On the agenda Tuesday night is a request from Wilder-Waite Elementary School to be annexed into the City of Peoria. Wilder-Waite is part of Dunlap School District 323. They can’t be annexed yet because their boundary is not contiguous with Peoria, but they want to sign an annexation agreement so that when Peoria does annex the land between the current city limits and their property, they will also be annexed in and receive police, fire, and other Peoria services.
When Richwoods Township was annexed into Peoria, there were several school districts that shortly afterwards were consolidated with District 150; a unified school district was an important part of the annexation plans. There was the fear that without such consolidation, Peoria schools would be divided into the haves and have-nots.
Considering the tax revenue that is generated in the northern part of Peoria that doesn’t go to District 150 but to District 323, are we not seeing that happen today? Aren’t we concentrating the wealth of the city into one school district while the other district suffers? Isn’t it time we unified the school districts within Peoria’s city limits?
A tale of two cities… two constituencies. This cannot be healthy for the city.
Any annexation to the city should should also imply annexation to the city’s school district, imho.
You would be hard pressed to find a single person whose children attend Wilder-Waite that would want to become a part of District 150. Just because a city grows by annexation of land near it should not mean that school districts that were not in it (Wilder-Waite is part of the Dunlap 323 school distric) should automatically become forced to join with the city.
I you think the peroblems at the sighting of the Glen Oak replacement school is a big issue just try to merge the two school districts #150-#322. It would be a all out war. Just think of the can of wohop ass that would come up.
A city divided against itself cannot stand. Do we really want a rich school district and poor school district in the same city? Just think of the long-term implications of such a practice. This is clearly not a healthy situation for the city of Peoria. I agree that such a move would be unpopular. But it has to be done. District 150 cannot survive if it has to care for and educate all the city’s poor and underpriveleged without any help from all the new growth in North Peoria. These new annexations drain resources from the older parts of town and give little back. We need one school district with everyone in the city working to improve it.
We need smaller school districts, not larger ones. Having two or three districts in the same city is no big deal. Your arguments all revolve around money, vs. administrative control. And giving more money to district 150 will not solve the problem. It will only mean more waste and mismanagement. Nor will more money solve the problems of crime, parental indifference and other issues that plague 150. If 150 takes over Wilder Waite and/or Dunlap, it will jsut force people who care about their kids to move farther away from the City. As long as this is a free country (and I understand there are plenty of people working to change that) people are going to vote with their feet.
Back when Richwoods township was annexed, MANY people from the then Wilder-Waite school went to Springfield to attend hearings and voice their opinion. The result was that District 150 could not take over another district “just because” the area got annexed into the city. The Mouse is right – if this would ever happen, the people would move. Many moved into that area because of the school system to begin with and they would move again. If 150 could their sh_t straight and actually learn how to compete, maybe this would not be an issue and we would not have the suburban sprawl.
It’s true that state law was changed so that suburban school districts could remain independent even though they were annexed into the city. However, Richwoods, Kellar, et al., joined District 150 a short time later anyway.
I agree that just giving the school district more money will not magically fix all its problems. I think you all know I’ve had plenty of criticism for District 150. Nevertheless, I still maintain that it’s not healthy for the city to have a widening economic gap between school districts.
You talk about competition. Setting aside other factors for a moment, it’s intrinsically harder for an urban school district to compete with a suburban school district because they are at an immediate disadvantage. They have more poor, underpriveleged, and special needs children, plus they have the additional complication of urban violence and other urban issues (working single parents, gang/drug involvement, parental indifference, etc.). Suburban schools don’t have a fraction of these challenges.
Furthermore, the people who live in South Peoria and many older areas of the city do not have the luxury of “voting with their feet” or moving to a better school district. Should the people in North Peoria have no responsibility toward these children? Should they “let them eat cake,” as it were?
It’s not like North Peoria would empty if the schools in city bounds were consolidated with District 150. There are a good number of people who don’t have kids (or their kids are grown) or whose kids go to private schools anyway who wouldn’t be affected. Plus, those whose children do attend District 323 schools would probably still have the same teachers if the districts were to consolidate. Schools in Peoria that have a lot of parental involvement (e.g., Kellar, Whittier) still do well even within D150, and I’m sure schools like Wilder-Waite would be no different.
But it would make a huge difference to the poorer schools which would benefit from the increased tax revenue to meet the more difficult challenges of urban schooling.
Dunlap also has the new Ridgeview elementary school located on Radnor Rd across from Kellogg Golf Course. I just looked up figures that state Ridgeview has 15% “poor” students. However, the rankings for math and reading skils still put Ridgeview at 98-100% for all students statewide. In fact, Ridgeview outscores Wilder-Waite which only has a 5% poor ratio. Being poor has little to do with it. Parental involvement and good administrators/teachers have everything to do with it. In any event, District 150 doesn’t really want the sudents – it wants Pioneer Park and Grand Prairie Mall taken away from District 323. It is all about the money.