Tag Archives: Paul Vallas

Peoria Public Schools

Paying a cover charge to see public servants in action

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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.

City Council, City of Peoria, Peoria Public Schools

Vallas returning to Peoria

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Education reformer Paul Vallas, who last visited Peoria in late 2007, is returning this Saturday morning to meet with Peoria City Council members at Mayor Ardis’s request. The Council has scheduled a full-day retreat this Saturday at the Peoria Civic Center’s Lexus Room starting at 9 a.m. The agenda for the meeting includes several guest speakers including Vallas, a representative from Mesirow Financial, and Heart of Illinois United Way Vice President of Community Investment Don Johnson.

Ardis says he didn’t ask Vallas to speak on any specific topic, but about reforming schools in general. “His experience in successfully reforming urban school districts should make his comments informative and relevant,” Ardis said Tuesday.

The last time Vallas was in town (also at Ardis’s request), the Journal Star reported (12/22/2007):

Vallas said if District 150 were to engage in reform efforts, he would spend his spring break in Peoria working with the district. He would recruit one or more persons to work on the project locally, and he would come back to Peoria periodically to monitor the progress.

He said Ardis has agreed to pay for his gas expenses driving to and from Peoria, along with occasional overnight hotel stays during his road trips.

But despite the City’s efforts to help improve the City’s schools, District 150 said, “no thanks.” Since then, the District has shortened the school day for several Wednesdays at a number of primary schools for no justifiable reason, fired their Comptroller/Treasurer for undisclosed reasons, decided to close four schools (including a high school yet to be named), and issue bonds for $38 million to dig out of a budget deficit. No need for outside advice from a proven reformer here, huh?