PEORIA, IL -- Only two speakers presented comments at the Peoria District 150 School Board meeting on Oct. 13 -- perhaps a reflection of the changed atmosphere in the school district with a popular new interim superintendent in place.
Terry Knapp questioned what is known as the mobility rate of students changing schools, beginning with 900 or so displaced from Woodruff High School when it was closed under the Hinton administration. Other changes soon followed adding up to perhaps 1,200 students, Knapp said.
He also questioned why Quest athletes were competing with Peoria Heights schools instead of Peoria schools. "We need to include people in our district, not force them to go somewhere else, he said.
He questioned by temporary classrooms were moved to Thomas Jefferson, and noted that the move has never been discussed by the board.
Sharon Crews told a compelling story of a Manual High School graduate who wrote her to praise the school's role in his life. He's now a corporate leader, and attributes what he learned in high school to his success.
Be sure to read her comment when it is posted.
Here is a recording of the comments.
-- Elaine Hopkins
Here are the comments of Sharon Crews:
Dropping Industrial Arts and Home Economics has deprived today’s students of courses that led their predecessors to career opportunities in the trades and even to the pursuit of a college education. Many students need job skills to earn money for college. Most non-college bound graduates barely have skills to get anything but minimum-wage jobs. I am glad for Woodruff programs, but courses should be available at all schools as they once were. I was pleased that Caterpillar recently offered Manual students some exposure to welding.
A 1983 Manual grad, Rodger Willis, recently wrote this to me on Facebook:
I took every single shop class along with auto-mechanics and auto body classes. What I learned at Manual was pivotal and door opening. As a result of that experience, I virtually maxed the US military ASVAB exam and qualified for any technical job that the military had available. I chose aviation and that led to a wonderful military and civilian aviation career. I have since transitioned to both Information Technology and Music Industry careers. Everything I know today can certainly be traced back to what I learned at school, particularly Manual. My high school diploma even reads "Trades and Technical!” I celebrate you and all of the other teachers that sewed into my life. I wouldn't trade my high school experience for anything!
Rodger served in the United States Army for four years, as an aircraft turbine engine mechanic and as a flight engineer. He studied aviation management at SIU and studied at Florida State University and at the United States Army School of Aviation. His civilian jobs include Vice-President of Information for AMTEC Precision Products in Elgin, Illinois, and Vice-President of implementation for Visual Business Solutions. Rodger worked at McDonald Douglas (now Boeing) as a planner, working on the AV-8 Harrier military jet and, also, on some of the early components of the space shuttle. He is now the owner and “Mastering Engineer” of a flourishing production studio. There he works with some of the greatest gospel artists in the industry.
Rodger’s father graduated from Woodruff, His mother and her four siblings are Manual grads. Rodger is related to the Petty family. Rodger’s story and many others are Manual’s legacy—success is not measured by test scores.
Please consider that jobs in the trades will likely go unfilled as workers retire and their replacements have not been trained in District 150 schools. We are cheating out students of career opportunities. - 30 -
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