Attempted child abduction in Glen Oak Impact Zone

Police are investigating an attempted child abduction that reportedly occurred about 7:45 p.m. Thursday in the East Bluff.

A male got out of a four-door car in the 2200 block of North Wisconsin Avenue and grabbed the victim, according to a news release from the Peoria police.

The victim then broke free from the attempted abductor, said to be in his 40s, and ran to safety, police said.

Questions: What color was the car; what color was the alleged abductor; what was he wearing? These questions are important so that we can warn other children what to look out for.

Legend: School, location of Wednesday's armed assault, location of Thursday's attempted abduction

I got a little Poison in my eye

I am not sure at what point it happened, but I give a darn about Brett Michaels.

I vaguely remember him from the 80's, but Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon was my idea of a glam rocker. Anything more than Hungry Like the Wolf was waaay too hardcore for me.

I used to watch Rock of Love out of my left eye, with my lips pursed, from time to time, shaking my head and saying "hmmn, hmmmn, hmmmn. I mean really, the manscara; the perfectly tied bandannas; the blond hair that appeared to be attached to his head accessories; those damn Ed Hardy t-shirts. At the same time thinking "as far as glam rockers go, he really has aged better than the rest of them." And he was just so caring with all of the skanks - there was something intriguing about Brett.

Then Brett did Celebrity Apprentice and I saw that this little guy in the manscara was actually likable. Brett is funny, he is caring, he has a round about way of thinking, and he has bandannas of many colors (I can see him sending them out to the cleaners). I learned that Brett has been dealing with diabetes and that he has children that he seemed to adore. He seemed to be a genuinely good guy.

I was shocked to hear about Brett's brain hemorrhage. I began to scan my mind to see if I saw any hints that he was not well on the show. I have been checking periodically each day to see if he is getting better. I am actually doing a blog post about it... (huh) ...

I guess it is confirmed, I am a Brett Michaels fan, manscara and all. Get well soon Brett.

Related: Brett Michaels suffers a setback

Brutal murder in far North Peoria 10th homicide of the year

Fourth month of the year, it's not even summer yet and already Peoria has seen it's 10th homicide.

On Wednesday four (4) people were murdered on the center bluff and not a word from the Peoria Chief of Police. Others have been murdered on the East Bluff, the near North side and the South end of Peoria, yet I don't recall the Chief of Police ever being shown at the scene of the crime, or coming on television to reassure us of our safety.

Today, a young woman was found brutally murdered in far North Peoria in Tiffany Apartments; behind Tanglewood Shopping Center; .09 miles (3 minutes in a car) from Willow Knolls Country Club. Tonight, the Chief of Police was on the news reassuring citizens of their safety.

District 150 Board has their finger on the trigger... but who should they be gunning for?

If I were a member of District 150’s administrative level clerical assistants, and found out that the Local 6099 union that is supposed to be representing me, is demanding that my hard earned pay raise be rescinded, I would be calling a meeting to examine to what advantage it is to remain with the Local 6099 Peoria Federation of Support Staff.

In my opinion, administrative assistants are uniquely skilled professionals and should not be a part of a union, unless it is a union that is specifically for clerical workers. As there is currently no union for general administrative assistants or clerical workers, school district clerical workers have joined forces with cafeteria workers and para-professionals.

For an administrative level employee to be a part of a union with cafeteria workers and para-professionals is a disservice to all groups. Exactly what do these groups have in common that would benefit them joining together and being part of a wage tier pay system?

The $9 hour pay raise the District 150 clerical workers received does sound exorbitant, especially in light of the fact that the District is laying off teachers and cutting programs. However, in the real world of an administrative assistant, to make $22 per hour is hardly unheard of.

The pay that these administrative level clerical workers get should be in keeping with the level of work they do for their supervisor. Perhaps Debra Dimke and Pam Shau’s Assistants deserved a raise – consider that.

Administrative level assistants in human resources and payroll should be making a salary commiserate with the work of their supervisors - they should not be union employees.

Think about the work that human resources and payroll is doing theses days. You don’t have to make much of a stretch to imagine the pressure that comes with the complexity of work these administrative assistants or clerical workers are dealing with. These employees need insulation right along with their bosses and pay is just one way of giving it to them.

