Peoria Pundit

Today’s links are via the Peoria Journal Star:

• Peoria Airport Director Ken Spirito is leaving for a job at a larger airport on the East Coast

  Spirito, 36, has been with the Peoria airport, now the General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport , for three years. He oversaw plans for the $65 million air terminal that broke ground in October.

My two cents: Some of the comments to this article make note of the higher taxes Peoria residents are paying due to the additions and renovations at the airport. I’m wondering if they ever got around to installing actual telephones to let arrivals make outgoing telephone calls.

• Average homeowners will see an increase of about $90 on their tax bills going toward Peoria School District 150 next year.

  The School Board presented the tentative 2008 tax levy on Monday, requesting about $3.4 million more than last year, a 5.6 percent increase.

My two cents: Kudos to PJS reporter Dave haney for getting it. It’s not the property tax rate that causes your tax bill to go up. The amount of property taxes property owners pay is determined by the dollar amout of the levy set by local governments like the school district. The rate slides up and down to collect that amount of money. In this case, the rate did increase. But I’ve seen time and again where government decides to collect a huge increase in taxes, but the rate declines because of wild increases in property values. Incompetant reporters and editors sometimes tell readers that this is a tax decrease, when it isn’t. But Heny and his editors lede with real lede.

• School officials unveiled plans Monday for phase two of the “talent development high school,” calling for more small learning groups throughout the school [Manual High School] and partnering with area professionals in the health care, education and business sectors for work-based learning opportunities.

  “Things are going to look very different next year,” Principal Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat told the crowd.

  While student enrollment will remain similar to what it is now, plans show more of what educators call the “school-within-a-school” concept – smaller groups of teachers working with smaller groups of students in their own space; more of what’s already in place at Manual, which saw a seventh and eighth added this fall and making its ninth grade “self-contained.”

My two cents: I have several thoughts:

Manual High School was once called Manual Training High School, and was originally designed as a school that focused on vocational skills.

I seem to recall that this process began because the No child Left behind Act required changes be made if test scores indicated a lack of academic success. School officials hate the NCLB act because it supposedly punishes schools that don’t have middle and upper class students. But everyone is praising this new way ot teaching at MAnual High School. So, do the teachers and bureaucrats who are congratulating themselves for this new model have any prasise for NCLB? Not one word about it appears in this article.

• U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Peoria, thinks it is unlikely that either the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives will vote this week on a plan to bail out the beleaguered auto industry.

My two cents: This is what dot com giant Jason Calacanis says on his Twitter page about the auto industry bailout:

Obama is NUTS if he gives one penny to failed automakers like GM. those companies NEED TO FAIL. give grants to Tesla!

He has a point. From an ideological standpoint, it makes no difference which private company is getting a bailout. Why not give it to a company that’s innovating. GM has proven that it cant succeed, because it’s thinking is mired in the past. Eventually, we’re going to have to abandon fossile-fueled cars. Why not make it sooner rather than later. Easing Tesla’s credit crunch makes more sense because we’ll get more bang for the buck.

I’m reading Phil Luciano’s article about the girl who stabbed a classmate in the leg at Manual High School. Luciano talked to family and friends of the girl and came away with a sympathetic article about her. It seems she’s a decent kid who was being systematically bullied under the not-so-watchful eyes of teachers and administrators. I’m not going to dispute any of it.

At one point, a teacher was told that this boy and others were touching girls in the classroom. The teacher moved the boys to another side of the room. I can only hope that the girls’ complaints weren’t clear about what kind of “touching” was going on. State law requires teachers to report sexual abuse of children. The would include a gang of boys getting grabby with ANY part of a girl’s ananomy. It’s a form of sexual abuse.

And what kind of classroom is this in which a teacher doesn’t see this going on?

And the fact that the boys kept doing this meant they weren’t very worried about getting caught, let alone punished. Any why should they? When a complaint was made all that happened was that they were moved to another side of the room.

I suspect that there’s something in the culture at Manual High School that needs to be addressed.

And if this girl was in fact being systematically bullied, then her using a knife to defend herself seems perfectly justified, in my opinion. It’s easy to pontificate after the fact about how it’s a poor solution to the problem. Well, it beats the “no solution” being offered by a school district that does not or will not see what’s going on.

Yeah, I used to do Newsbytes on an almost daily basis. I let is slide a couple of times, then got out of the habit. Well, hopefully, it’s back for good. All links via the Journal Star unless noted.

• They’re down to just three candidates for Peoria City Manager. But the juicy paragraph in this article is word from Mayor Jim Ardis that there may be interest in adding a candidate to the mix who has yet to be interviewed. Could that candidate be current interim Peoria City Manager Henry Holling. Yes, I’m aware that Holling took himself out of consideration when he accepted the temporary gig. But  I have found Holling to be  soft-spoken  manager who hasn’t ruffled any feathers.  Maybe that appears to some on the council. Just speculation on my part.
• I’m extending my best wishes to Officer Ann Ruggles, who is retiring at police information officer for the Peoria PD.
• I’ve been a critic of both Peoria School District 150 and Bradley University. Yet I have a hard time working up any outrage over news that the two may team up on the proposed math, science and technology academy. The school would be a charter school created by District 150, but operated by a different entity and not subject to some of the same restrictions most public school’s operate under. I have expressed concern that any school chartered  under District 150 auspices would be under too much control by the district. But Bradley University is a strong enough entity to resist the subtle pressures that could be applied District 150. And while I certainly have been a critic of how Bradley University treats it’s neighbor homeowners, it cannot be denied that the school has an excellent academic reputation. It’s certain that nearby Whittier School benefits from the student teachers BU provides. So, at first blush, this seems a win-win.
• Likewise, I’m bullish on the future of Manual High School, now that curriculum changes mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act are in place. Too bad that with all the highly-paid administrators and consultants employed by District 150 lacked to mental  brain power to figure out how to adequately staff the school. The principal is begging for more teachers. Here’s an idea: But some of these administrators to work doing something useful. Apparently, they instead decided to move the students elsewhere (WEEK) because they didn’t have the proper paperwork. Huh? So they DO have adequate paperwork for Woodruff and Central?