General News

While I’m gone: Open Thread

17 Comments

Since I won’t be posting much the next month, I thought I’d jump on the “open thread” bandwagon and let you all comment on whatever you want. Keep it clean and civil and no one will get deleted. Enjoy!

17 thoughts on “While I’m gone: Open Thread”

  2. District 150 high schools have an enrollment of around 3600-3700 if I recall correctly. Given this number what should Peoria do? Should we close a high school, and if so, which one? Do we keep all four open with the hope of turning enrollment around?

  4. As an employee did you get last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off work as paid vacation days? You didn’t? You should work at District 150 for Superintendent Hinton!

    Traditionally the day before Thanksgiving is a work day for District 150 employees and definitely not a declared paid holiday as spelled out in legally binding union contracts. For teachers it is a day when “institute” is held and all teachers gather for training, enlightenment etc in one large location. Meanwhile the 1,000+ support employees also work that day – you know, the age old idea of a day’s pay for a day of work.

    Due to an administrative error in scheduling approved by the Superintendent the number of student instructional and contact days to meet the Illinois education regulations will be met without the need for the teachers institute this year. In other words instead of having to show up they were given the day off with pay. When the other unions heard this was going to happen they demanded the same treatment. The Superintendent agreed and District 150 was closed for Wednesday, November 22, 2006. Did the Board approve that action? Word has it the closure was a surprise to them as well!

    What did that mean and while should taxpayers even care? According to the Fiscal 2007 Budget on the District 150 website the total salaries and benefits for all funds are projected at $121,943,345. Now if you do the most elementary calculation and consider that this amount is what will be paid to employees whether they be teachers working 9 months or salaried administrators and union staff working all 12 months it comes down to 52 weeks times 5 days which equals 260 days. Divide $121,943,345 by 260 and that means taxpayers didn’t receive any value from the $469,013 paid to District 150 employees for an unscheduled extra holiday granted due to the Superintendent’s error! If you sliced and diced the calculation on more liberal terms it would have been even higher than that!

    On the other hand it might be argued that the teachers should have been paid anyway and even if you concede that how do they explain the other 1,000+ employees who got paid for that unscheduled vacation day? District 150 has enough financial problems that receiving no benefit from a day’s pay isn’t very productive is it? Monday night the District’s auditor called the condition “fragile”… is there any question why? ^oo^~

  5. One Feral Kat: Do you have a blog site? Clicking on your name only resulted in an error message.

    Oh and One Feral Kat: Perhaps the extra $469,013 paid will come out of the monies that have never been transferred as voted on by the D150 Board on 22 May 2006 to transfer yet Mr. Cahill is reported to have not transferred to date? So that would mean that the 2005-2006 budget is really not balanced?

    Or perhaps the $1.5-1.6 million could be used for three such unscheduled extra holidays via some type of accounting carry-over from one school year to another? Just asking …. as D150 will still not answer this taxpayer’s questions since 22 May 2006 …..

  6. David: On the one hand, it’s a working rail line, and if I were in that community, I would hate to see it torn out. On the other hand, it appears from the article that BNSF is willing to partner on abandoning this track, so they must have other viable options for rail service. One thing I did find humorous was the speculation that there would be 50,000 bicyclists in the future — I wonder how they determined that? Trail proponents everywhere seem to pull numbers out of thin air, don’t they?

    I also take issue with their contention that “having to share the road with vehicles keeps many from commuting by bike,” thus the need for a dedicated bike trail. I would contend that a dedicated bike lane on the roads would be just as effective. As a person who enjoys bicycling myself, I would say that my only worry when on-street cycling is having cars pass me when we share the same lane. In those few places where there is a bike lane striped, I feel just as safe as being on the RI Trail — perhaps even more so, since I’m not in the middle of nowhere.

