Tag Archives: District 150

McArdle’s Revenge: Mary Davis busted

Via the Journal Star:

Mary C. Davis, principal at Charles Lindbergh Middle School for five years before moving into central administration in 2008 to head up all the district’s principals, was charged Friday with 16 felony counts of official misconduct and theft. … If convicted, she faces up to seven years in prison. Davis was ordered to appear in court on May 19.

She’s not convicted yet, of course, but the State’s Attorney has certainly been taking his time building his case. The prosecutor’s office began investigating her last fall after Lindbergh principal Julie McArdle was fired. McArdle alleged that she was fired out of retaliation for blowing the whistle on Davis. She subsequently sued the district over it. That suit also makes allegations against other district officials; it will be interesting to see what effect the outcome of Davis’s case has on McArdle’s.

District 150 continues to improvise plans for Lincoln, Central

From the Journal Star:

Questions about eliminating four classrooms from an estimated $14 million to $17 million addition at Lincoln Middle School have led District 150 officials to step back and ask whether they should take up the project at all.

The plan was to build an addition onto Lincoln Middle School in order to transform it into a “birth through eighth” school, absorbing the students from the shuttered Kingman and Irving primary schools. Now the District 150 board wants to change or possibly eliminate that addition and use the funds to make more improvements to Peoria High School, which will be absorbing most of the students from Woodruff High School, which closes this Spring. There’s just one problem:

About $30 million in bonds have been sold, contracts signed and property deeded from District 150 to the Public Building Commission two months ago for about $24 million worth of work at Lincoln and Peoria High School. Both projects are expected to get under way this year.

So, this discussion is being held at the 11th hour — after the PBC approved the original plan, sold the bonds, and acquired the land. In other words, it may be too late to do anything about it.

This is what happens when you don’t have a clear plan and you’re working under a deadline to spend millions of dollars. The District 150 Board and former Superintendent Hinton had a five-year window of opportunity to use Public Building Commission money, and during that time they had trouble deciding on a plan. They vacillated on closing a high school for most of that time, finally voting to close it because the PBC supposedly required it in order to get the remaining $30 million available. That caused them to scramble to cobble together a plan to use that $30 million at the last minute. Now they’re having second thoughts about that plan.

Millions in taxpayer money about to be spent, primary school children wondering where they’re going to go to school next year, and the District is still trying to improvise a plan.

Paying a cover charge to see public servants in action

This sounds like an interesting event:

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and education reformer Paul Vallas will anchor discussions on education in Peoria next month.

The forum, pulled together by Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis, is meant to generate discussion on strategies for helping struggling schools and sharing experiences on what’s worked and what hasn’t.

Unfortunately, the organizers of the event, the Institute of Principled Leadership at Bradley University, have decided not to hold this at Bradley or City Hall or District 150 headquarters or some donated venue and open it free to the public, but instead hold it at the Civic Center and charge $50 to $175 to attend. Yep, if you want to hear the mayor talk with the Secretary of Education about your own school district, it will cost you.

I suppose part of the reason is so that taxpayers won’t have to foot the bill for flying in the speakers and putting them up for the night, and possibly for Vallas’ consulting fee if he’s not donating his time again. That’s fine, but it’s hard to imagine that those costs alone warrant ticket prices at the level of a Broadway show. For $175, I want to see Duncan and Vallas do an ice-dancing routine to Bolero. In costume.

The sad thing is that the Peorians most affected by District 150 are the ones who can least afford a $50-175 ticket, so they’re the ones who will be left out of this event. That’s unfortunate. I suppose it’s good for the Civic Center, though. At least the event isn’t being held in East Peoria.

Another D150 administrator put on paid leave

District 150 Director of Technology and Library Media Services Mary Ward has been put on paid administrative leave as the district performs an internal investigation. If past is prelude, taxpayers may be paying her to do nothing for a long time. The last administrator to be put on paid administrative leave, Mary Davis, has been getting paid for nothing since September 2009 — a full six months and counting. Granted, if she’s found guilty, she’ll have to pay it all back. I wonder if that will include interest.

Despite how slowly the process is going, I’m happy to see District 150 doing all these investigations. It’s about time.

Note to D150 employees: Illinois offers whistleblower protection

Another potential scandal at District 150 was revealed last week by the WEEK-TV news team:

Sources tell us district 150 security this week was notified of employees possibly selling District 150 computers illegally over the Internet.

Those sources say there was a raid at the district’s Ricketts Center and several shredders and computer hard drives were confiscated.

Meanwhile, the State’s Attorney office is still investigating the circumstances surrounding Julie McArdle’s termination nearly one year ago. McArdle made multiple allegations of misconduct in a lawsuit against District 150, Academic Officer Mary Davis, former Superintendent Ken Hinton, and former Human Resources Director Tom Broderick.

In light of all this apparent corruption at District 150, I’d just like to offer this public service announcement to District 150 teachers and staff members: Illinois offers whistleblower protection. Julie McArdle not only made her complaints to the police, but also to former Superintendent Hinton, and it was her disclosure to Hinton that allegedly led to retaliation against her. But you don’t have to tell District 150 what you know. According to the State of Illinois’ website, “Your identity as a whistleblower is kept confidential, except in rare circumstances where disclosure is required by law.”

I would encourage any teachers or staffers at District 150 with knowledge and evidence of corruption to tell what you know through the State’s whistleblower process. It will protect you from retaliation, but be a huge benefit to students, parents, and taxpayers. Here’s that site again: whistleblower.illinois.gov.

