PEORIA, IL -- The public comment section of the December 9 Peoria Public School District 150 board carried a challenge -- for the public to sue the district.
Activist Terry Knapp, a former head of the teachers union, said students and parents at the Quest charter school should sue the district for "failure to educate." He referred to the devastating report last month on the low test scores and lack of certified teachers at the school.
Knapp has urged the board to ditch Quest, but the board gave Quest the funds to operate for two more years.
Quest was in violation of the law in some areas, in special education classes, Knapp reminded the board. He urged those interested in a class action lawsuit to contact him.
There were 2 comment sessions, one on tax issues and the other the regular session.
In that session Knapp accused the previous board of money laundering, by taking $1 million from the Blackie Foundation then sending it to Edison. The district opened then closed Edison schools. The Quest backers are "the same group that championed Edison," he said.
Here are recordings of the sessions.
Download D150 Dec 9 19
Download D150 Dec 9 2
Sharon Crews also spoke, on discipline for black students. Her remarks are posted below.
-- Elaine Hopkins
Comments of Sharon Crews:
I have questions about the School Discipline Disparity Plans. In the '60s a guest speaker at Roosevelt told us that black children come from large families and are therefore apt to be loud—which means they bring that habit to school. I accepted that as truth but my middle school classes of almost all black students were generally very well-behaved.
I don’t doubt that there were differences in how black vs white students were disciplined, with black students being suspended or expelled more often.
In those early years, I rarely wrote referrals because the administration supported teachers so that discipline was not difficult to maintain. Those of us who came to Manual from Roosevelt had already had several happy years of experience teaching black children. There was definitely a difference between those two faculties that merged in 1969.
The central administration, led by the Superintendent, was responsible for telling school principals the kinds of punishment that could be meted out and for what behaviors.
Doesn’t the central administration still set the policies as to what behaviors warrant suspensions or expulsions? Doesn’t the current administration set discipline policy? If so, isn’t the current administration responsible for any disparities in policy or punishments?
Teachers have never been allowed to choose how to punish students—punishment has always been meted out in the office. Therefore, teachers cannot be accused of making unfair choices, right?
Teachers can be accused of writing more referrals for black students than for white students, etc. In the 1990’s Manual’s administration began to criticize teachers who wrote too many referrals. Today I often hear that the current central administration and principals tell teachers to cut down on referrals.
Teachers are also evaluated by how many referrals they write. Cutting down on referrals doesn’t solve discipline problems; it creates them. Before you attack teachers for disparities in the classroom, please let them know how much chaos you expect teachers and well-behaving students to endure. Those students might well be black.
Of course, administrators should handle instances of racial discrimination in the most appropriate and effective way. How were these issues addressed in the hiring process and for the last three years? I do approve of dealing with racism, but please work on discipline, too.
I fear that this administration’s solution is to have personalized learning or remote learning so that interaction between teachers and students and students with each other is unnecessary. That is the easy way for you but a very unfair way for students.
If you want to talk about disparity, consider that private schools and public schools in the suburbs are not buying into programs like Summit Learning. They are still providing students with a general and traditional education that will lead them to success in college if or when they choose that path. You need to listen, not just talk at teachers, to understand how they view the problems in their classrooms.
If you want to solve the district’s discipline problems, you will have to do more than change wording from “discipline” to “behavior.” By the way, these two words are not interchangeable.
You have to prove that you know and understand why so many discipline problems exist in District 150. And you have to be willing to take the blame for some of the problems and thus change your own attitudes and the district’s policies. It won’t be easy.
Also, you have to be willing to admit that gang activity in our schools might well be leading to a drug trade on school grounds and fights that are planned by gangs at school because they are less likely to be arrested than if they fight on the street.
At board meetings, please inform board members of problems in our district so that solutions can be discussed. Perhaps you could designate a time limit for the preliminary awards and presentations, etc., so that the bulk of time is left for the actual board meeting. - 30 -