosing some with high school experience–that would be a good thing.
Dancer–no, I don’t know who appealed. Wasn’t there something on the last agenda about a director of technology being moved to librarian? Didn’t hear anything about that…must be my mistake.
TR64 – where did you hear/read about a pending PJS FOIA–maybe that’s the one that is costing the district $3,000. 🙂
I know Mary Ward was transferred to a librarian position.
Sharon–double check…Jan 8, 2010 “pending” FOIA per 3-22-2010 and 5-24-2010 D150 board minutes. Identities of FOIAers has been published “on-again” “off-again” since June 15, 2009. (under Culture of Customer Service. wink. wink.)
The names of those making FOIA requests used to be read at board meetings, then names were only mentioned in the minutes, but lately names have not been given at all. That’s why I wondered how you knew PJS request was still pending. Could it be that there were just several different PJS requests that were pending but were later filled by the next meeting and a new one filed? Legally, the district cannot have FOIAs pending longer than 10 business days–supposed to be filled in 5 days when possible. Almost always when I file a FOIA request I receive a letter saying the time has been extended to 10 days because the data is held in some other building.
Maybe it has been resolved since May 24th, but the Jan. 8th date was still posted as pending in those minutes.
TR64, I see what you mean. It could be in the hands of lawyers, etc. The board does not the right to refuse a request on what they consider legal grounds and the PJS has the right to appeal 150’s decision. That is interesting. What was happening in January for which the PJS might be seeking information?
Ken Hinton left rather abruptly Dec. 1st. Maybe the pjstar is looking for some answers as to why. We all know it was not due to health reason, as he stated.
The changes to FOIA by Illinois’ Atty General took effect January 1, 2010. The fines for non-compliance weren’t to begin until six months after that, as I recall. These changes make it more difficult for gov’t bodies to deny requests for some records, i.e. personnel. “Public employees haven’t, by and large, viewed FOIA as part of their job. It’s been an annoyance, so hopefully these changes will turn that on it’s (sic) side a bit and create real transparency in Illinois.” –Cara Smith, Lisa Madigan’s deputy chief of staff (PJStar)
Also stated on the Attorney General’s website, on page 27 of the FOIA training:
“Exemptions-Personal Privacy…Disclosure of a specific address together with the name of the resident, however, would be prohibited unless another statute permits disclosure.”
What statute permits D150 to publish on the internet the names and addresses of speakers at the meetings?
I erred–put a “not” where it didn’t belong: The board does not the right to refuse a request on what they consider legal grounds and the PJS has the right to appeal 150?s decision.
The board/district DOES have the right.
“We all know it was not due to health reason, as he stated.”
He was sick and tired of all the BS. He was a teacher, and a very good one from what I have heard. He got Peter Principled (Principaled?) and then became a punch line.
Dear Sharon…
“I erred–put a “not” where it didn’t belong: The board does not the right…”
Danggit… now you left out the “have”…
Oh, well, Charlie, I thought I had erred–but the original should have been a quote from my earlier, incorrect post–I think. I’d better quit while I’m NOT ahead. 🙂
Tomorrow’s special BOE meeting has been cancelled.
My guess, the principal “resigned”……
Who was the principal?
ya, who is the principal? media people, can you find out?
check pjstar. It’s Valda Shipp. She says she has NO IDEA what she has ever done to deserve this….she said she felt blindsided……I’m sure not nearly as blindsided as the teachers she moved around, transferred, and fired…I think Guilford school district in north carolina is looking for a principal…..
Yup, Shipp “unretired”.
http://www.pjstar.com/news/x23930831/Glen-Oak-principal-feels-forced-out-of-her-job
That’s interesting…. Didn’t Merle Widmer post over a month ago that Valda Shipp was a good friend of his and had been let go way back then?
http://widmer-peoria-watch.blogspot.com/2010/06/valda-shipp-terminated.html
The article is somehow, magically gone……
Wonder who threatened PJStar?! Don Jackson perhaps?
From PJSTAR july 27th
” Jane Winter Clark, the longtime director of Special Education Association of Peoria County who retired this year, was hired as the district’s special education director on an interim basis.
