Peoria Public Schools

Finalist arrives to greet press, sees shadow; five more months of interim

125 Comments

Like a shooting star, the finalist for Superintendent of Peoria Public Schools District 150 made a very brief public appearance Tuesday:

At a brief event billed as a “meet and greet” between Peoria School District 150’s finalist for school superintendent and members of the media, Grenita Lathan called on the community to get behind the city’s schools…. Lathan took no questions from the media Tuesday during the event, leaving after reading her minute-and-a-half speech.

That’s right. District 150 invited all the press down for a big “meet and greet,” and it consisted of the finalist coming in, reading a 90-second statement, then quickly leaving the room without taking any questions. No meeting. No greeting. Just reading and running.

*sigh*

You know, I really don’t go looking for negative things to say about District 150. In fact, I’ve been trying to be very positive about this whole superintendent search, and I’m still hopeful that Ms. Lathan will bring some stability and lots of improvement to the district.

But what exactly was the point of this falsely-advertised non-event? To tick off the press corp? To damage trust? To reinforce the culture of stonewalling and non-transparency they’ve worked so hard to establish? What? If all they wanted was to share a short statement and not take questions, why didn’t they just send out a press release and save everyone a bunch of time?

Also of note, citizen journalist Billy Dennis was denied entry to the press conference. From his description, it sounds like they spent more time arguing with him than the superintendent finalist spent reading her statement. I’m guessing this was just an attempt to make sure everyone went away disappointed.

I hope this is not indicative of district communication under a Lathan administration.

125 thoughts on “Finalist arrives to greet press, sees shadow; five more months of interim”

  2. Emerge: “help find solutions to our problems”

    The administration IS the problem. Their “run it like a business” attitude is what has caused ALL of the problems. It is not a business. It can not be run like a business.
    The solution is to decentralize the education system, put local principles and their teaching staff in charge of curriculum, assessment and objectives. The ONLY purpose of a central administration should be INSURING EQUALITY, that is, JUSTICE.

  3. Sorry, Charlie, but I think you meant to attribute the quote to Emtronics, not Emerge.

    Attached is an article from an organizational design expert, William Ouchi, suggesting the same decentralized approach. (empowering individual schools and staff, having smaller, community oriented schools, less administrative waste, etc.) You might be familiar with it since he tried to get the L.A. public school system to embrace it. Alas, he is also a business professor…

    http://www.strategy-business.com/media/file/sb43_06212.pdf

  4. Thank you for the correction… apologies all around.

    Great article… should be required reading for anyone interested in education.
    “Our school districts have not
    altered their structure. They are
    run exactly as they were in the
    1950s. And they don’t work.”

    I do disagree with him about tenure, but that is an area I am willing to negotiate… I agree that if scratch the surface of the most cynical teacher you will find an idealist still… but that is why I am against tenure and he is for it.

  5. Well, sharoncrews, there is absolutely no proof they erred with 3 board members being at the intro meeting for the new boss. This is small potatos and, even if it is a technical error (and I don’t believe it is), there is no damage done by some board members being at a media event. Nothing was done in secret here, if the board members were intending to have some illegal discussions, they sure as heck wouldn’t have done it in front of the media. Quite honestly, even this accusation makes it appear some are simply nitpicking and looking for trouble where it doesn’t exist.

    It hurts the cause of the Dist 150 enemies to even make these accusations. It simply makes the accusers look foolish and petty, IMO.

  6. “Dist 150 enemies” … you seem to imply that District 150 IS the administration and not the students… Who gives a crap about the administration here? We are concerned about the students!

    now I’m smdh

  7. well, maybe a poor choice of words. My bad. How about District 150 critics?

    I, for one, do give a crap about the administration. They are the leaders of the district and I want the best leaders possible.

    Here is my point. This open meeting accusation is foolish. It is form over substance. There is plenty to criticize Dist 150 over. The fact that three board members go to the presser to intro a new boss shouldn’t even be on the radar of the critics. It astounds me that we are still even talking about it.

