If you read this blog regularly, you may have noticed that Frustrated is gone, EmergePeoria is gone, Janet Schwartz is gone, and meanjarhead has left,w/tls1995.
I am sure there are others who don't comment on the blogs, who have recently given up on public education. We have all come to the conclusion that these years of development are too important for children to spend in flux. They need stability - NOW.
I am sure there are others who don't comment on the blogs, who have recently given up on public education. We have all come to the conclusion that these years of development are too important for children to spend in flux. They need stability - NOW.
All of the people mentioned above are people who tried to work with the District; people who volunteered in the schools; people who sent their children to school prepared to learn; people who offered input to board members. In the end, it was necessary to make the decision to SAVE OUR CHILDREN.
What's most unfortunate - we all represent the people the District needs to keep in order to stabilize - or so we thought. Maybe we actually represent the type of families the District has decided is expendable. One can't help but wonder.
28 comments:
Best. Post. Ever.
Amen!
In my last five-minute comments at a BOE meeting, I asked the board to consider seriously asking themselves what needs to be done to keep people from leaving District 150 and what needs to be done to draw people back in. I asked that same question when so many parents (long time MHS supporters) began in the 1990s to pull their children out of Manual.
I guess the board members, etc., do not see this as an appropriate focus of their attention. To me, it seems to be the most important issue demanding their attention.
@ tls1995
Don't feel any guilt. Stay involved. Be happy for your daughter that she may be able to actually start learning something.
Sad but true. The Board of Education has refused to listen to people and staff about what is really going on in the schools. Until the district addresses behavior on an ongoing basis with consistency, people will continue to leave.
I still plan on being involved with DIstrict 150. While my first priority is MY child's education I am not giving up on District 150 yet because there are kids who don't have the option of leaving 150.
FYI - Meanjarhead is Airen's father so he left the same time we did. He was just more confident that we would get accepted than I was.
The speaker for the opening of the Parent University apparently says that if the teachers are not fighting to have their own children in the schools then the schools aren't good enough. The education in each 150 school I have taught in has been excellent and I would love to have any of these teachers for my children. What I don't want is for them to be exposed to the gross disrespect with no consequences and blatant violence that takes place in these schools.
I am already very irritated by this man who says he is going to make us uncomfortable. Must be nice to get paid to come in from a non traditional school setting and criticize a district you have never set foot in.
Great way to start the year! I wonder if they mentioned to him that on a regular Parent University evening that only 3 parents would be there to listen to him.
I became involved with the District in a professional capacity in the late 1990s and as a parent in 2002, concluding my involvement just this past May. IMO there has been a consistent lack of resources and focus directed to programs likely to attract and retain middle to higher performing students. As a result, the percentage poverty level during this time period has risen over 10%.
As with so many things in life -- you get out what you put in.
You hit the nail on the head with your comment of "don't want them exposed to the gross disrespect with NO consequences.."
tls and meanjarhead:
Thank you for the time, effort, and presence you put into Glen Oak. Thank you for raising your daughter to understand and display respect for adults. Thank you for caring enough to save her from the chaos. Don't feel guilty for wanting the best for Airen. She deserves it.
I appreciate that both of you still care about Glen Oak even as you are relocating your daughter. I am thankful you still plan on trying to make a difference there. That is my plan too. Between all of us, maybe we can begin the change.
Good luck, Airen! You will be missed.
I still believe in D150 (in the future) and will always strive to be the best teacher I can. With that being said, I have told my children when my grandson is school-age, if they (D150) haven't figured it out I will pay for him to go to a private school. Education is too important to waste it in a class full of students who don't care.
Beth, I agree. I too, teach in D150 and will continue to give my "all", but when one or two students difficult behaviors destroy the learning environment for all, it becomes increasingly frustrating. I have had the F-bomb thrown at me so many times by "little ones" that it doesn't even shock me anymore. Parents use the word because they lack vocabulary skills(ones I am trying to instill in their children). Without the district making a "sweeping" decision to remove these distractions, learning will continue to spiral downward. District 150 is "dumbying down" their own students by continually allowing poorly behaving students to remain in the classroom where 99% of the students WANT to learn. I consider myself a teacher who sets a HIGH bar, not only for myself and my students, but for their parents and the administrators on Wisconsin Ave. as well.
