Tag Archives: District 150

Peoria Public Schools

Schau made $6.5 million “accounting error” in previous job

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Main Township High School District 207 in suburban Chicago is having a serious budget crisis. According to the Daily Herald, they are looking at cutting 137 jobs, 75 of them teachers. Why?

After months of alluding to an “accounting error” that led to a larger-than-anticipated deficit that year, District 207 administrators last week explained how it happened.

The district’s current leaders learned last July – weeks after Superintendent Joel Morris and Assistant Superintendent for Business Pamela Schau [emphasis added] retired – that a projected deficit of $3.8 million for the 2008-09 fiscal year was actually $10.3 million.

Pamela Schau became the Comptroller/Treasurer at Peoria Public School District 150 right after she retired from District 207 in July 2009, replacing Guy Cahill. The Daily Herald article continues:

What officials didn’t anticipate was the additional $6.5 million deficit due to the then-administration’s failure to include some expenses in that year’s budget, current Assistant Superintendent for Business Mary Kalou said.

Those missed expenses were salaries and benefits for some of the 12 newly hired teachers and teaching assistants and increased district contribution toward the Teacher Retirement System per changes made to the teachers contract – amounting to $2.4 million.

The district also saw a dip that year in property tax revenues – personal property tax receipts came in 1 percent lower or $1.5 million under what was budgeted and corporate property taxes were down $500,000 as per the report from the
free invoice template used by most of the business- that weren’t known until after Kalou joined the district last July 1.

“It’s hard to say what they should, shouldn’t have done,” Kalou said. “Hindsight is always going to be 20/20. (With taxes) you can’t predict with certainty what that trend is going to be for … it was a reasonable amount to budget.”

Other contributors to the deficit were two unexpected early retirements – including Schau – that cost the district a $300,000 penalty under state law, and lower than expected revenues from the district’s book store, summer school and tuition, she added.

An anonymous commenter on the Daily Herald article suggested that District 207, under Superintendent Ken Wallace, “paid a nearly 200,000 penalty to TRS to hasten the departure of error-maker Pam Schau.” Consider the source on that last comment. Sometimes anonymous commenters are ignorant cranks with an axe to grind; other times they are conscientious citizens with insider information they could get fired (or compromise their source) for sharing on the record. Wallace was quoted in the June 26 (2009) Journal Star as saying Schau is a “really, really bright, talented person … genuinely a nice person, good people skills, good problem solving – Peoria would be well served, lucky, to get her.”

A request for comment from Ms. Schau was not immediately answered.

2010 Election, Blogosphere, General News, Museum Block, Peoria County, Peoria Public Schools, Peoria Times-Observer

Saturday must-see links

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If you haven’t already seen these this week, you’ll want to check them out:

  • Outside the Horseshoe for January 26, 2010, from WCBU 89.9 FM radio. Tanya Koonce has a conversation with Peoria County Administrator Patrick Urich, Peoria County State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons, and County Board Members Andrew Rand (Dist. 4) and Stephen Morris (Dist. 10) about the proposed Peoria Riverfront Museum project. What we can deduce from the conversation here is that, at least in the county’s perception, Lakeview Museum is trying to dominate and control the project. I suspect their perception is true; Caterpillar had similar problems working with Lakeview which led to their decision years ago to put their visitor center in a separate building instead of sharing space in the museum.

  • Blacktop Reform from DeWayne Bartels of the Peoria Times-Observer. You may be surprised to learn that the next time you want to get your driveway blacktopped, you’ll have to pay a lot more money and have fewer contractors from which to choose. The County Board is trying to run non-union blacktop paving contractors out of town. Let this be a lesson to current and future Board members: do your homework before you vote!

  • School Board Member Laura Petelle’s thoughts on the final candidate for District 150’s New Superintendent. She wants to assure everyone that the process this time was “far different and more comprehensive” than the past. In other words, they did a better job of vetting the candidates than the board that hired Kay Royster did. That should give residents some comfort.

  • Racism alleged within the Peoria County Democratic Central Committee. Rachael Parker is a sitting Peoria Board of Education member running for a seat on the Peoria County Board, and her campaign manager and communications director sent out a press release accusing local Democrats of being racist. They also questioned why the Peoria Journal Star did not interview Parker. I’m wondering how the Journal Star got a quote from Parker for their January 15 story if they didn’t interview her.

Happy reading/listening!

Peoria Public Schools

Savings of Woodruff closing keep getting lower

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First, District 150 officials estimated that closing Woodruff High School would save $2.7 million in salary costs plus $800-900k in operating costs. Then, on the night of the vote, the estimate was “$1.5 to $2.7 million.”

This morning on WCBU radio (89.9 FM), it was reported that closing Woodruff High School will save (drum-roll, please): $1.2 million.