There is a reason why the administrative level assistants at Caterpillar or any other corporation are not in the union - it is because their pay is commiserate with the level of work their management level supervisor is entrusted with, as it should be and with that pay comes loyalty. (Loyalty - the thing that is sorely lacking in the District from it's employees both past and present.)

Because of the confidential nature of the work this group of employees is doing, the District and the Board cannot afford to loose their loyalty.

Sure, there are some issues that need to be ironed out with the level of transparency between the Board and Administration. But don't be a reactive Board and just rescind the pay, take a look at the level of work these people are performing now in this climate and pay them accordingly and when the jobs are reclassified, if at all possible, you all should make sure they are not union jobs.

Related article: District 150 clerical rasies rescinded

Governor Quinn wants to explore having more influence in the City of Peoria

Peoria’s crime rates, crumbling infrastructure, cuts in essential services, failing schools, middle class flight and a reputation of failure has convinced Governor Quinn that the City of Peoria is failing.

He says he's looking at larger states for inspiration to initiate change here that would intertwine his job as governor with the decision-making of the City of Peoria.

My interest is not in running the City of Peoria, and I think that's one of the misconceptions that people have when they hear 'gubernatorial control,' Quinn said.

But Quinn said he is "exploring" the gubernatorial appointment of Peoria's City Council members, who in turn approve or reject which direction the City goes.

The Governor didn't say how far his interests go, whether he is thinking of appointing the entire City Council or just a few members.

He contends that with a governor in charge, there is just one elected official who can be held accountable by voters as to whether they're doing a good job or not.

Peoria's Mayor, Ardis favors the current system. I think an elected mayor and city council is a good thing, Ardis said. It's important for all the different public bodies to communicate with each other, but I think it's also important that we all keep our own identities. I think an elected mayor and city council is important to keep.

City Council member Gary Sandberg said he's willing to listen to the governor but didn't know if there was a need. If it's just a power play, then I'm against it, but if it's a collaboration approach - I would just have to hear more about it, Sandberg said, . . . it's worth the discussion.

Quinn said he believes there are both positives and negatives. I think it needs a good vetting to talk about the pros and cons, he said, I'm going to keep pushing the discussion. I can't think of another city that has a greater importance on downstate than the City of Peoria.

Source

Mary Davis charged with 8 counts of theft

Does the fact that Mary Davis was charged with 8 counts of theft mean that Julie McArdle was wrongfully fired?

PEORIA — A former District 150 principal allegedly stole $4,000 from her employer over three years, the county’s top prosecutor alleged Friday.

Mary C. Davis, principal at Charles Lindbergh Middle School for five years before moving into central administration in 2008 to head up all the district’s principals, was charged Friday with 16 felony counts of official misconduct and theft.

The eight theft charges specify dates when Davis allegedly took money. The actual amount taken each time wasn’t in the charges, only the statutory threshold of being more or less than $300.

“Among the charges, the counts include a $475 personal acquisition of a Mont Blanc pen and checks written to the defendant for cash well beyond the claims and ‘receipts’ she used to support the claim,” said Peoria County State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons.

When reached Friday, Davis said she had no knowledge of the charges.

The 51-year-old Dunlap resident is accused of taking money from the district four times in 2006, and twice each in 2005 and 2007. The official misconduct charges all allege she “knowingly performed an act which she knows was forbidden by law,” that act being theft of government property.

If convicted, she faces up to seven years in prison. Davis was ordered to appear in court on May 19.

Source

Addressing the cultural aspect of teaching

Historically in Peoria school administrators (i.e., principals, assistant principals) have been predominately white. It seems that within the last ten years or so we have seen the advent of more African-American principals, administrators and teachers in D150 schools – mainly south of War Memorial in predominately black schools.

Some believe that African-American administrators and educators can best address the needs of black children, because they understand them culturally. I must admit, I have seen instances where students respond differently to a teacher or administrator who looks more like them.

In my opinion, there are some children who need just the right person to give them attention, but for the most part, I am of the mindset that a disrespectful child is going to be disrespectful regardless of the skin color of the person they are dealing with. Students are going to learn better from those who can communicate with them, show interest, support and understand them, regardless of the color of their skin.

