Here they go again

Peoria School District 150 is at it again. They want to close schools. Lots of them. School officials say the district is losing money after recently bragging finances were in order. Responding to the alleged deficit, officials have produced the most radical educational plan in the history of Peoria education.

Under the heading, “Educational Enhancement and Budget Alignment Plan,” administrators want school board members to approve the closing of Woodruff and Central high schools and Kingman, Irving, Tyng and Lincoln. They also want to re-draw school boundaries for a number of grade and high schools and for different years. The plan is absolutely mind-boggling and extremely complex. Give it to those unidentified designers; they spent a lot of time coming up with this educational scheme.

Students, families, and taxpayers went through this a number of years ago. I forget the year, but I chaired a committee that successfully responded to this same kind of challenge. We defeated the plan. Hopefully, others, who’ve also organized, will do the same. I recently attended one of a series of meetings. The room was jammed with parents, students, teachers and alumni. They were angry and they’re committed. Expect a lawsuit if the board approves the plan to close Woodruff and Peoria High. Expect more than one lawsuit. Expect the school district to spend thousands defending the plan. Based on its record of failure with lawsuits, expect School District 150 to lose…..again. Meanwhile, expect more student protests and perhaps, perhaps, investigations by state and federal authorities.

I’ve read the proposed plan several times and there’s much to dislike starting with this District 150 objective: “…deliver customer service by favorably responding to practical, widely supported customer interests as measured by choices exercised by parents/students….” Critics would argue the plan does not “favorably respond to widely supported customer interests” at all. Here are some of the objections by critics:

• The plan fails to address possible violations of the Illinois Armstrong Act regarding racial/minority discrimination

• The district plan mandates sacrifices by students, families, teachers, and neighborhoods, while failing to eliminate and/or reducing administrative salaries and positions

• District 150 failed to include teachers, taxpayers and other stakeholders in the planning process

• Consolidation of high schools could endanger safety of students because of the mixing of gangs

• Radical changing of school boundaries disrupts families and neighborhoods

• Closing of Kingman and Woodruff, anchors for Averyville area of the city, will be devastating

• The plan destroys long-held traditional neighborhood, family and student relationships

• No cost estimate was provided for implementation of plan details, i.e., busing, security, etc.

• Plan fails to address the school district’s status on the Illinois Watch List and the “No Child Left Behind Act”

• School officials provided no information on how the plan will affect student achievement

• Officials failed to disclose what happened to $13 million in reserves.

It appears District 150 will be in for a long legal battle if the Board of Education approves the proposed plan. Rockford School District 205 went through a similar battle a number of years ago. A group of citizens organized under the name, “People Who Care,” to fight the Rockford Board of Education’s plan to reduce costs by closing ten schools including Rockford West High School. The costly legal battle lasted from 1989 to at least October 26, 2000, when the Illinois Supreme Court declared illegal the Rockford School Board’s use of the school district’s tort fund to pay for “remedies” in the People Who Care school case. Based on what I read, each side won some and lost some.

There are some apparently stubborn people with an agenda on the District 150 board as well as some opposing them. The best solution, in my opinion, is to create a Blue Ribbon Commission to evaluate the district’s proposed plan and to study alternative solutions for reducing the alleged deficit. That commission should consist of two representatives of the teachers’ union, a member of the district’s board, a past district board member, an interested parent from Woodruff, an interested parent from Peoria High, an attorney unaffiliated with the school district, but with experience in the field of education, two accountants (CPA’s), and a member of the district’s administration as well as an at-large taxpayer.

Here’s the bottom line: if both sides don’t sit down and try to mediate the plan’s differences, the battle will be long, bitter and expensive.

GOING, GOING, GONE!

As a young boy I was in awe of New York Yankee announcer Mel Allen when he would describe a home run by excitedly saying, “Going, going gone.” Allen should’ve been the announcer on C-Span as it carried the Illinois Senate’s Impeachment trial of “former” Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. It was fascinating, educational and even entertaining. The entertainment came when Blago came to Springfield to address the Illinois Senate. The fact that he visited the state capital was novel in itself since he has spent over 90% of his time as Governor in Chicago. For about 45 minutes, the former Governor filled the air with a lot of B.S. When he was finished, the Senate took a lunch break to await the rebuttal by prosecuting attorney David Ellis. Ellis carved up the Blago speech and his remarks like a plastic surgeon working on Nancy Pelosi’s face. It was quick and smooth. The rest is history. The fast talking Chicagoan now faces an even bigger task: staying out of prison.

