Closing Woodruff HS doesn't stop the debate and regrets

PEORIA -- Peoria School District 150's 4-3 decision last year to close Woodruff High School may be done but it's not going down easily. The Woodruff closing kept being mentioned during the public comments at the Sept. 13 School Board meeting.

General Parker, a local activist and husband of board member Rachel Parker told the board that the couple had attended, at their own expense, a meeting of educators where they were told public schools should never be closed for financial reasons.  

His comments came after teacher Charlie Thomas, formerly a Woodruff teacher, said he was "waiting to see the cost savings by closing Woodruff."  Scattering the Woodruff teachers throughout the district has brought to light the many inconsistent policies and procedures in the schools, he added.

Activist Terry Knapp told of two Woodruff players now at Richwoods High School benched for the first game, presumably for eligibility reasons. That should have been worked out before the game, he said.

He also mentioned the dress code disaster for the former Woodruff cheerleader on her first day at Richwoods.   See the details on post below.

Teacher Karen Dutro read a letter sent to the board about the dress code mix up from a parent whose two daughters were affected. He demanded an apology from the board, and said he personally saw and photographed his daughters before school began, and that their outfits would be acceptable in his law office. 

Activist Sharon Crews told of supply issues, with parents having to supply items that the school district should be paying for. Her report will be posted below.

Activist Sevino Sierra mentioned the combined high school graduation, an idea that surfaced in recent news reports, and said that was a bad idea.

Supt. Grenita  Lathan acknowledged the problems but said the first day of school was an overall success. She said the district is trying to remedy supply issues, improve the dress code enforcement, and get "all the schools on the same page."

Of the combined graduation, she said the board has not yet voted on that, and a listing in a calendar is a mistake. 

But Knapp said privately that the Civic Center has already been reserved for the graduation.

Lathan said to remember PIG, "Peoria is Great."

Really!

Here's an audio recording of the public comments, since the board censors them out in its re-broadcast, a week late, of the meeting: 

D150 Sept 13

 -- Elaine Hopkins

Here are the remarks from Sharon Crews:

One blog recently posed the questions,“Why have expenses in District 150 continued to climb while enrollment has been decreasing? Where is the money going?”

I know where it isn’t going.  It isn’t being used to give teachers ample and necessary supplies for their classrooms.

The district puts out one supply list for each primary grade, but specific schools and specific teachers sometimes send out longer lists to their parents.

I was semi-surprised to find one list asking each parent to supply such items as four bottles of hand sanitizer, 4 boxes of tissue, Ziploc bags, and Clorox wipes.

Most of these items are absolute necessities to maintain a healthy environment as free of germs as possible.  Yet District 150 does not even pretend to bear any responsibility for the purchase of these items.  As board members, who do you think should pay for these items and why?

Teachers have two choices:  pay out of their own pockets or beg parents to pay for these items.  High school teachers are completely out of luck; they need most of the same items, but there is no system whereby parents can be asked to help out.

The quantities of these items and of the supplies needed by students indicate that teachers know that not all parents will or can comply, so they count on a few parents to pick up the slack.

For example, one kindergarten list asked for five boxes of crayons, two 12-pack boxes of pencils, 4 bottles of glue, 3 spiral notebooks, a package of copy paper, and paper plates.  One child just doesn’t need that many pencils, etc.

 

I have heard that it is fairly common practice for these items to become communal property.  In fact, parents are often asked not to put their children’s names on the items they have supplied.

Parents should be obligated to buy supplies for their own children.  If necessary, they perhaps could be asked if they are willing to donate some extras.  Better yet, District 150 should be responsible for finding donors as it did for the Civic Center event.

I do understand the plight of the teachers, who have learned from experience that too many children forget their supplies and that children without supplies become discipline problems right away.  Therefore, the path of least resistance is to keep the supplies and dispense them when they are needed.  From experience, I, also, know that school administrators aren’t going to tolerate teachers who want to teach children to be responsible by penalizing them for not having the appropriate materials.    

I was pleased last week when the kindergartener in my life used her one and only pencil to do her homework and then immediately put it back in her zippered pencil pouch.  At age five, she has already learned that it is important to hang on to supplies.

Frankly, I don’t want her to find out by observation that she can always get a pencil from her teacher.  I want her to learn that she has responsibilities.

I fear that the communal property practice might go on for quite a while at the primary and even the middle school level.  Some of my high students believed that I should supply them with pens and paper—I think irresponsibility is learned behavior often taught by District 150 because the powers-that-be do not want children to suffer appropriate and fair consequences.

I believe that technology is eating up much district money and that much of that technology does little to benefit the classroom.  I would like to see a list of expenditures divided into two categories:  technology used directly in the classroom as teaching tools and the second list of technology that helps the district collect data or helps administrators do their jobs. 

I believe that the district should first be sure that the mundane necessities of the classroom are paid for with district funds, not out of the pockets of teachers or parents.  I know the temptation is to buy the more exciting, flashy programs even useful programs that help accomplish the district’s daily tasks, but classroom needs should be met first.  Teachers will soon be complaining because the much needed copy paper is not available. 

Another thought—transportation problems in the district seem out of control—what are you going to do when you realize that moving students from one end of the city to another is not a workable idea? -30-