Another opinion:


White female teachers and black male students
We have a black student crisis in America. We need to stop messing around pretending it is cute for white teachers to have black students. The kids are the ones footing the bill for this adult nonsense and they can't make the payments. The next time a well-meaning and culturally myopic white teacher tells you how well they do with African-Americans, ask them to address the universally high suspension rates in America, not just their narrow view of the nation.

Forget gobbely-gook instructional methods and even high-faluting educational goals for a moment and just put 12.5 black guys and 12.5 black girls, at any grade level above primary, in a large room, with your average white teacher, stand outside and see how long it takes for that teacher to throw a couple of the goofier brothers out.

Now put that very same class in the very same room with an average black teacher of any gender. This time, sit down and watch the clock; a natural cultural affinity between the teacher and the students will not eliminate human conflict, but it certainly will not escalate as often or as quickly.

This is a hard truth that teaching staffs all over the country have witnessed. With black students, the black teacher just doesn’t have anywhere near the discipline problems as white teachers.


Pervasive and continuing disproportionate African-American suspension and expulsion rates lead to only one fatal conclusion, that is, if you’ve got the guts to go there. White female teachers cannot, as a rule, handle black male students, much less educate them. But instead of dealing with the real issue, we dig large emotional holes in the ground and insert our heads.

I am not talking about altruistic motives or Olympian efforts. I am speaking to results. Ramming your head into a brick wall to remove an obstacle might be courageous and admirable, but if the wall doesn’t move, then your time and effort has been wasted; try something else. Besides, slamming into a hard object on a daily basis ruins your disposition.

Source

Was Jerry Schweighart @ Five Points on Sara Palin Day?

I'm betting that he was.



The Story behind the video

John O'Connor didn't set out for the Tea Party rally intending to expose Champaign Mayor Jerry Schweighart as a Birther. Honest. The grad student at the U of I Center for Writing Studies was hoping to get some insight into the movement for his research into web-mediated political discourse, and was collecting video for that purpose.

"It started that I walked up and introduced myself, and he politely said, 'How are you doing?'" O'Connor said in a phone interview with Joel Gillespie yesterday. "The first question I asked was, 'Do you support the Tea Party?' And he kind of laughed and said something to the effect of, 'Yeah, that's why I'm here.'" And then the immortal Q&A in the video clip ensued.

O'Connor explained, "I was expecting him to say something about the federal grants, the broadband grant... the economy, unemployment, anything that would relate to a local issue. But then of course the first words out of his mouth were thinking that he wasn't an American."

"Then, immediately after that ― I wasn't really intending to ask him this, but his response to that first question of what he thinks about Obama was so off the wall ― I followed up with, 'Do you think he's a socialist?' At which point the Mayor paused, and said, 'Oh, you're trying to bait me.' At that point, someone else nearby started talking and made it clear that the Mayor was done talking with me."

O'Connor shared his personal views about what Schweighart's statements say about his fitness to hold public office. "In my view, it's disqualifying for holding any office including dogcatcher. It just shows a willful and deliberate denial of facts. And I think it's blatant racism. Most of the Birthers are either gullible and easily manipulated, or more likely, they can't handle the fact that we have a person with some African heritage as our president and they're grasping at any straws they can."

He continued, "I realize the racism charge might seem inflammatory, and that some people are going to call me the racist for saying that the Birthers are motivated by racism, but I think that just is what it is. We should just put that out in the open."

Source

School choice for the inner city is looking up

Initially, the K-8 plan for the Lincoln and Woodruff campus didn't stand a chance because it was a part of the overall plan to close Woodruff High School. However, now that Woodruff High School is closed, it is my opinion that the best use for the building would be to create the K-8 campus between Lincoln and Woodruff.

BOE President Wolfmeyer may not want to open it back up and many in the community will be against it – but at some point people are going to have separate the emotional from the rational in relation to Ken Hinton.

Many of us didn’t care to see Hinton come in and even more of us were thrilled to see him go, but when are we going to stop fighting every thing he ever put before us? He had a few good ideas and the K-8 campus was/is one of them. The K-8 campus is a perfect fit for the community in which it sits.

