The Community Word

According to an article that was carried by the Associated Press, Moody’s Investors Services doesn’t think much of the future of GateHouse Media stock. The agency cut GateHouse’s corporate family rating to “B2” from “B1.” Moody’s also “reduced its probability of default rating one notch” (whatever that means) to “B3” from “B2.” Both ratings remain at the non-investment grade, or “junk” level.

In other words, if you now own stock in GateHouse Media Inc., you own junk bonds.

Nice. Real nice.

At this point, I’d rather own a wad of Confederate States of America cash. At least some collector might want to pay me something for it.

I cannot see how this is anything other than bad news for the Peoria Journal Star, which is owned by GateHouse. Suppose that Fortress Investment Group — the organization that owns most of GateHouse — decides to stem the hemorrhaging and sells off its newspapers? Who the Hell is gonna buy a bunch of newspapers that have already been cut to the bone? The only reason GateHouse bought the Journal Star and all these other regional newspapers is because there was some money to be saved from consolidating operations. That ship has passed.

And it’s not like newspapers are a smart investment anyway, considering that newspapers are, well, dying, thanks to the Internet.

If GateHouse does collapse, the best hope for the Peoria Journal Star is an angel investor who understand the need to transition from printing news on dead trees and delivering it door to door by hand to an all electronic format.

No culture, no class at District 150

So, I’m sitting in my car outside one of my favorite Peoria businesses when I was approached by the store’s owners, a married couple I know. They’ve got kids attending Keller Primary School and they want advice.

First, you have to understand that these two are the kind of parents that school district say they want. They are profoundly middle class business owners. They live in the city and they are deeply involved in their children’s education. Every single time I visit their store, they are selling candy-bars for one school activity or cookies for another. They are a smart school district’s wet dream as far as parents go.

Naturally, they are fed up with District 150.

They rattled off a strong of complaints, but the issue that has them worried the most was discovering that the district was shortening the school day at all district primary schools by 45 minutes. The district also is planning to do away with at least two of the four part-time teachers they employ at the school. Two of the teachers handle state-mandated physical education and music, while the other two teach art and computers. As they understand it, the part-timer who handles P.E. is safe. This means existing full time teachers will have to pick up the other three, if in fact these subjects will still be taught at all.

While the school day is being shortened, the teachers’ contract remains the same, so they will have the same work hours, but they will lose a 45-minute preparation period in the middle of the day. The shorter day apparently means the only break the children will get will be during the lunch recess.

Both these parents say they believe the decision was made by the school administration without input from the school principals, and that the parents and the community aren’t being given enough time to ask questions and provide input. In other words, they aren’t being given a real opportunity to fight back and offer alternatives.

They say the board is scheduled to vote on these changes at their May 5 meeting. These parents are working to organize opposition to the changes. I reminded them that organized opposition from neighborhood groups in the Near North Side and the East Bluff forced District 150 to change its plans regarding Glen Oak School. I would also advise then to team up with parent organizations at other primary schools.

Stop and consider this for a moment: According to a Journal Star article that briefly discussed these cuts, the district would save about $800,000 at most. Sounds like a lot of cash, but it’s not. This is roughly the same salary and benefits paid to four administrators … including the two still employed assistant superintendents that Superintendent Ken Hinton needed because he wasn’t qualified to be superintendent when he was hired for the job.

And think about this for a moment, too: The City of Peoria was so concerned about the lack of cultural activities 25 years ago that they decided Peoria had to have a Civic Center in order to offer things like opera and ballet. So they created a special tax on hotel stays, restaurant food and other forms of amusement like movie tickets. They created a new government agency, the Peoria Civic Center Authority. Today, I’m not even sure they have opera and ballet at the Peoria Civic Center. Lots of trade shows and sporting events. And they sure keep finding uses for all that HRA tax money that has NOTHING to do with paying off the debt of the Peoria Civic Center

And consider this as well: The movers and shakers in Peoria are so darn concerned about the lack of culture among Peoria’s youth, they are trying to figure out ways to tax citizens of the entire county to help pay for a museum on Peoria’s Riverfront, just like Caterpillar wants, so there’s something next to its spiffy visitor’s center.

And these same movers and shakers are so concerned that Peoria’s children aren’t exposed to animals that they have caused taxpayers to go into debt to expand Glen Oak Zoo.

And how can District 150 administrators claim for even one minute that they are concerned about providing a well-rounded, quality education while they are cutting music and culture from the primary schools. Good Lord. If Dan Fogelberg was attending Peoria schools now instead of the 1960s, he probably would have grown up as yet another unhappy cubicle worker.

Here’s an idea: Take a small sliver of this cash that would otherwise go toward the Peoria Civic Center, the museum and zoo boondoggles that masquerade as being ways to bring arts, culture and science to Peoria children and instead use it to help fund the salaries of real teachers in real classrooms.

And as for the administrators at District 150 … there is way too much lard at the District offices on Wisconsin Avenue that needs to be cut first before even one moment’s thought is given to cutting any teaching position.

One of these days, all these lunkheads will realize that nickel-dicking kids’ education — as much as the perceived discipline and safety problems — is what’s driving good parents like this into the arms of Dunlap, Metamora and the private schools.