From the Journal Star: “In a surprise move Monday, the Peoria District 150 School Board terminated its contract with treasurer/controller Pam Schau, an at-will employee, effective immediately.”
The district isn’t saying why they fired Schau — they can’t discuss personnel issues. But Schau herself told the newspaper that Superintendent Lathan called her after the meeting and told her “the board felt I was not providing sufficient leadership in the area of accounting.”
Schau’s contract allows her to be fired without cause, according to the paper. She’s been employed by District 150 just over a year.
Is Willow Knolls still Dunlap district (1/4 mile from Richwoods?)
Thanks to all of you for your responses. I had never heard of that either. Also if someone moved to a different school district and their child currently attends RHS and was going to be a junior but wanted to go to RHS for junior and senior year, could they attend RHS their last two years if they were still living in Dist 150 the 1st day of school of their junior year or is it senior year?
she is busy being teh District Watcher on 150 threads so she can’t get to the museum thread right now.
cttsp5–maybe someone else will answer, but I believe if your student is in IB, he or she can attend Richwoods, as long as you reside in D150 boundaries. It can be confusing because it appears that “past practice” has been to make boundary exceptions for “pet” families.
TR64 – I believe that IB is open to all students (not to just “pet” families). I believe that my “pet” IB student 🙂 had to be accepted into the program. Even though she went to Washington Gifted, I think I recall her waiting to hear whether or not she was accepted in IB. I am not sure what is used to decide qualifications. I would assume that the boundary waivers would come automatically with acceptance into the program. I suppose there is always room for argument about whether or not the students belong to “pet” families. However, it is my understanding that the IB is not full to capacity and that the principal would like to see more students in the program–so I guess he’s looking for more “pet” families. 🙂 TR64, were you referring to boundary exceptions for students who do not live in District 150? If so, I would be curious to know how many out-of-district students go to Richwoods.
It is just my guess that District 150 will take top students from wherever they can entice them.
It is against the law for a student from another district to go to a neighboring district UNLESS they pay OUT OF DISTRICT tuition, which is in the thousands of dollars. Reference ISBE and IHSA……..
I know of at least one family that pays out of district tuition to attend D150. They have a right to do so. Look back on the not-too-distant Lindbergh debacle and you will be reminded of boundary waivers that are reportedly not in accordance with ISBE. Perhaps that was an isolated case. Perhaps not. (I did not intend for the “pet” family remarks to be isolated to IB or Richwoods, in fact, they’re not.)
In the 1990’s if you were a senior and lived in the district on the 1st day of school, the student could attend the school for the rest of the year even if the family moved on the 2nd day. I just didn’t know if this was still true and if it was only seniors or was it juniors too.
TR64–sorry I got carried away with the “pet”–but I know there are those who think both the IB and Washington Gifted students are chosen that way. Of course, in this world of favoritism (of which, District 150 is a part), there is a good chance the assumption has merit. Before I am willing to make that assumption, I would want to know how many students who wanted either option were refused and why. I would imagine that most of the questionable boundary waivers are within 150 boundaries (such as the Lindbergh case).
Sharon–your reaction is understandable (sp?). I would be more concerned with the waiting list of “choice” schools than the actual selection process (not IB). The “selection process” is closely monitored. The waiting list? Well, who knows.
The waiting list for choice schools, that is. (I mean,) I’m not aware of a waiting list for IB.
Fresh off the presses: All D150 principals had to turn in their activity fund check books to the district office. The D150 accounting office will now be writing all activity fund checks for all buildings….
Just a couple of thoughts:
1. Do they need to hire 6 more accounting clerks(as posted on D150 website) to relieve principals of yet another administrative responsibility?
2. Is this related to the recent termination without cause of treasurer/comptroller Pam Schau?
3. Are we still cleaning up messes caused by Mary Davis?
Please update.
cttsp5
The law is that any student that resides in a tax paying address on the first day of school is entitled to finish that school year at the district receiving the taxes if they move during the year. However, they can not attend without paying tuition after that year. (Tuition is based on the average tax value per household which includes business taxes… it is huge and set by the states formula. PSD 150 tuition is almost 10K a year.)
The mythical “senior rule” does not exist. It is for anyone that moves after the first day of school. I think that many of the underclassmen chose to enroll in the new district since they will have to the following year… so people connect it only with seniors.
Transfers from one district to another is determined by school code (the law). Transfers within the district need to be determined by district procedure. However, IHSA bylaws for sports are completely another issue.
Many students can legally answer the requirements to attend a school but still not be eligible to play sports under IHSA guidelines.
Thanks, Anon for the answer.
Did they approve the people at last nights BOE meeting that were apparently hired at the previous board meeting?
Interesting cryptic comments from Lathan on WMBD 1470 regarding Schau’s firing.
“Since there’s such a tight timeline, why couldn’t the decision to fire Schau wait until after this stage of the budget process is complete? District 150 Superintendent Grenita Lathan says, “There were elements of the budget in place and we just needed to finalize them. We had to make decisions that were in the best interests of the children in our district.”
Lathan continues, “Sometimes it doesn’t meet the timing deadlines of the state or the national level but, once again, when you do what’s in the best interest of the children you do it and you do it immediately if you have to.”
It’s always for the children…..isn’t it? Or so the official statment says.
Those are very odd comments. She practically implies that Pam was out back every morning beating the kids.
It is in the best interests of the children to kick out someone else’s friends and bring my own in…
It is in the best interests of the children to drag on lawsuits against the district while racking up enormous legal fees.