  9. 150 Observor–The problem, of course, is not whether or not they violated the Opens Meeting Act (although this BOE has been careless a few times on that score–no reason they can’t follow the law and no reason why they can’t get good advice from their lawyers). We wouldn’t be having this discussion if there weren’t some question about whether or not the OMA was violated. You keep saying there were three at this event–I thought there were four. The problem is the way this whole appointment of a superintendent and now her introduction have been handled. The BOE has done a great disservice to their own choice by the way all this has been handled. First, they spring a single finalist on us without any warning–and I just don’t buy the confidentiality reason for the secrecy. Then the press is invited to meet and greet her–only to find out that they can’t even speak to her or ask her questions (thus, wasting their time and further–in essense–shutting the public out again). Instead of anticipating criticism (which they certainly should have anticipated), they seem to just stumble forward with heads buried in the sand and/or with absolutely no regard for the reaction of the public. Lathan’s choice was announced with all sorts of superlatives and one committee member (not board member) called her “meteoric,” and we are told that when we meet her, we will all feel the same way. Well, the first meeting didn’t go that well. I for one am tired of hype. Don’t tell us how to feel before we get the experience firsthand. I have heard the hype for Edison, for Johns Hopkins, and for how wonderfully the plan for PHS is working, etc.–so I have no reason to believe what I am told–just what I see for myself and I do know that is all “in the eye of the beholder.” Emerge, we are both shaking our heads (and I, too, had to go to Google), but probably for different reasons. 🙂

  10. 150 Observor: Whom do you call ememies of District 150–did it ever occur to you that maybe those who are its worst critics love its students and the public school, in general, the most? We hate to see it fail. Many young people and some who are very important in my life still must rely on District 150 for an education–they are not being well served.

  11. A little birdy told me that the Peoria Charter School will spend one year at Loucks and then move to it’s new building……Woodruff! How appropriate. So when the district has to take it back over (when the business community quits chipping in), what will the new name be? Woodruff Charter School? What a laugh……

  12. EMTRONICS: “I just wish all the energy used here and on other blogs to bash and degrade the schools in Peoria was put toward people stepping up to help find solutions to our problems. Some of you people if put on the Titanic would drill holes in the hull to the let the water coming in back out.” I can’t agree more. AMEN! However, I have been in numerous focus groups, on comittees, written emails, written letters, and offered up solutions for simple problems, and they have all fallen on deaf ears. I for one am a mom that logs into skyward every morning and evening to see the progress of both of my PSD150 children. While attending fall parent teacher conferences, I discovered a lot of unhappy parents because of the childs report card. I wrote every single person on the board suggesting that each school offer the use of a computer every morning and afternoon after school for families without computers to access Skyward. Also have someone on-site to help lend a hand for instructions on accessing Skyward. This way the parent(s) without computer access can see where their child is performing and avoid that “shock factor” at the time of report cards. Skyward is one of the most positive tools that PSD150 can give a parent. I am tired of trying to come up with solutions. I heard from one board member within the hour of forwarding my email suggestion (by the way, this board member has always responded to me.) 3 days later, I received a reply from one more board member. Fast forward 3+months I have yet to receive a reply from any of the other board members. So, how does the average tax-paying mom go about offering up solutions? I don’t have all the answers. However, I am out amongst the common folk enough to be able to recognize where we can make some simple adjustments. We want parents to be responsible! Well, unfortunately, not everyone has the resources or know-how. We can start by educating them on utilizing Skyward. HELP ME because I am tired of trying.

  14. SharonCrews, you have no argument from me regarding the mismanagement at Dist 150 or the nature of the “press conference”. My ONLY point is the discussion here on the Freedom of Info Act potential violation is misguided. Board members who will hire this person went to the press conference. I think that is perfectly acceptable. I don’t blame them.

    I have been on public boards and never hesitated to go to functions where other board members attended. You just have to make sure you don’t discuss board business but you can’t walk around town in a bubble avoiding other board members.

  15. Charlie-

    Just read the article. Very interesting. Couple of quotes I find interesting.

    “None of the favorite silver bullets is going to work, though, unless principals are empowered and can in turn empower teachers and parents”. “Any School Board is threatened by the idea of granting power to the principals and teachers. That means central office bureaucrats lose power and they will not do it voluntarily”. How do folks think these comments relate to D150?