This should be a no-brainer for the BOE. With this decision, school choice for the inner city could actually be realized. The Woodruff/Lincoln K-8 campus; the new community school at Glen Oak; the new high school at Peoria Central; Knoxville Center; Washington Gifted; the neighborhood schools and the Charter School. The options for inner city children and parents are really starting to look up.

I would encourage the BOE to spend the money on Peoria High School, make it the best inner city high school you can; and then bring the Lincoln/Woodruff K-8 campus to fruition it would be the best use of the buildings and the dollars.

"Entire central Illinois region behind Sara Palin 100%"

Even though Palin quit the governor of Alaska gig in 2008, last night Mayor of Washington, Illinois, Gary Manier introduced Palin to the over one thousand giddy people who attended the dinner at Washington Five Points as the Governor.

Although the event was held up to be a fundraiser for the Washington Area Community Center and for youth scholarships, the comments that Mayor Manier made when giving Palin the key to the City, indicates that he is a true fan and supporter of the ideals the "Governor" is spewing.

I suppose bringing Palin to town under the guise of a fundraiser and having people think they are so desperate for funding for their schools, they would do anything, even stoop so low as to bring in Palin, is better than admitting he would bring the hatemonger to town just because he and his constituents are fans.

Either way, the fact that he felt so comfortable openly swooning over her is a sad commentary on the region in which we live. A thriving tea party and now this. Ugh.

Stepping Up for what, for who?

On this blog, I make a conscientious effort to not be negative and/or critical of everything that happens in the City of Peoria. Frankly, if you want to just gripe about everything the City has going on, there is another Peoria blogspot who has got that covered. Anyhow...

On March 6, 2010, I posted about my confusion as to what exactly it means to “step-up”. I didn’t want to be appear to be immediately critical of the campaign, because if it is about volunteering in the community it’s a wonderful thing to encourage people to step up. So I took the post down. Today, I put it back up (see it below) because I am still somewhat skeptical of this campaign.

The confusing thing about this campaign is the fact that it appears to be more advertising for businesses, than it is about businesses actually encouraging and allowing their employees to step up and volunteer in the community. Here are some suggested ways you can step up today...

So, is it really stepping up, if you run the Civic Center, or you are the Mayor, or you are selling cars, or real estate? Isn’t that the job you are getting paid to do? Kudos to Ad-Co for volunteering their services to this campaign – brilliant move for them in a season when ad sales are slow and advertising budgets are pretty much nil. What a wonderful way to make contact with potential clients. Smart.

The campaign is described as a campaign aimed at bringing people and organizations together so they can "step up" and say what they are doing to help move the region forward.

Today, the pjstar’s, Business Editor, Paul Gordon wrote about his impression of the campaign. He too appears to be skeptical of exactly what this campaign is supposed to be about…


Mr. Gordon is not the only person rolling his eyes. Again, I don’t want to appear cynical, but mentoring someone, helping beautify your neighborhood, carrying someones groceries, coaching a team or volunteering your time just seems far more appropriate to step up and talk about, than doing your job selling cars, running a business or selling real estate (it is good, cheap advertising though).

Unfortunately, the advertising component of this campaign is watering down the call for volunteerism. The day an employer buys a box and steps up to say they will let their employees volunteer in schools without penalizing them for being off work, that will be the day that I will believe that “stepping up” is about more than just advertising for businesses.

Mr. Gordon is going to stepping up to do his job and keep an eye on the campaign; he will keep us posted.

I hired this guy to beat up Kilmeade

No need to suffer through the whole video - just fast forward to the 2:45 mark and enjoy...



You are welcome.

Alice in Wonderland and the Tea Party Survey

The tea party movement has gotten much attention in recent months, but aside from decrying big government and excessive spending, who are the supporters and what else do they appear to believe?

A new University of Washington survey found that among whites, southerners are 12 percent more likely to support the tea party than whites in other parts of the U.S., and that conservatives are 28 percent more likely than liberals to support the group.

"The tea party is not just about politics and size of government. The data suggests it may also be about race,"said Christopher Parker, a UW assistant professor of political science who directed the survey.

Indeed, strong support for the tea party movement results in a 45 percent decline in support for health care reform compared with those who oppose the tea party. "While it's clear that the tea party in one sense is about limited government, it's also clear from the data that people who want limited government don't want certain services for certain kinds of people. Those services include health care,"Parker said.

