PEORIA -- The public comments at the Aug. 13 Peoria District 150 School Board meeting focused on the continued weirdness that is District 150.
At least there were no long sessions of children performing or receiving awards, events that should have been left at their schools. The comments began less than five minutes into the meeting. A recording is posted here.
Activist Terry Knapp said that tenured teachers who were fired have hired attorneys, and he has been told they were first offered $7,500 to leave quietly, and now $15,000. "One accepted," he said.
As part of the deal, their records will be cleansed, and they will likely receive unemployment compensation. They were never offered remediation, and instead rewarded to leave, Knapp said. "Somebody's incompetent."
Then he asked why administrators are still being hired from North Carolina (home of Supt. Grenita Lathan), when only a few years ago district officials talked about "growing our own."
"This sends the wrong message for kids and taxpayers," he said. He could have added that the district spends thousands, perhaps millions, paying tuition for its staff to get graduate degrees, only to see them leave or pushed out to work elsewhere.
Knapp mentioned the Quest charter school, that has now hired a new principal from Turkey. See Emerge's blog for details on this, which proves beyond a doubt that Peoria's public charter school is part of the Gulen movement schools, as reported on Peoria Story a year ago, and denied by local officials.
Hat tip to Emerge, who also has reported that only five schools, including Quest, made adequate yearly progress this past year.
Then he asked why there is no effort to recruit minority teachers, as there once was.
Activist Sevino Sierra expressed concern over paying for the Elite program at Trewyn School. "Their tactics scare kids," he said. "I see then shouting. They grab (kids) when they get out of line."
The program reportedly uses boot camp tactics to get kids to behave. (Are they begging for a lawsuit?)
League of Women Voters observer Cheryl Budzinski expressed concern over the board's agenda, which initially contained little documentation on agenda items, but then was expanded when it was handed out at the meeting.
She asked that the expanded agenda be posted on the district's website, so the public would know what is going on. Better yet, the full packet, which board members and the press receive, should be available on line, she said.
She pointed out an item on the consent agenda with little explanation which said the first reading was being waived, so it could be voted on. "We don't know what is in the reading. You don't read it. This is the final reading. People can't comment and make suggestions," she said.
"People think you have secrets because you don't give out information on what is going on," she said.
Yes, that and the fact that the meetings are not on cable TV or streamed on the website, which other boards do routinely.
In her response to the comments Lathan said she would like to recruit more minority teachers. North CArolina has eight historically black universities, she said. "You go where you find the resources."
She didn't mention looking into how many minority teachers are being trained in Illinois and might be easier to recruit. After all what teacher would move from a great distance to Peoria to teach where tenured teachers and long time principals are fired or transferred every year? Only the bottom rung, I suspect.
She said her North Carolina recruits are now taxpayers here. "We're here, we're taxpayers and we're staying here," she said.
Really? How many are living in District 150? Just asking.
She defended the Elite program as making "a difference" in discipline at the schools, with the help of the principal and teachers.
-- Elaine Hopkins
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