– Douglas Atkins, a former Woodruff High School dean, was named assistant principal at Glen Oak School.
– Annette Coleman, principal at Lincoln Middle School, was transferred to Glen Oak School, replacing Valda Shipp.”
I don’t get it. Doesn’t retire mean QUIT WORKING? Every time someone “retires”. The District hires them back…
And there is Shipp’s replacement. Maybe they’ll hire her back as a consultant.
Actually Jane Winter Clark was hired to mentor the “real” new director of special ed, Maureen Langholf. Why the secret Dist. 150? These retired folks get full retirement on top of a nice salary. I don’t get it either. Selfishness?
There must be a new development. There were problems with the PJS software all day. Haney’s story still mentioned tomorrow’s now cancelled 3 p.m. meeting. He probably took it down to bring the story up-to-date. My other guess is that Dr. Lathan still can’t convince all the board members to vote to terminate Shipp. They refused before, didn’t they?
hey 150 observer… I don’t hear any cheering from the sidelines.
“hip hip go away for charlie the clueless” “rah rah rah for teachers and pretenders like charlie”
This summer I decided to read a book called Breaking the Silence: Overcoming the Problem of Principal Mistreatment of Teachers by Joseph and Jo Blase. I hadn’t gotten any further than page 13 when I read this:
“When people are mistreated at work, their focus of attention is diverted from completing their work to try to understand and manage the mistreatment…in other words, to SURVIVING. A fearful and stressed teacher will generally downshift to the lowest mode of functioning. Creativity and innovation suffer. Mistreatement of teachers is especially damaging because such mistreatment is often clearly visible to students.”
It is my hope that Dr. Lathan makes this book a priority read for ALL principals in this district. It is not hard to see which schools have principals that are BULLIES.
I find it hard to believe that Hinton simply got “sick of all the BS.” He could have done himself a favor and not created 99% of it himself.
He wanted to be the Big Cheese, and the board wanted him as well, so he got it, even though (as I recall) he was not professionally qualified for it at the time. That should have been everyone’s first clue…
Not much sympathy here for someone who led the district down so many idiotic, destructive paths, not to mention letting corruption rule the day in his administration (Mary Davis).
150teacher, this is sooooooo true. However, it can happen to principals as well. If a principal or other administrator is being bullied and mistreated at work, their performance downshifts to just trying to survive. HINTON allowed this type of thing. I know, I lived it. I reported to him what was happening and he IGNORED ME. It was pure hell. What did I learn? As an administrator I will NEVER mistreat anyone, no matter what their position is. Everyone needs to be functioning at their best to serve and educate children.
This is not to say you ignore poor performance. But you can deal with it in a respectful and professional manner.
An attempt by the new administrator was made to remove Mrs. Shipp from her office during school hours. Mrs. Shipp did not leave at would seem to be an attempt to embarrass her. She was removed from position of principal that day and according to her husband Mark, also a friend of mine, indications were that she was fired.
I have received emails from former associates of Mrs. Shipp that are favorable to her performance. I have permission to publish but since there appears to be further action by Mrs. Shipp, I will not write anymore on this subject at this time.
Any blogs I wrote about this situation can be accessed from my archives. Nothing has been deleted. My archives available to the reader go back to August 2004 when with the help of another blogger, I started blogging.
Any person in authority over a period of time are subject to creating both friends and enemies. Enemies, especially if they belong to the teachers union.
Merle is right about the friends and enemies. Most principals probably have some of both. Who the friends are and who the enemies are–that’s the determining factor in whether or not the principal (or teacher) keeps his/her job. Also, it’s a balancing act–whether the “good” qualities outweigh the “bad” qualities and vice versa. In Valda’s case, I’m sure she has both friends and enemies who support or dislike her–and so does she have both those to whom she was kind and those to whom she allegedly was not so kind. The number of grievances filed against her and the way the grievances were handled would tell the story about the old administration’s handling of the problems. It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out now with a new superintendent.
“The board does [have] the right to refuse a request on what they consider legal grounds and the PJS has the right to appeal 150?s decision. That is interesting. What was happening in January for which the PJS might be seeking information?”
