PEORIA, IL -- Teachers -- how to hire them and how to retain them -- received discussion during the public comments of the Peoria District 150 School Board meeting on Sept. 9.They also spoke out about their issues.
After a staff presentation on recruiting, Jeff Atkins-Dutro said "It's not about recruiting, it's retention." He's the head of the teachers union. A new policy of "walk throughs, by school principals in classrooms, is "demoralizing teachers.,,,who are doing the best they can."
A proposed raise for Supt. Sharon Kherat, at 3 percent, is a goal for bargaining, he said. He added that the district cannot afford Quest, the public charter school. "They sued teachers, they lost. It's pathetic."
The husband of a teacher said "young teachers need it more" of the funds on the agenda slated for Kherat. He criticized the walk throughs, which have included "criticism in front of students." A teacher should be recruiting teachers, he added.
A kindergarten teacher said she didn't have equipment she needs for her classroom, including shelves and a working smart board, even headphones and uniforms.
A parent said his child needs special education but has been unable to access it.
Then five teachers from Quest took their turns, praising the school and its experience with students.
Activist Terry Knapp had earlier continued his campaign against Quest, and activist Sharon cruise spoke about various issues including discipline. A copy of her remarks is included below.
Here is a recording of the comments:
Download D150 Sept 9 19
Kherat responded by saying the walk throughs are important. "We're providing a supportive, nurturing environment," she said. "We're getting into the classrooms to see what's going on. It's nothing new. It's a best practice."
After board member Dan Walther said the walk throughs are "not working," Kherat responded "Principals should be instructional leaders. I will fight for this."
-- Elaine Hopkins
From Sharon Crews:
Even though Brown vs the Board of Education of 1954 ruled segregation of schools to be unconstitutional, compliance with the ruling moved very slowly. Peoria schools were not integrated until 1969 when Manual became a four-year high school.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited segregation and discrimination based on race in public facilities, including schools. In 1971 the Supreme Court approved the use of busing to achieve school desegregation.
IDEA, the 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Act, was needed to insure fairness and equality in American schools. Initially, this act insured that black and white students received equal access to Special Education services. However, not long after American schools were forced to integrate, some administrators who still opposed integration found a loophole—black students could be labeled as needing special ed services, so these newly integrated schools did not have to offer integrated classes—black and white students could still be separated.
Therefore, IDEA added laws to force schools to place all qualified students in regular classes. IDEA has since added students with emotional problems to the list of students who need IDEA’s protections. The act also curtailed lengthy suspensions and ended expulsions for all children considered handicapped.
There is no doubt that IDEA’s protections and the subsequent fear of lawsuits have made disciplining more difficult, but public school administrators are still held responsible for maintaining order in their schools.
To comply with IDEA, administrators hired lawyers to help them craft regulations, policies, and procedures. The much used second strategy was to spend thousands of dollars on miracle cures for which there is little proof of success in Peoria or in other inner city school districts.
Now programs like Summit Learning are offering programs that would completely revamp what and how students are taught. The continued discipline problems in our schools prove that these programs have not worked and that our administration has not come up with consequences that change behaviors.
Public schools are still expected to teach young people the standards of behavior needed to live in society as productive citizens. Some of the behaviors permitted in public schools if practiced outside the schools’ doors will land students in jail. Dr. Kherat's latest solution for discipline problems is to ask every principal to visit every classroom five times per day, That is not a solution.
Those who have written the laws and the administrators and lawyers who write policies have either never taught school or have not dealt with the problems faced by today’s teachers, who are rarely, if ever, asked for their ideas to resolve these problems. It’s your job to save Peoria public schools by ending classroom disruptions and, I believe, by returning to high school summer school.
Two immediate changes are necessary. Teachers must be allowed to send disruptive students out of class immediately, not just to chill, but to receive consequences, and those students should not be returned to class that day. There is absolutely no excuse for allowing disruptive students to stay long enough to spread the disruption.
Do you realize that many in Congress and Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education, strongly support charter schools? Do you understand that businesses that have minimum wage employees prefer inner city schools where students do not excel in college level courses to qualify for higher wages? District 150 students need to know that you believe in them enough to demand their very best. - 30 -