Attorney General investigating D150 for possible Open Meetings Act violation

This came in the mail to me today from the Attorney General’s office:

February 26, 2010

RE: Open Meetings Act Request for Review — No. 5949

Dear Mr. Summers:

Thank you for submitting your Request for Review to the Public Access Counselor at the Office of the Illinois Attorney General pursuant to the Open Meetings Act (OMA), 5 ILCS 120 et. seq. Your Request related to an event held by the Peoria School District 150 Board of Education on February 16, 2010.

We have determined that further inquiry into the matter is warranted and have asked the Board to provide additional information to aid in our review. We will be reviewing relevant materials to determine whether the Board is in compliance with the requirements of the Act. Multiple requests for review have been filed with the PAC on this particular matter.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 217-785-7438.

Sincerely,

Cara Smith
Public Access Counselor

Related post: District 150 and the Open Meetings Act.

On tonight’s School Board agenda: New Superintendent

The Board of Education for Peoria Public Schools District 150 will meet tonight at district headquarters on Wisconsin Avenue, 6:00 p.m. The most important item on tonight’s agenda:

“12. APPROVAL OF CONTRACT FOR DR. GRENITA LATHAN
Proposed Action: That the employment contract for Dr. Grenita F. Lathan be approved and executed by the parties.”

WCBU-FM (89.9) is reporting that the board is expected to unanimously approve the contract, and that Lathan will not be in attendance at the meeting. If the contract is approved, Lathan is expected to begin July 1.

The board members I’ve talked to have all been impressed by Lathan, and feel she will make a positive difference at District 150. I sincerely wish her the best of luck here in Peoria.

District 150 and the Open Meetings Act

District 150 may have violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act when they held their erroneously-titled “meet and greet” (it was more like a “talk and walk” or “read it and beat it”) this past Tuesday.

There’s a two-part test in the Open Meetings Act to determine when a gathering of board members becomes a “meeting” for purposes of the Act. First, there has to be a majority of a quorum. In District 150’s case, that would be three board members. Four board members were in attendance at the gathering in question: Debbie Wolfmeyer, Laura Petelle, Linda Butler, and Martha Ross. That constitutes not only a majority of a quorum, but a majority of the seven-member Board of Education. Second, the gathering has to be “held for the purpose of discussing public business.” It’s on this point that opinions vary.

District 150 officials, Billy Dennis of the Peoria Pundit, and many commenters on my blog insist that this gathering was not for the purpose of discussing public business. The superintendent candidate read a statement and the board members took questions from the press, but they didn’t discuss public business with each other — thus, no violation. Billy Dennis’ recent post indicates that the Attorney General’s office may be siding with District 150 on this matter. He quotes an e-mail he received from district spokesperson Stacey Shangraw where she says:

While we did not believe we were in violation of the Open Meetings Act, a few concerns were raised from external parties regarding our compliance of the OMA at our media event where we introduced Dr. Lathan. To ensure that our interpretation of the Act was accurate, I followed up with the Public Access Counselor.

This is the response I received today from Sarah Kaplan, a law clerk at the AG’s Chicago office, who told me she conferred with Lola Dada-Olley, an attorney in the AG’s Chicago office.

“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….”

The key phrase here is: “After reviewing the information you provided us.” Of course, we don’t know what information was provided. Furthermore, we don’t know much about who’s giving the opinion. Lola Dada-Olley has been with the Attorney General’s office a little over a month, having started in January of this year according to LinkedIn. Can’t find anything on Sarah Kaplan the law clerk. However, the Public Access Counselor for Illinois is Cara Smith, and she’s in Springfield, not Chicago.

Peoria County State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons thinks they did, in fact, violate the Open Meetings Act, according to the Journal Star:

“Violations of this act always involve quirky levels, and this one is no different,” Lyons said in an e-mail response, “. . . the meeting was clearly a public meeting with notification deficits and exclusion problems. The members present were in noncompliance of the act and the (State’s Attorney’s Office) could sanction, charge, or otherwise seek any level of ‘penalty’ or remedy available.” […]

“Even a casual gathering, such as a dinner party or coincidental meeting on the sidewalk, becomes a public meeting if a majority of a quorum of a public body (or a committee, etc. thereof) is present, and discussion occurs regarding business that is before, or is likely to come before, that public body,” Lyons said….

“A public body, no matter how well-intentioned, may not hold a public meeting and define for itself who may and may not attend the meeting. Public means everyone unless they, for cause, have been ejected or barred (disruption, etc.). Posting and distribution of notices for all public meetings are set out in the act and may not be narrowed by the public body.”

Lyons wasn’t relying on information he received from District 150 in writing his opinion, and he apparently thinks what was talked about during the gathering constituted a “discussion” of public business for purposes of the Act.

But whether or not you think they violated the Act, the big question is: Does it matter in this case? After all, the press was there, and nothing was done in secret, so isn’t this much ado about nothing?

And the answer is “yes and no.” If District 150 had built up trust and credibility with the public over a number of years, I’m sure everyone would give them the benefit of the doubt and just say it was an honest mistake. But District 150 hasn’t done that. It wasn’t that long ago that District 150 agreed in closed session to purchase properties on Prospect Road adjacent to Glen Oak Park, and then actually bought the properties, all in clear violation of the Open Meetings Act. They never apologized or admitted any fault. They subsequently approved the purchases in open session, something lawyers call post-action ratification. That did tremendous damage to the public’s trust. Since then, controversial votes based on questionable information (e.g., shortening school days supposedly to improve classroom instruction, closing Woodruff supposedly to save $2.7 million) have further eroded the board’s credibility. So when an apparent violation of the Open Meetings Act occurs now, even if it’s a little thing, it’s a big deal.

The public has every right to suspect that this latest gathering violated the Open Meetings Act, and that the violation was because of either (a) ignorance or (b) wanton disregard. The public wonders, “if they’ll abuse the Act in a little thing like this, what’s to stop them from abusing it in big things when nobody’s looking?”

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

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.