Tonight is the final Woodruff High School Attendance Area School Site Selection forum. It will be held at Glen Oak Primary School, 809 E. Frye Ave., at 7:00 p.m.

Alert blogger Brad Carter commented on another post:

I wasn’t sure where to post this, but tonight is the final forum for the Woodruff feeder school and in the latest school board meeting it was stated that city representatives would be in attendance. Also, the board seemed to feel as the city would be willing to contribute financially.

The board is right. In the proposed 2008 city budget, there is money set aside to potentially help District 150 — if they build a school in the East Bluff.

There’s a Capital Improvement Project request for $344,000 titled “Park to Support School in the East Bluff.” The description of the project is, “These funds are being requested to purchase and develop park-like property in the East Bluff to support a school.” The reason/justification is:

The City of Peoria sold property in Southtown that was designated for open space under a grant from Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Funds from selling this property with the IDNR grant designation must now be used for purchasing property within another location. The location must be open space to be used as a park and must be approved by IDNR for the conversion. Since these are restricted funds, the area they are to be used in is somewhat limited. Using these funds for a park-like setting to support a school in the East Bluff would be an ideal use of these funds. Final approval of the project would rest with IDNR.

In other words, the request is saying, “we’ll spend $344,000 to create a park-like setting if the school board builds a school in the East Bluff. Otherwise, we’ll find another way to use the money that doesn’t directly benefit the school district.” It’s also interesting to note that this is less than the $500,000 that was offered last year for property acquisition if the school district would build a replacement school on the site of the current Glen Oak School instead of adjacent to the park. I know Third District Councilman Bob Manning is planning to speak tonight, so perhaps he will mention this funding in his remarks.

Also planning to speak is Beth Akeson, Vice Chair of the Heart of Peoria Commission. And at the first forum, Roberta Parks spoke on behalf of the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce and said the school board should consider sites that have “better spin-off potential” or potential for economic development around the new school, both residential and commercial. She said at that time the chamber didn’t have a specific site they recommended, but may have one by the last meeting, so I would expect to hear a presentation from the chamber as well.

I expect this to be the best attended, most vocal, and longest meeting of the four forums.