He directed the Multi-State Survey of Race and Politics, a broad look at race relations and politics in contemporary America. The survey reached 1,015 residents of Nevada, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia and California. All were battleground states in the 2008 presidential election with the exception of California, which was included in the survey to represent the West Coast.

The survey found that 30 percent of respondents had never heard of the tea party, but among those who had, 32 percent strongly approved of it. In that group, 56 percent of Republicans strongly approved, 31 percent of independents strongly approved and 5 percent of Democrats strongly approved.

Among whites who approved, 35 percent said they believe blacks to be hardworking, 45 percent said they believe them intelligent and 41 percent said they believe them trustworthy.

Conducted by telephone from Feb. 8 to March 15, the survey reached 494 whites, 380 blacks, 77 Latinos and 64 members of other races. The sampling error margin is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The Washington Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race and Sexuality and the UW Department of Political Science paid for the survey. It was conducted by the UW's Center for Survey Research.

Source

Photos - Little One's Alice in Wonderland Tea Party

Pre-K to prison trend and the African-American male

A disturbing thirty year trend has resulted in a disproportionate number of incarcerated African-American male youths in U.S. prisons. A new study from the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry shows that the conditions that contribute to this high representation (sixty percent of all incarcerated youth) begin early in life, and is often exacerbated by their experiences in school.

It's projected that by 2029, prisons will house almost 30,000 of the 600,000 four-year olds now living in America. The solution to this problem lies within families, schools and communities. Study author Oscar A. Barbarin, III, Ph.D. identifies specific practices needed in order to turn this situation around. Parents, as a child's first teacher, can do a lot by engaging with them through talking, listening, and offering challenging new experiences.

Schools can begin by acknowledging the unique challenges facing African-American males, developing strong relationships with their families, and by using teaching practices that incorporate motor skills and movement, which comes naturally to young males. Classrooms can be reformed to provide more engaging and accepting environments for boys.

Barbarin argues that these measures can add to a feeling of acceptance, connectedness, responsibility and loyalty within their families and communities, and counteract certain traumas and challenges experienced early in life. He shows that evidence of these academic and social challenges is already apparent at the kindergarten level.

According to Barbarin, African-American males come to school with fewer skills than their Caucasian or female counterparts at this age, who are more inclined to have more developed language, literacy and self-regulation skills. Boys' limitations are often not properly recognized or addressed as they progress though school. This is exacerbated by behavioural issues, as well as racial segregation within schools. Barbarin's findings expose large gaps in the American educational system, and highlight a systemic underachievement level among African-American males.

Barbarin agrees that programs such as Head Start, Boys and Girls Clubs, and state-funded early childhood programs have tried to augment these issues.

Barbarin says, "Once the juveniles enter the justice system, the repeat offender rate is sixty percent. This research calls for optimism in spite of a vicious downward cycle experienced by many young males, which marginalizes them at school, at work, at home and in their communities."

Source

Hot Job: Urban School Symposium Producer

Interesting that ALL of the proceeds from the day long conference on urban education, which is being held by the City, Chamber of Commerce and Bradley University, are going to the Institute for Principled Leadership.

If this is about inner city schools - why aren't the proceeds going to help fund inner city schools? Isn't the Charter School still trying to raise money?

It appears that selling tickets to talk about fixing inner city schools is a money maker all across the country. It would be nice if some of the money these symposium producers are making actually benefited the urban schools they talk about caring so much about.

*********************

PEORIA — The list of education officials and experts converging in Peoria later this month to discuss changes to public education is growing by the day, organizers say.

Kenneth Wong, considered the leading expert on urban education and director of the Urban Education Policy Program at Brown University, will join U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and renowned education reformer Paul Vallas to speak at an education symposium at the Peoria Civic Center titled "Transforming Public Education."

The daylong conference, sponsored by the city of Peoria, the Institute for Principled Leadership, the Dirksen Center and the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce, is set for April 21 at the Civic Center. Cost ranges from $50 to $175 and the proceeds go to the Institute for Principled Leadership at Bradley University, which is organizing the event.

Some 40 Illinois mayors have been invited and school superintendents from across the state have been signing up. There is also hope that community members will come.