There’s one FOIA request from the PJS that’s been pending for months because it’s a somewhat novel request that the District felt the law was unclear on, so forwarded it to the state (to the AG’s office, I believe) for an opinion on how to fulfill the request or on what grounds to deny it. We’re still waiting on the state’s direction, AFAIK. I’m on vacation so I can’t look at the materials to see what exactly the request was regarding, but I believe it was something to do with personnel. (But then, denied or questionable FOIAs for District 150 are almost always personnel issues.)
I was told by former Franklin Edison teachers that over 100 grievances had been filed during the 9 years against Valda Shipp. THEN she is “sent” over to Glen Oak to “clean up” Dodge….whatever. She is a self-serving bully who did everything in her power to divide the staff (spies among us) and could rarely be seen anywhere in the building OTHER than her office. She roamed the building at night with her “sidekick” going through teacher’s things in their classrooms. I know she did, I had numerous “See me V” notes in my mailbox because she would take things from my room that she did not “DEEM” appropriate such as ONE holiday decoration (a poster). I do NOT buy her story that she was “blindsided”. She knows FULL WELL why she is no longer a principal in D150. Thank you Dr. Lathan for having the bxxxs to get the job done!
Thanks Dist150 poster for posting that book. I could have helped write that one having worked for the other principal bully who “retired” years ago but the district has been stupid enough to hire back as a “reading tutor” or something over at Whittier. I hear she’s in that principal’s ear all the time, turning her into another bully. And granted there are teachers who need assistance in improving professionally, but there are certain ways to handle those situations and bullying, harassment and humiliation shouldn’t be one of them.
Thanks, Laura, for the information–transparency is great. It keeps us from guessing and/or FOIAing. Transparency hasn’t reached the point yet that would lead me to stop FOIAing. 🙂 Have a great vacation!
I love it when people pretend to speak “for the people”.
Thank you, ‘public sentiment’, for a good laugh.
Did you learn that from Fox News, who constantly begin their “news” stories with “some people say…”?
Why does the Dist always hire other district rejects? Heard many SEAPCO teachers were fed up with Jane Winter-Clark and glad she is gone. Talk about a bully!
Transparency and District 150 in the same sentence? Is that possible? They have all the transparency of a lead lined x-ray room.
cttsp5, remember, Jane is listed as director of sped, however she is just mentoring Maureen Langholf. Maybe Maureen does not yet have the proper endoresement? Who knows. Someone supported her getting that position and as far as I know there were no interviews. More underhanded politics. I was hoping that stuff would be gone under Lathan.
I am wondering about the “post it first rule.” Usually, superintendents bring in only their assistants, but Dr. Lathan is bringing in her people for various positions–without posting. I guess I should ask does the “post it first” rule apply to central administrative positions and to principals, etc.? I ask because those positions are not held by unionized employees, so maybe the rule does not apply.
The jobs were posted however, I don’t think there were interviews held, at least with some of the jobs. Dr. Lathan said “locals” did not apply.
The people Dr. Lathan has hired appear to be highly skilled educators and/or administrators that have very specific expertise.
Since Dr. Lathan appears to know how/what type of school district she wants to build (unlike past Supers), more than likely, the type of expertise she is looking for cannot be found here in Peoria, maybe that’s why locals didn’t apply.
Personally, I welcome all of the fresh ideas we can get.
I welcome fresh ideas also. If this group can change dist. 150, more power to them. If locals did apply and did not get a chance to interview, I would not care for that so much.
Red and Emerge, I agree with both. One word of caution, however, is that new ideas aren’t always good just because they are new or fresh. First of all, someone needs to decide what wasn’t working (can’t say everything–has to be more discriminating than that).
Emerge,
Dr. Lathan hired principals to be central administrators over specific content areas. that’s a big deal, and a good move. the problem is she never took the time to explain that to anyone. it’s okay. she will learn peoria’s need for a frontal explanation for every fart you let slip, and you’ll likely be relatively better for it.
cade
Sharon — I believe you can FOIA other people’s FOIAs. So, if you wanted to find out what the Journal Star requested, you can FOIA the school district for that info. Not necessarily suggesting you do that; just mentioning that it can be done, I believe.