WELCOME

MR. PRESIDENT

Illinois Senator Barack Obama is our new President. Though I didn’t vote for him, I join with others and wish him success. He did get off to a rocky start with a fumbled swearing in ceremony and some very questionable Cabinet choices with a tax evader, Timothy Geithner to head, of all things, the IRS, and Eric Holder to be U.S. Attorney General. Holder, you know, brokered the release of fugitive Mark Rich during the last days of Bill Clinton’s term. I might add, Obama’s inauguration speech was not the most memorable. And finally, the week’s events were marred by some tasteless and classless behavior. Following the swearing in ceremony some idiots booed President Bush and his wife and serenaded them with sarcastic, profane and obscene lyrics. So much for unifying the country.

THANK YOU

MR. PRESIDENT

I thank President George Bush for his eight years of distinguished leadership. He and his wife Laura restored the dignity of the Presidency and the White House after it was smeared by one sexual scandal after another by President Clinton. President Bush kept us safe while our military forces removed a modern day Adolf Hitler from power in Iraq. Saddam Hussein, responsible for more than 300,000 deaths and immeasurable tortures, was captured and hung after his murderous sons were killed along with others. Thanks to his perseverance, his support for the surge, he defeated the enemy. At last report, 16 of the 18 benchmarks for success in Iraq had been met. He also ended the terror activities of the dictator of Libya, long forgotten by the media and the left.

Under President Bush, the FBI, the CIA and our military rolled up an estimated 5,000 terrorists worldwide and blocked an attempt by al-Qaida to blow up nine American airliners crossing the Atlantic in 2006. His introduction of the Patriot Act tore down the wall Attorney General Janet Reno imposed that prevented the sharing of intelligence between such agencies as the FBI and the CIA. In 2005, Bush established the National Counterterrorism Center where analysts from the CIA and FBI work together 24/7 to prevent attacks.

During his term he implemented the country’s first prescription health plan and more people were employed than at any time in our history. At one time unemployment was less than 5%. And he left Washington with the economy in the tank, thanks to the failure of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae two years after Democrats took control of both agencies and the House and Senate. On 17 different occasions he warned those in Congress of the need to tighten and/or pass regulations. They didn’t. Yet, he gets the blame as he did when the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana, both Democrats, failed to adequately respond to the warnings of Katrina. No President was more unfairly smeared by the media since Lincoln was President during the Civil War. The hell with the radical left media. Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Bush for your service!

NEWS COMMENTS

The current issue of “Checkpoint” praises the work of retiring City Councilman, Patrick Nichting, as he leaves office. Nichting is not running for re-election, choosing instead to seek election as City Treasurer. Nichting was the only member of the council to vote against allowing the strip club, Big Al’s, to move from Main Street to the corner of Hamilton and Jefferson. The new location is across from the County Courthouse. Nice city planning. We didn’t get the river boat but we’ve got Big Al’s.

The Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame holds its 29th annual banquet at the Civic Center, Sunday, March 1. The Peoria Central basketball team of 1952-1953 will be inducted as will the 1968-1969 Spalding basketball team and the 1971-1972 Richwoods swimming team. Individuals to be inducted include two-time All Missouri Valley Bradley basketball player Curtis Stuckey; Jack Stoudt, Pekin High School wrestling coach; Stu Levenick, All Big Ten University of Illinois football player; Bob LaCroix, cross country and track coach at Peoria High and Richwoods; and the 1989 NCAA National Decathlon Champion, Derek Huff. Tickets can be obtained by calling 682-4255. The cost is $30.00. Mention my name and the cost is $30.00.

In the midst of an economic downturn, similar to when the little peanut Jimmy Carter was
President, promoters of the proposed museum are spending thousands of dollars on television
asking for thousands of dollars. Just for comparison, unemployment in 1973 was 9% and in 1982 it was 10.8%.

A special pat on the back for those PJS carriers who still delivered newspapers on the porches of customers in this winter’s bitter cold. Where I live the clown drives down the street throwing the paper out the window, sometimes hitting the drive and sometimes a snow drift if I’m lucky.

QUOTE OF

THE MONTH

“It’s wonderful what we can do if we’re always doing.” —George Washington

QUESTION OF

THE MONTH

Will new Governor Pat Quinn move into the Executive Mansion in Springfield as other governors did until Rod Blagojevich decided to make Chicago his headquarters?