Other speakers include Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools; Suzanne Armato, executive director of the Federation of Community Schools; Christopher Koch, Illinois Superintendent of Public Schools; and Joan Sattler, dean of the college of education and health sciences at Bradley.

Source

Teacher-on-teacher bullying

I once saw a teacher leave the school and children she loved because of a group of over bearing teachers. It didn’t occur to me at that time that teacher-on-teacher bullying was a regular occurance in schools.

The USA Today article excerpted below, leads me to wonder, just how prevalent is teacher-on-teacher bullying? How well does the teacher's union support their members in cases of bullying and stress?

Schools tackle teacher-on-teacher bullying
Most schools have policies that target bullying, but they are usually aimed at students. Now, school districts in Iowa and California are developing rules to prevent teachers from bullying teachers.

The Sioux City, Iowa, community school district approved its policy last April. Desert Sands Unified School District of La Quinta, Calif., is awaiting final passage later this month. The two school districts are believed to be the only ones nationwide developing anti-bullying policies for their adult employees.

Nationwide, 41 states have anti-bullying laws affecting schools, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. A few states, such as North Carolina, Florida and Utah, include school employees with students in their measures, a USA TODAY review of those policies showed.

Matt Spencer, the Sioux City district's director of non-teaching employees, said the economic impact of bullying in absenteeism and lost productivity provides an overall financial benefit "that can be used to go about the business of educating children."

Costs for the district's policy were covered by a local philanthropic organization, human resources director Steve Crary said. Approved last April, Sioux City schools' anti-bullying policy is already paying dividends, he said.

"We've had a number of situations come forward," Crary said. "I think it's doing what it was supposed to do. It created a heightened sense of awareness. People who for whatever reason didn't feel comfortable coming forward before are coming forward and telling us about things."

The Illinois state Senate last month passed the Abusive Work Environment Act, which would provide protections from workplace bullying for public workers. Workplace abuse "pushes people into a shell of silence," said Democratic Illinois Rep. Eddie Washington, who is co-sponsoring the House bill. "This is a good way to get in front of it," he said.

Mary Ward has "integrity and ability to lead"

Mary Ward, the embattled Director of District 150's technology department was back at work today at the Roy S. Ricketts Center.

Ward along with the district's technology director, had been placed on paid leave March 15, while the District investigated claims that were made by employees and people in the community, despite no evidence of any wrongdoing.

The three-week probe into allegations of theft proved to be nothing more than false claims.

Interim Superintendent Norm Durflinger said now that the investigation is complete he wished it had not been done, but it was necessary. Durflinger offered Ward an in-person apology on Tuesday, with plans to apologize to the remaining employees on Wednesday.

Source

Help me understand "stepping up"

At the various box locations around Peoria, people of all ages can step up on a blue box and, either in a videotape or photograph, say what they are doing to help improve the community.

Are we to applaud people for stepping up to do the job they are paid to do and/or the business they have in Peoria; or for stepping up by going the extra mile as a volunteer for the community? If it's the latter, I'm stepping Up to say, "great campaign".

*Disclaimer - this post is not a criticism

The farce that is the 2010 All-America City Awards

Wanna hear something funny? The community of Canton, Illinois was named as a finalist for the National Civic League's ("NCL") 2010 All-America City Awards.

Apparently Canton was selected for addressing such issues as diversifying the labor force and funding services during the recession. Huh, diversifying what, who, Canton, Illinois? Does this mean it's time for black folks to run out and look at purchasing a home in Canton?

Not so fast... this is clearly one of those awards your application fee can buy...

Is Canton not the City where Police Chief Dan Taylor, has been accused of using racial slurs about blacks and a black child and then retaliating against former patrolman Rusty Graham (the white officer who confronted him); the City where a complaint was filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and ruled to have merit?

Who is the National Civic League (NCL)?
...the National Civic League works directly with communities though the Community Services Program. This program provides professional technical assistance to communities that need help in bringing diverse constituencies together to solve common problems. NCL facilitators help bridge the sometimes serious gap between elected and appointed local government officials and community leaders through an array of services including conflict resolution, strategic planning, program implementation, performance measurement, charter reform, and diversity training.

One of the benefits of membership in NCL is the privilege to enter your town, city or county in NCL’s All-America City Award competition.