Looks like frustrated lost her Pom-poms.
The teachers in 150 could teach circles around those in surrounding districts without batting an eye! The problem is discipline and lack of consequences. They are expected to be behavior disorder teachers now. A role many do not want or are prepared for. This is the bottom line and until it is addressed nothing will change.
Emerge, as you know, I too have left. However, this was a year in planning as my husband's job was relocated to another state a year ago. I made the decision that the move back then would have been too close to the start of school, so that, along with a bad housing market, caused my husband and me to realize that with 2 of our 3 children being on IEP's, and us NOT knowing the schools to where we were moving this was the plan carried out: He worked his job in another state and came home on weekends, and I stayed behind to fix the house and get the kids through the school year because I STILL believed D150 provided good Special Services for our children. I also did not want to suddenly uproot my children's lives, as the relocation came unexpectedly. We are now relocated since my kids have already started their second week of school. Our home in Peoria is not yet sold (Note to potential burglars: we DO have an alarm system that runs continuously, plus neighbors who pack heat!!) so I have been coming back to Peoria from time to time to work on the house. My kids now go to two of the best schools in the state of Indiana, and I feel very blessed that they have this opportunity. I did NOT see a future for my disabled daughter in Peoria. Now she has one. When I picked my kids up on the first day of school, the first thing they said was, "Mom, no one acted up!" I definitely DON'T have the answers for D150, but I will be totally honest and say that now I see how REALLY BAD they had it. I will continue to be a faithful reader of this blog, no question. I will also say this: Had we stayed in Peoria this year, I would have pulled my kids out and home schooled, after seeing at what schools two of my 3 were going to be placed. I do have a teaching license, so I have experience running a classroom. I would have converted our basement into a classroom, hooked tightly in with the Illinois home school curriculum, and probably would have invited up to eight other kids in the East Bluff to join us if they really wanted to. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not "pro home schooling" and made the decision a LONG time ago that I would never do it, but this year would have forced my hand to do what was not supposed to happen. I support this blog and hopefully will continue to stay in touch, if you all would have me. Thank you very much.
@Janet Schwartz.
I have added your name to our list... I do recall you telling me you would be leaving the District. I kind of envy the schools you have landed in. Good for your family. Here's hoping your house sells soon. PLEASE keep reading the blog, I enjoy your reading your comments and have learned from the experiences you share.
Tell us more about your new schools when you get a chance. The knowledge you share, could very well be the answer for myself or another parent.
In glancing at these numbers, it seems sad that so many have gone down. I noticed that Garfield, though small, is showing an increase. How interesting since this is the school Lathan closed and then demoted their principal.
Teaching Rocks
My daughter is leaving district 150 but we still live in Peoria. As you have heard me say i wake up everyday and try to make the world a better place. With that thinking i cant up and leave cold turkey. I am still going to run for school board. Lathan get out your zit cream you are about to get a pimple on your butt that isn't going to go away.
After being in District 150 for 13 years, I too jumped ship. I was a choice school parent....I supported the Edison partnership and was truly disappointed when the partnership ended to allow District 150 their shot at an "Edison-like" model.
My oldest daughter went to private high school and my two younger children will attend a small county district school this year because I want my kids to be in a learning environment where they get more uninterrupted learning.
I will be interested to see how the district enrollment continues to decrease as more and more families do what they have to do to find educational alternatives. At what point will the state decide to take control of this district and dictate what happens? It is my hope that school board members take their jobs more seriously....get into the schools, ask questions and demand answers.
Carrie B. was a very dedicated volunteer for the District for many years. The District and its students lose out when dedicated parents pull their children and leave.
I too have pulled my three children from 150 and moved to a different area in the county so they could attend a county school where they don't have the constant fighting, name calling to teachers and disruption of classes. It was a mess the last two years and will continue to be until the discipline problem is handled by Wisconsin Ave and these trouble makers removed from class and all students taught to respect their teachers. Shame on the board for allowing this to go on! They are suppose to protect the children and want them to learn.
