Peoria Public Schools

D150: “We really want the community’s input and the parents’ input”

6 Comments

This is an encouraging story out of District 150.

The school board wants the community’s and parents’ input on where to put a new school in the Woodruff High School attendance area. Thankfully, Glen Oak Park is not one of the options, and they still appear willing to consider the current Glen Oak School site. So there is reason to hope.

Here are eight options the school board unveiled:

  1. Peoria Stadium site
  2. Von Steuben School site
  3. Glen Oak School site
  4. Site adjacent to Woodruff High School
  5. White School site
  6. Adjacent to Morton Square
  7. Adjacent to Constitution Park
  8. Kingman School site

They say the list is not exhaustive and that the public can nominate locations not on the list. Here’s a map of the locations, corresponding to the numbers in the list above. The red outline shows the attendance area for Glen Oak and White schools — the ones that are being replaced:

Location Map

I’m willing to give any location a fair shake, but if we’re looking for the one that’s closest to everyone in the attendance area among the sites currently under consideration, I think it’s obvious from the map that the best location is the site of the current Glen Oak School.

I mean, can you imagine busing all the children from the Glen Oak/White attendance area to the stadium? Or Kingman school? Besides, the school board already owns the Glen Oak School property, so they wouldn’t have to spend money on land acquisition — that is, unless they haven’t abandoned their arbitrary 15-acre minimum site requirement. Let’s hope they have.

6 thoughts on “D150: “We really want the community’s input and the parents’ input””

  1. CJ: Nice post. I am not willing to give every location a fair shake. Just as there was an outcry regarding building at the GOP site, there should likewise be an outcry to converting any established park to a school in a park or school adjacent to a park site.

    I live right by Morton Square Park — and folks — it is the only piece of public green space for a park except for the newly dedicated Frank Lewis Park at the corner of Wayne and Monroe on the entire Near Northside. This is the time that the Peoria Park Board Trustees should step up to the plate and just say “NO” — loud and clear to D150 that any established parks are off limits to the school in an established park idea. Let’s save everybody’s time at the September 2007 meetings for public input.

    Additionally, please remember the D150 meeting held at Woodruff Commons last May, Mr. Cahill went through the elimination of Morton Square Park and Constitution Gardens — this flip flopping is making them look like land fish.

    I am grateful that a new methodology appears to be in the works — the comparison of the input and the output will be the real telling factors if the talk is sincere.

    It would be interesting to know upfront what type of criteria the school board will be using to evaluate the qualities of each potential site prior to a final decision for improved public input.

  2. Karrie– If the school district were to decide (and let’s hope they don’t) to put a school adjacent to a park, there’s nothing the park district can do to stop them. All the park district can do is say they can’t put a school in the park. Like you, I’m opposed to putting a school in a park. But I’m also not too keen on putting the school adjacent to a park because, first of all, there is no park land in a better location than the current Glen Oak School site, and secondly, the cost of land acquisition would be too high, as has been proven by the school board’s aborted efforts to get land next to Glen Oak Park.

  3. Pingback: Woodruff High School being replaced!? | Peoria Pundits

  4. I agree with Karrie. Also site #7 is out of the question. Constitution Park sits in the middle of the original Peoria Riverfront Park and is next door to the Rock Island Depot which has other plans for it. It is owned by the city of Peoria and presently occupied by the park district for their equipment in exchange for landscaping work in that city owned park. And, as I said earlier there are other plans for that which are not going to be abandoned.

  5. Making little kids cross War Memorial seems absolutely insane to me! Why not just build the school adjacent to I 74? And it’s the furthest site. Two big negatives on that one, imho.

  6. Anyone else think that at least some of these eight sites were included as straw horses? The cynic in me thinks the school board already knows which site they want and this is just a show.

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