  17. I’m not sure about empowering principals–several of them seem very empowered right now. I guess we should ask “empowered” to do what? We need some principals who are capable of building a “team” spirit in their buildings. My first principal at Roosevelt Jr. High was Buck Smith. Almost every day he announced on the loud speaker that Roosevelt–its teachers and its students–were the best in the Midwest, sometimes in the country. One day a 7th grader asked me, “Is that true?” To which I replied, “You heard the man.” Those days of principal support and pride are long gone. Many would like to empower principals to be able to get rid of bad teachers. Principals should have the discerning power to know which new teachers need to be nurtured into becomeing great teachers and which really don’t belong in the field. Principals should be engaged more in the process of nurturing than in weeding out. A bad principal would be one who has a divided faculty–based on how the teachers feel about the principal. Of course, the biggest problem is the extent to which 150 principals are obligated to do as they are told by the central administration–and. thus, motivated only by their desire to keep their jobs. Another story about Buck Smith–I remember hearing him on the phone telling someone from the central administration, “If you don’t like it, come and get my keys.”

  18. It could not work under Hinton, he led by fear and intimidation. People were scared. I’ve never seen the culture of District 150 so bad than under Hinton. Now, can that change? Yes, if the leader allows it.

  20. District 150 media event vs. Tiger Woods’ media event. 150 did and Woods is going to provide only a statement (no questions). With 150 the press wasn’t notified that there would be no time for questions; Woods let the press know. In 150 the press showed up for nothing. For the Woods event some media have decided to stay home and just report on the press release.

  21. Does anyone know how much taxpayer money D150 spends annually on legal fees concerning broken policies and/or laws? It would be nice to see a graph illustrating a 10-yr trend for legal expenses. Maybe this would help determine whether or not the district is improving.

  23. SJT – “Welcome to the Party.” Of course that was the plan. It wouldve made sense for #150 to put forth a “Dist. #150 2014 Plan” and simply told the public this is what they envisioned. INstead, lies, deception, etc..rule. I am guessing though the Charter School will be at Loucks for 2 years so when they make the move they have Freshmen and Sophomores at the Woodruff Campus. Hopefully if this happens the public might finally understand that #150 administration and BOE are simply liars! What a shame.

  24. I asked admin directly at an open committee meeting if there was ANY consideration being given to sell WHS or allow it to be used for the charter and was told “no”. I have not heard it discussed at all by Board members, except to say they had heard “rumors”. I can tell you I have had conversations inquiring about what might become of it, but those “ideas” will be vetted through the facilities review being embarked upon. Those are the facts.

  25. Jim, what will be your position be on the issue if the rumors are confirmed that in fact “they” do plan on using Woodruff for the Charter facility? And let’s give a name to “they” shall we? The buck should stop with you as a board member but it doesn’t does it? C’mon. We are all freinds here.

  27. Oh Jim, why do you bother coming here with your “facts”? It’s much more fun (and productive) to hear from little birdies and call people liars 🙂

  28. Jim, I, for one, am going to take your word about Woodruff and the charter school. And I’m going to hope that you will fight such an idea if it ever comes to the fore. I will take that question off my list for Monday. Just opened my mail–thanks for the CD (DVD–I know how to play them; just never know what to call them). 🙂 I am curious to know what Jerry has been up to in Florida. My guess would be deepsea diving. I’m now getting ready to go to the Civic Center to watch my favorite Richwoods freshman compete in the State Speech Tournament. Maybe I will see you there–I believe there is, also, a Manual senior competing (one who was on Karen’s speech team when she was coach and now on Hinton’s team).

  29. Wondering – fiends? friends? Yes, we are. I am trying to get a working dialog about having the HS component of the charter @ PHS actually. I hope the charter folks will at least consider the possibility. I would like to think that they could both co-exist on a renewd PHS “educational campus” and that we should strive to offer a vibrant medical, math,and science curriculum that reaches many more than just those enrolled in the Charter school. One PHS teacher stated at a board meeting that “we can do it better”. I say, let’s try! I will not support WHS campus becoming the Charter facility PERIOD – That, to me, just would not be right.