Emerge, thank you for your kind words. It's a little difficult to explain how the kids are doing right now, except sadly, I've had to say to all school personnel now involved: "Consider them to be like the pet you've adopted from the shelter, clearly abused by its previous owner". One of my kids became so ill the night before the first day of school that all this child could say on the way to the first day of school was, "Mom,I'm so scared, I'm so afraid" over and over. They were expecting to be yelled at, made fun of, told to shut up by other students and not be noticed at all by the teacher because the teacher was too busy yelling at the kids acting up. Note to teachers: that was NOT a slam on you! That was an acknowledgement of what I've witnessed that you HAD to do the past 11 years. I've had to teach my kids ways to cope with what you have to do to maintain discipline, and if you've had one of my children, you KNOW I've always said to your face, "I support you 100%" That's why it kills me to know you will be evaluated in such an asinine way this year!! My kids are in their second week of school, as the schools here (Columbus, Indiana, 38 miles due south of Indianapolis off highway 65) have adopted an extended school year calendar. Emerge, thank you for informing me that you would like me to continue to share...our family has been through hell in 150, yet we are strong and will survive. That may sound corny, but it's absolutely true. Thank you!!
My son no longer attends one of PSD 150 higher achieving elementary schools. Sitting at the table with a school friend, I overheard him tell about his class and how much his teacher, who he loved dearly, strugged to teach b/c of the overcrowding, lack of support, and disturbing distruptive behaviors. The superintendent has had two full years to show a positive difference, the board backs her every move so I would guess things this year will be the same. Having my son in a different school/system is an event that we will all remember as a lifechanging positive event.
Just an FYI Shemika Skyes Patterson who is one of Latham's crew from NC has 2 children who attend DUNLAP schools. YEP!!!! that is right she does not send her kids to district 150. she told me this when I asked her where she lived and where her kids went to school.
Emerge, I will attend my first IEP meeting today at my boys' school, Parkside Elementary, here in Columbus. Tomorrow I will attend my daughter's first IEP at Columbus North High School. Ironically, one of my former co-workers, who taught in the classroom next to mine in the 80's and 90's, is one of the assistant principals there. I'm not sure what Illinois state law is for move-ins, but I can report that Indiana requires an IEP meeting within the first 10 days of school for move-ins. The district sent me questionnaires ahead of time to indicate my childrens' strengths, weaknesses, my expectations from the distict (GASP!), and to indicate what type of help I would need from them (DOUBLE GASP!!). Thank you for your wishes upon us selling our as of yet unsold home. We are taking a huge hit on it because of the market, yet we are incredibly blessed to have been able to purchase a 3300 sq.ft. ranch on over half an acre in one of the choicest parts of the city as a result. (I don't do "suburbia") We live very close to the schools and I noticed today that several PE classes from the middle and high school have been either jogging or powerwalking down our street. (Our street is part of what's called a "People Trail", so we regularly have joggers and bikers going by at all times of the day.) I am SO GRATEFUL to be here, that it makes selling the house in Peoria a "side project" that is worth the hassle. I'll report later on the IEP meetings, although, I do have to tell the neighbors I broke their lawnmower cutting through all the jungle boogie in the back yard yesterday, so this may be the last you hear from me. Hahahaha!! Until next time....
Emerge, you will hear bits and pieces from me from time to time...right now I'm overwhelmed with guilt, sadness, and anger that I kept my kids in 150. When I see what they have now, I truly see D150 for what it is: The Gates of Hades. After the last two IEP meetings, I'm shut down with emotion and kicking and killing myself for ever subjecting my kids to such schools...I'll share more later as it's too overwhelming to speak...it has taken two weeks of school now for my 3 children to BEGIN to see that noone is going to harm them...my heart is crushed and full of tears....more later...
You probably already know how much those words mean to me...we all come from different upbringings, yet share the same hell....thanks for your support, Emerge, keep this blog going...
In my previous comment, I said "those words", referring to a comment that has been removed, for all of you who care to read this blog...I was thanking someone in particular, and I STILL thank that person, and I think I have a hunch as to why you requested your comment to be removed....to that person: you've been the only one who has said those "removed" words to me, as I've had literally NO support whatsoever this past year...it's helping me to heal...
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