District 150 apparently takes the Bullwinkle Moose approach to estimating savings: “Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a number out of my hat! Nothing up my sleeve. Presto!”

If only someone would have Rocky the Squirrel’s clarity of thought: “But that trick never works!”

Peoria Public Schools

School board supports charter school

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The item on the agenda was:

APPROVAL OF THE PEORIA CHARTER SCHOOL INITIATIVE
Proposed Action: That the charter school proposal submitted by Peoria Charter School Initiative dated October 1, 2009 and amended on December 23, 2009 is approved, subject to the negotiation of the terms of a contract between the Board of Education and Peoria Charter School Initiative as required by the Illinois School Code.

And it passed 6-1, which is no surprise. The only dissenting vote was Laura Petelle.

Peoria Public Schools

Journal Star makes case against charter school, then endorses it

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You’ve got to love the Journal Star Editorial Board. Only they could make a cogent case against something, then endorse it, defying all reason. That they would endorse the proposed charter school was a foregone conclusion. One is hard-pressed to think of any project supported by Caterpillar and/or the Chamber of Commerce that they’ve opposed.

After seven paragraphs outlining all the problems with charter schools (most don’t live up to their hype, the district is broke, private funding is unlikely to be sustained, etc.), they take all of two paragraphs to say, basically, “oh, hang the problems, let’s do it anyway!”

Nonetheless, we’re inclined to support this charter school, if not as enthusiastically as some would like. First, the investment is relatively small on a $140 million-plus budget. Second, this is an experiment worth trying, to see if charter school proponents can accomplish more for less cost-per-pupil, as they claim. Third, while some have noted the contradiction in opening a new school just after closing others, arguably this isn’t just a new building but a different approach.

Ultimately, we just can’t discount the frustration of parents who want to stay in the city but not at the expense of their kids’ future success. In many ways Peoria lives or dies on District 150. The locals have lost faith. Something must be done.

A relatively small investment? District 150 ended its last fiscal year $8.9 million in the red. $6.5 million of that deficit came from the education fund. With overspending that serious, the district should be looking at more cuts, not new expenditures. And make no mistake: the charter school is a new expenditure. Even ardent charter school proponents admit that the first few years will end up costing the school district until the district can consolidate and close another middle school.

Forgotten, it seems, is the fact that the charter school is not only a middle school. It’s planned to be a high school also. When it’s fully functional, it would serve grades 5 through 12. It would start in year one with grades 5 through 7, then add one grade each year. When the high school grades are added, how will the district recoup the federal and state money they lose? Close another high school? If so, that should be planned now, not reacted to later.

But reaction is District 150’s M.O., and charter school proponents know it. So they’re putting tremendous pressure on the school board to make another all-too-common hasty decision, before the board can fully consider the ramifications. They’ve contrived a crisis: “The Caterpillar grant is contingent on the District 150 Board of Education awarding the charter for the 2010-2011 school year at its first meeting in January.” Peoria’s mayor has met with the Secretary of Education, and now dangles the carrot of federal “Race to the Top” money for districts who have established charter schools. Ominously, this money is not guaranteed. A media blitz has touted the messianic nature of charter schools and implored citizens to demand one from the school board. No doubt many citizens, believing the ads implicitly, have complied — the same way they complied with requests from the same group to raise their own sales taxes one quarter of a percent during a recession.

There are good reasons the charter school proponents would want this decided now, and not next year. First, there’s the fact that property tax bills have not come out yet. After the electorate suffers the shock of seeing this year’s property taxes spike due to District 150’s seven-percent increase, they might not be as eager to demand the district spend money it doesn’t have. Second, a new, permanent superintendent will be hired by next year, and who knows what he or she may think of the charter school initiative?

Don’t get me wrong. I believe that charter school proponents have the best of intentions. I believe they want to see the school district improved and children better educated, and I believe they think this is the best way to do it. But good intentions don’t make their plan wise or their tactics justifiable, nor does popular support make their plan more affordable.

In the end, the school board needs to make a prudent decision based on cold, hard facts and harsh, fiscal realities. The district can’t afford another impulsive decision based on flimsy reasoning like that of the Journal Star’s editorial board.

Peoria Public Schools

D150, union at impasse (UPDATED)

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I haven’t been able to get a copy of the press release yet, but I have it on good authority that District 150 has declared an impasse in their negotiations with the Peoria Federation of Teachers and plans to implement changes to the teachers’ contract beginning December 18. More details to follow.

UPDATE: The Journal Star has their article up now. Of note, the union is not threatening to strike yet, but it remains a possibility. Also, this:

Both sides also possess dissenting views on several core items, including salary, class size, tuition reimbursement and a longer school day, according to a statement issued Thursday by the school district. […]

On Dec. 18, the last day of school before the holiday break, the district plans to implement its proposal that includes no pay cuts but salary freezes, would limit reimbursement to teachers for taking additional college courses as well as which courses they could take, and essentially gives the district the ability to determine how many teachers they would employ.

