At last night's meeting of the Board of Education, Irene Pritzker, the President of the Greater Peoria League of Women Voters, spoke to the Board about the lack of transparency in redistricting the board voting boundaries. Donald Jackson, President of the Illinois NAACP, also chided the Board and Superientendent for not offering an opportunity for public input. Donald Jackson:
"I cannot believe that you would even consider a vote [on redistricting] without first presenting it to the community. You know that the NAACP is one of the authors of the consent decree back in 1987. We were one of the organizations that represented the plaintiff in that lawsuit and I do not believe in fact, I think the state law requires that you have public input on this before you change boundaries.
I know you are worried about the elections coming up in March, but if that was a concern, that should have been taken into consideration long ago. Please don’t tell me that well, the information is on the Internet, some of us don’t have the time to go and check everybody’s Internet."
Thanks to Peoria Story for the recording of comments at the Board of Education meeting. Click on image to enlarge.
"I cannot believe that you would even consider a vote [on redistricting] without first presenting it to the community. You know that the NAACP is one of the authors of the consent decree back in 1987. We were one of the organizations that represented the plaintiff in that lawsuit and I do not believe in fact, I think the state law requires that you have public input on this before you change boundaries.
I know you are worried about the elections coming up in March, but if that was a concern, that should have been taken into consideration long ago. Please don’t tell me that well, the information is on the Internet, some of us don’t have the time to go and check everybody’s Internet."
Thanks to Peoria Story for the recording of comments at the Board of Education meeting. Click on image to enlarge.