  7. I would think that the fear of one’s emanating a foul body odor as a result of commuting by bicycle is what prevents these vast thousands of people from doing it. 🙂

  8. Well, the Illinois legislature just handed District 150 a free $60 million at taxpayer expense. Now the school board can carry out their ill-conceived plan to “save money” (ha ha!) by closing old schools and building new ones. Of course, that won’t save any money, but rather cost more, but who cares? The taxpayers needn’t worry their pretty little minds about it. Oh, and this will also mean larger class sizes, a fringe detriment to education. Ah, things are really looking up in Peoria.

  9. MDD: I agree with you on your comment about commuting by bike. If you’re a businessman, are you really going to ride your bike in the dead of summer and walk in drenched in sweat in your business suit? I think not.

  10. Returned:
    I’ve heard this idea of closing a high school floated around before … didn’t they do a study at some point that recommended that? I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not. It would mean more commuting and larger class sizes for the other high schools.

    I guess if they did close one, the logical choice would be Central – otherwise you’re lopping off one of the cardinal points of the city. I guess part of the problem is that Central has a lot of political pull since it’s the oldest, although that may be fading. Before I get angry hate mail from Central grads – I’m not saying we should close any of the high schools, but that would be the one to close if needed.

    Regarding the trail in King County – they’re more likely to commute by bike there because the climate is milder, and it’s just a much more bike friendly place in general. They’re probably more likely to show up sopping wet from the rain, though.

  11. Karrie,
    You asked, “So that would mean that the 2005-2006 budget is really not balanced?” It never was a balanced budget. The projected loss of the Operating Funds for 2005-06 was $8.2 million, though it actually came in at a loss of $8.7 million. As for obtaining an answer to your May 22 question it has been my observation that questions raised at the District 150 podium seldom are answered unless the Board President verbally directs the superintendent then and there to provide a response. Have to tried a Freedom of Information request for your answer? It can be fun to watch administrators twist and turn in the wind unless they can find a legal reason not to comply!

  12. C. J.

    http://www.spiritofwashingtondinnertrain.com/

    If the trail is built, there’s the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train that would have to go elsewhere, or go away altogether. The train has been using this route since 1992. BNSF may have an alternate route for dimensional loads such as Boeing 737 fuselage sections and Canada-bound wind turbine parts, but if the alternative was better, then they’d be using that route. Apparently, the route in question is best. Those 737 fuselages will probably have to be routed through the City of Seattle.

    If BNSF is willing to close the line and reroute this traffic then that is their right. I don’t recall reading anything about there being any customers on the affected line, except for those riding the Dinner Train -;)

    I guess the similarities is the same attitude of Peoria trail proponents.

  14. Knight, I don’t think closing a high school would necessarily lead to a significant increase in class sizes. Some teachers from the closed school could be shifted to the others. If Central were slated to close there would be a major political battle. Think of the protests from closing Spalding in 1988 and multiply by five.

    Closing a high school would make sense in that administration and building maintenance costs would be cut. For a school district in financial trouble the savings could be significant. On the other hand the neighborhood around one of the three candidates (Richwoods closing is a non-starter) would lose its anchor. Also there are the psychological effects from closing a high school. It could send a message that 150 has given up on trying to rebuild enrollment.

    I believe it is a debate worth having.

  15. This school stuff with D150 is all the more reason why school vouchers for all kids are needed. Let the parents decide what and where is best and let competition improve the schools. If a series of private schools then prevail and D150 goes splat, so what as long as the students learn.

  16. One Feral Kat:

    Already did that — FOIA — I knew up front I wouldn’t receive the information because state statutes are not required to be kept and distributed as part of the D150 FOIA requirements. Why would Mr. Cahill suggest the FOIA route? Well, you can provide any answer you wish because he probably will not be answering that question or any question unless a majority of the Board requires him to do so. Such atrocious service — however, a bright shiny 21st century building may fool some of the people some of the time or however that saying is written…..

  17. Karrie,
    I can’t really help I guess, but I just reviewed the May 22 minutes and see that you commented on the proposed action items that night. The board secretary obviously summaries comments but there was no mention of a question, nor an amount. Of course another sure fire way would be to FOIA a copy of the video tape from that night that the board retains. ^oo^~

Comments are closed.