I see the school district is back on the “longer school day is better” bandwagon. Huh. It was only last year that the district argued for shorter school days. Does that mean they’re admitting they were wrong to reduce the school day last year? It looks that way to me.

Peoria Public Schools

Questions surround D150 handling of Davis leave

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Diane Vespa has a post up on her blog detailing what appears to be a clear violation of District 150 policy regarding paid administrative leave.

Board policy 5:240 states that a “professional employee” can be suspended with pay “during an investigation into allegations of disobedience or misconduct,” but, “no suspension with pay shall exceed 10 school or working days in length.” Mary Davis was put on paid administrative leave September 9 while police continue to investigate allegations of misappropriation/theft of funds. Diane was told by D150 spokesperson Stacey Shangraw that Mary Davis is still on paid administrative leave, obviously well past the 10-day limit outlined in the board policy, and “will remain on the payroll until the outcome of an investigation by the States Attorney’s office.”

According to section 2:10, “The Board’s powers and duties include the authority to adopt, enforce and monitor [emphasis added] all policies for the management and governance of the District’s schools.” So why aren’t they doing it? Are they unaware of their own policies (lack of monitoring)? Or are they just giving Mary Davis special treatment (lack of enforcement)?

They certainly follow the letter of the law when the public gets up to speak at board meetings. They have a little timer and don’t mind cutting you off mid-sentence to make sure you don’t go overtime. And they don’t show any favoritism — they made no exception to the policy for former third district councilman Bob Manning when he tried to extend his time. It would be nice if they’d show the same fastidiousness when it comes to spending taxpayer money.

Peoria Public Schools, Public Building Commission

PBC to D150: Get your act together and spend this money!

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The Public Building Commission is worried. They still have $30 million more in bonding capacity, and they might not get to spend it if District 150 doesn’t get its act together soon.

You may recall that the Public Building Commission (PBC) was established in 1955, but school districts used it so much in the 1980s that there was significant voter backlash, which led to the state legislature making school districts ineligible to get funding through the PBC after 1993. Well, District 150 didn’t let that stop them. In 2006, thanks to then Senator Shadid and Representative Schock, District 150 got access to the PBC once again, but only until July 1, 2011. According to a Journal Star article from earlier in the year, “any project needing funding must be significantly completed by July 2011.” And that means there’s not much time left.

Spending PBC money is a win-win for District 150 and the PBC, but not for voters and taxpayers. If municipal organizations stop borrowing from the PBC, it will cease to exist, so the PBC has to keep marketing itself to other governmental bodies. Executive secretary for the PBC James Thornton has been doing just that. For months now, he’s been trying to cajole District 150 to find a way to max out the PBC’s bonding capacity. Of course, the benefit to District 150 is they get to raise taxes for capital projects without having to get voter approval.

District 150 has a new Harrison School and a new Glen Oak School under construction, and they have done remodeling and enlargement at Richwoods, Northmoor, Lindbergh, and Kellar. After all that, they thought they had used up all their PBC bonding capacity, but surprise! Due to recent annexation, the total Equalized Assessed Value of property in Peoria went up. Since the PBC’s bonding authority is set as a percentage of EAV, its bonding capacity also increased. So now the PBC and District 150 are just looking for a project — any project — that will allow them to spend this extra money.

To hear some board members talk about it, they view it as some sort of moral imperative that they use every last dollar of bonding capacity (also known as debt) — that they take full advantage of this “opportunity” to access the PBC before the five-year window closes. Thus, they are doing back bends to try and please the PBC. That’s one of the biggest reasons why they closed Woodruff High School.

That’s no way to make educational decisions. And it’s not in the best interests of taxpayers, either.

Peoria Public Schools

Manual High School name change?

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Have you heard about this? This is true: The Journal Star reports that District 150 is considering changing the name of Manual — first known as Manual Training High School — to better reflect the new programming put in place as part of restructuring. Yeah, they’re thinking of calling it “Automatic Diploma High School.”

Their new curriculum works on the Pareto principle: 80% of the students pass by learning 20% of the material.

Peoria Public Schools

Durflinger approved as interim superintendent

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As my sources indicated last week, Norm Durflinger was approved as interim Superintendent starting December 1, when current Superintendent Ken Hinton retires. Additionally, Durflinger was hired as a part-time Deputy Superintendent between October 19 and December 1. This addition prompted a “no” vote from Board of Education member Laura Petelle.

I agree. Hinton is still supposed to be on the job until December, and if he’s going to take his remaining vacation or sick time between now and then, we also have an Associate Superintendent (Hershel Hannah) on the payroll. Why the need to hire Durflinger as a Deputy Superintendent during this time? How many Superintendents does one district need?