Sounds like the Who's Who award program huh? We all know what's required to "win" one of those.

The NCL has a list of projects on their Community Services Project page, but Canton, Illinois is not listed as a community they are working with.

So, has Canton overcome the racial conflict that was brewing so heavily just this past January? Are they truly an all inclusive "All America City" within a matter of months? If so, Peoria needs to hook up with this National Civic League and let them work their magic over here.

Articles about Canton the finalist for All America City:

Citizens Against Racism threaten pickets in letter to potential councilman; and Picketers rally in response to alleged racist comments; and Canton group to meet, address alleged racial slurs

Street construction for the Glen Oak Impact Zone

Monday was the start of street construction around the new Glen Oak School. Completion is expected on or around August 10, 2010.

The City of Peoria will be setting up a storefront office on Wisconsin Ave. next to the bait shop during this project, to address any resident concerns. There are three civil engineers working this project, who you may call regarding any concerns and/or questions:

Scott Reeise - 494-8818
Jim Lancaster - 208-7289
Ron Camp - 303-8654

Each street re-design is expected to take 1 1/2 to 2 months to be completed. Work will start at the intersection of Republic and Maryland on sewer issues, with Maryland being the first street to be re-done.

Traffic will primarily be re-routed to McClure Ave. and Nebraska Ave. When Wisconsin Ave. is closed to traffic, city buses will be using Arcadia Ave. to reach the bus stop at Kroger.

Missed opportunity for D150

A recent editorial in the PJStar Forum, which spoke to how wonderful the March 18, Trewyn Middle School Fine Arts Night was, got me to thinking about how you seldom ever hear good news reports about what is going on in our schools.

Unfortunately D150 missed another opportunity to illustrate the "good things" that we keep hearing about happening in the schools. This was an opportunity for free advertising. A simple p.r. effort to showcase a school that is constantly reported on as being "troubled", would have been worth the time for Trewyn's image. I think the media would be interested in showing the positive side of schools, but first somebody has to notify them.

These special events at schools are a chance to sell the District to citizens. The editorial, by Jim Bateman of Community Builders, described the event like this:

"Trewyn's Fine Arts Night was the culmination of a nine-week after-school and Saturday-morning pilot arts program sponsored by a grant received by Community Builders Foundation from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, and the Community Foundation of Illinois. Thanks to the outreach of ArtsPartners, the students were led in their endeavors by Susie Somerville Brown and Matthew Garrett, both excellent artists, who willingly volunteered their time and talents to bring the arts to students at Trewyn.

The amazing thing is that the whole thing was done on a small budget - just money for supplies. The unpaid volunteers were all professionals in either art or theater. They loved working with the students, and it showed."

The fine art exhibit was a wonderful example of collaboration between the school and community volunteers. This is the type of community involvement that is going to make the difference in D150 - we need to shine a light on it whenever possible.

The Lathan Presser - she speaks

It appears she is already having input in administrative matters, I find that encouraging...

Hat tip to Dennis Eggemeyer, PCCEO Media Services Coordinator

Real skin in the D150 game

When reading Pam Adams' editorial of today, it struck me that apparently very few of the people charged with making decisions about public education in Peoria, have children of school age attending D150 schools (i.e., "real skin in the D150 game").

Apparently when the new Superintendent gets to Peoria, she will be looking for a school for her child. On her recent visit to Peoria, all of the people the new Superintendent met with (the movers and shakers in and around City Hall), either didn’t have children in D150 schools and/or when their children were of school age, they mainly went to private schools. What advice do you think they would give a person relocating to Peoria and looking for a new school?

Adams also mentioned that while at the Heartland Partnership/Chamber of Commerce office, the new Superintendent just so happened upon a group meeting on the Charter School Initiative. What advice do you think they would give a person relocating to Peoria and looking for a new school? (The Charter School has one person listed as "Parent" on their Advisory Committee of 34; with zero parents listed on their Steering Committee of seven.)

With all of the talk about parents not being involved in schools, do you think it would help the situation if parents actually saw people with “real skin in the D150 game” helping to make decisions about the schools their children attend?
Is it fair to expect the new Superintendent to put her "real skin in the D150 game" when none of these other people do and/or have?