  31. I tried to register on billy’s peoria pundit blog and it wouldn’t confirm me…so since you mentioned billy dennis being turned away from the probable supertintendent meet and greet, I’ll comment here. My questions are, #1) is billy a blogger or a citizen journalist? They’re two different things in my book. (Reminds me of the Andy Griffith Show episode where Gomer Pyle pulled the ‘citizen’s arrest’ on Barney Fife) Question #2) When was the last time billy covered a District 150 Board meeting? He used to show up at at some city council meetings(but sources tell me he hasn’t been to one in over a year), but I don’t recall he’s been at a 150 board meeting for quite a while either, if ever, so why does he think he deserves entry as a so called ‘citizen journalist’. The meeting wasn’t open to the public was it? Seems to me billy wants to always have his cake and eat it too. It smacks of arrogance to me.

  33. Outside the box, we are past that point. The question at hand now is why was anyone excluded from that meeting?

  34. Lucy–exactly! By the way, why isn’t the agenda for Monday’s BOE meeting on the District 150 website? It is always posted on Friday before the work day is over. 150 might not want to acknowledge the existence of blogs or bloggers, but they are a fact of life with which to be reckoned. Sweeping dirt under the rug will continue to be more difficult.

  37. Reading the article further, we now learn that they will not only replace Hannah, but an additional Admin to be a “coach” for Latham…as they continue to look for ways in which to cram 1600 kids into Central.

  38. I guess District 150 needs to read the law or to get a lawyer who can read it for them. Isn’t it strange that so many other people realized that this “Meet and Greet” violated the Open Meetings Act, but the BOE didn’t give it a thought?

  40. Again, the D150 BoE denies, denies, denies that they do anything wrong. Who cares if it was or was not done with malice or contempt, it is STILL wrong. Maybe Wolfie needs to read up on her JOB as the president of the BoE. This is yet another embarrassment to our schools, parents, and students. Everyone in town (and out) knew a violation had ocurred, except them. When I am asked where I am from, I say Brimfield because it is too embarrassing to say Peoria, without being laughed at……

  41. Well, D150 did seek guidance on the matter via the Public Access Counselor who conferred with the Chicago AG who gave them a different answer than Lyons did:

    “After reviewing the information you provided us, it does not sound like the press conference (or future press conferences of this nature) violated the OMA.
    So long as the attending members are not conducting business, and Board members were just talking to members of the media, you are covered.”

    http://peoriapundit.com/blogpeoria/2010/02/19/my-final-word-on-the-meeting-that-wasnt/

    To be fair, it seems the main problem was over what Wolfmeyer talked to the media about (while the other board members were there).

    And, of course, the whole issue transpired because:

    “In the school district’s defense, sources there say three of the four board members showed up unannounced. The fourth gave about an hour’s notice.”

    So, if only Wolfmeyer was there and said the exact same things to the media, there would be no violation? Form over substance.

  42. I sit on a board and anyone with half a brain knows that D150 violated the OMA….period. I didn’t need any special adviser to tell me that either!

  43. From the PJS article: She (Wolfie) later noted that the board also will contemplate hiring a “mentor” or “coach” to help Lathan acclimate into the new position, as well as addressing how they would look to Lathan for guidance in filling the associate superintendent’s position, which is being vacated by Herschel Hannah.

    Are you kidding me? If she can’t come in and acclimate herself and hire an assistant sup then she should not be hired as superintendent. OUTRAGEOUS!!!!

    Sharon, ya, why isn’t the agenda posted. Board policy states it has to be.

  46. Jon, I just have to ask. Are you seeking a job with District 150? As for the advice the board was given–why would they have to ask? Shouldn’t they know the provisions of the Open Meetings Act and shouldn’t they err on the side of caution? They know they have been on shaky ground lately with regard to their carelessness in following the Open Meetings Act.

  49. They have been careless in many areas recently. Jon, it may be more form over substance but ignorance does not excuse a violation of a law.

  50. Jon, if it was discovered that the District was routinely eating babies you would argue there was a good reason why. The phone call they made to the public action counseler was surely a spoon feeding of the select details needed to get the answer they were looking for. At what point will you stop lumping us all into the stupid category?

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