The final school siting forum took place Thursday night at Glen Oak School. Over thirty people spoke, a majority of whom favored building two schools including one at the current Glen Oak School site. In addition, there were official presentations by Roberta Parks of the Chamber of Commerce and Bob Manning of the City of Peoria.

Chamber presentation

[Update: I just received a copy of the Chamber’s official letter to the school board; read a PDF version of it by clicking here.]

Roberta Parks on behalf of the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce gave a short presentation endorsing the Glen Oak School site. She stated up front, “it’s not the Chamber’s job to tell the district where to locate a school,” but she felt there were some economic issues to consider along with everyone else’s comments. Specifically, the Chamber worked with four real estate developers to evaluate the district’s proposed sites to see which one could best leverage a $20 million infusion of public funds — i.e., which site had the most potential to spur additional development or redevelopment of residential or commercial property.

The Chamber group determined that a new school would have the most impact on residential property, and only an indirect impact on commercial property (over time, a stable neighborhood will create small-scale commercial development, she said). They made the following observations of each site:

• Constitution Gardens, Morton Square, Peoria Stadium — These three sites were dismissed because Morton Square is in an historic district and the other two sites are two far removed from the area they are supposed to serve.
• Von Steuben site — This site is in the most stable neighborhood, with a good percentage of owner-occupied residential property. Thus, the Chamber doesn’t feel that an infusion of public money here is going to improve this already-strong neighborhood very much.
• Glen Oak School site — This neighborhood is “at or near a tipping point” in its balance of owner-occupied versus rental property, so an infusion of public dollars on this site would be put to good use strengthening this area.
• Woodruff/Lincoln site — This area has more rental than owner-occupied property surrounding it, but benefits already from the new Lincoln school, so an additional infusion of money would not be as much of a benefit here as other areas.
• Kingman site — There is significant rental in this area already, so it’s unclear whether investment will turn this neighborhood around.

It should be noted that the Chamber was approaching this from the standpoint of picking one site for the Woodruff attendance area, not two. It would have interesting to hear what their choices would have been if they picked on site on the bluff and one in the valley. They also looked at which neighborhood they thought would be damaged the most by losing a school, and determined that the Glen Oak School neighborhood would take the biggest hit. So, they strongly recommend building on the Glen Oak School site.

City presentation

Bob Manning, third district councilman for the City of Peoria, began by saying the school district nor the city can succeed by themselves; we’re all interdependent and need to work together to achieve common goals. He then strongly endorsed the Glen Oak School site for the construction of a new school. He pointed out numerous configurations that are available to assemble a six- to nine-acre site in the East Bluff around Glen Oak School.

He said the council has tentatively budgeted $344,000 to create a park-like setting in the East Bluff, and he’s working with staff to identify more funds, possibly from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). There’s also $100,000 tentatively budgeted for improving the Wisconsin business corridor. He highlighted the city’s efforts to combat crime, and pointed to statistics showing crime is trending down the last two years in the area around the school. The has also made efforts to make certain neighborhoods enterprise zones to encourage reinvestment in older neighborhoods.

Manning addressed funding issues from the school district’s perspective as well. He pointed out that since the Heartland Clinic opened in the East Bluff, there would be no need for the new school to duplicate that service, so there is room for cost savings there. He also pointed out that the district has $32 million in Health Life Safety bonds available, almost $900,000 in properties they could sell on Prospect Avenue, other property such as White School that could be sold, and Public Building Commission funds available.

The councilman concluded by saying, here in the East Bluff, the city, Heartland Clinic, the Boys and Girls Clubs, churches, and others “are all here to be your [the school district’s] strategic partners.”

Neighbors and students

Over two dozen other people spoke. Pastor Martin Johnson, who has a church in the area, stated that “children deserve to be proud of their neighborhood and their school.” He recommended the Glen Oak School site.

Darryl Ward gave a well-researched and passionate presentation in favor of the Lincoln/Woodruff site. Three Glen Oak School students also read papers they had written as a class assignment. All three favored the Lincoln/Woodruff site as well.

Steve Katlack, who had spoken at the previous three forums, spoke at this final one as well. He stated that he lives on the East Bluff and just last week he had his window shot out. “But I’m staying,” he said to thunderous applause. Taking Glen Oak School away would “tear the heart out of the neighborhood,” he said. He said he understands that getting a new school would not be a panacea, but it would give his neighborhood a fighting chance. “That’s all we’re asking. Give us a fighting chance, please,” he concluded.