PEORIA -- One more time, teachers, parents and taxpayers will mount a protest against school closures in Peoria School District 150.
The event begins at 5:15 p.m. on April 20 in front of the administration building on Wisconson Ave., followed by the school board meeting at 6:30 p.m. where the closing of Kingman and Tyng schools and the closing of one high school, as yet unnamed, are on the agenda.
Is anyone on the School Board listening? That's what the activists who gathered on April 19 wondered as they planned their strategy.
They hope to persuade board members to delay the vote. They have a million good reasons.
In the last few years the board has wasted millions, as the group members have documented. It keeps funding the Edison Schools, at $800,000 or more yearly, when its own staff could follow the same curriculum.
It closed Blaine Sumner school a couple of years ago, supposedly to save money, then spent $1 million upgrading and airconditioning it so 50 people can work in a huge building, while other space sits vacant.
And on and on. How can any big decision by this administration be trusted?
-- Elaine Hopkins
UPDATE 4/20/09. Read Diane Vespa's open letter to the District 150 School Board -- she says it all!
Another 4/20/09 UPDATE: Read the post at the Peoria Chronicle including my comment. What do all the school closings have in common? They're on the state watch list, leading to a state take over of the district, at which point all the administrators would be fired. Closing them puts off that situation for another day. No matter the fallout for the students or the community -- officials keep their generous pay and benefits flowing. Very sad!
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