Closing Irving School, random ruminations, with sub-titles

Imagine

Imagine you are in primary, going to a school that is part of a fragile, yet closely knit community. A school where the same group of employees and volunteers have come in for years and done whatever they could to make your experience better. A school where EVERY child inside lives in poverty and the only place they can find refuge is in the classroom.

Imagine one day that school closed and you were shifted to a new school; a middle school. A school where all of the people live in houses that are nicer than yours (you come from the projects) and as a result, they imagine they are better than you. The sad thing is, you imagine they are better than you... you are in their school.

Closing schools kill neighborhoods

It has been proven locally, there is an alternative to closing schools and forcibly herding children and families. Quest Charter Academy has proven that some old school buildings can be revived. The Board that oversees Quest has collaborated with the City and the County in a way that shows that closing schools doesn't have to happen - renovation may be possible:

Old Loucks School

Renovated Loucks School now Quest

Overcrowding=Warehousing

Remember this post about the overcrowding of Glen Oak School? To date, tax payers have not heard back from the District about the solution to the overcrowding, nor has anybody in any position of authority, publicly inquired about the welfare of the students being warehoused. Out of sight - out of mind.

One can't help but wonder whether the classrooms at Lincoln School will now be over crowded.

Population Shift

Notice on the map below, there are no public schools in the lower valley in between Valeska Hinton (special admission only) and Lincoln Middle School. Additionally, there are no public schools in the lower valley in between Lincoln Middle School and Washington Gifted School (special admission only).

Redistricting is complete; the School District has a new boundary map; the City is already actively working with the Housing Authority to relocate it's residents to Section 8 Housing in the East Bluff and surrounding areas. In a matter of years, the herding of families of the children that have been shifted to the schools in the lower North East valley (Lincoln) and the lower East Bluff (Glen Oak) will be complete. 

Developers are salivating, their dream of developing the river front, down the river front trail to the marina, is closer now than it has ever been. Taft and the surrounding areas are well within grasp. Full river front development is potentially on track to being realized, thanks to the cooperation of the School District.

Irving School to close Dec. 21.

The 114-year-old school is finally, actually closing at the end of 2012. Since August, students and staff have been preparing to move to a 20-year-old air-conditioned building with new cafeteria, library, kitchen and computer lab.

On Dec. 21, Irving students will take what amounts to a field trip to their new school. They'll load onto buses, carrying their books and supplies, then unpack them in their cubbies at Lincoln, which will become simply Lincoln School, rather than Lincoln Middle School.

From the beginning of Christmas break to the end, Lincoln will go from a middle school to a kindergarten-through-eighth grade building, approximately doubling to 820 students and 86 teachers and other staff.

The district changed Irving's starting times so students could get accustomed to riding a bus route with Lincoln students. Substitute teachers have been hired to assure each teacher three days to pack and move into a new classroom. When the students move to Lincoln, the caring volunteers will follow them.

Lincoln open house and ribbon-cutting for new addition: 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the school, 700 Mary St. The ribbon-cutting ceremony is 6 p.m., followed by a parents' forum with the Superintendent, tours and the open house. Source

Good for Irving School, a tenured teacher was there

Julie Giles - Shero!
The news report about the sexual predator actually being inside Irving School is disturbing. But what seems to have caught the eye of many that I have heard from, was the mention of a “Principal,” named Julie Giles.

Why did that catch our eye? Well, it’s because the public was initially told that Irving School would not have a principal. It was initially announced that a Cenithia Tice would be in charge at Irving School, as Assistant Principal.

Well, it appears that both Cenithia Tice and Julie Giles are both Assistant Principals to Ursula Brown, who is the principal at Lincoln School. Does that clarify anything? Hmmm, right, I didn’t think so.

The Journal Star could just have the info wrong (we know how they do that from time to time). Still, one can’t help but notice how in District 150, the neediest students continue to have the most precarious school administration schemes.

Here’s another thing that sticks out in  particular for me… Cenithia is new to the area (from North Carolina), good thing a tenured teacher (Julie), was in Irving School and recognized that a sexual predator was actually in the building and interacting with our students.

Congratulations Peoria District 150 has the sixth highest ranking middle school in Illinois

But is it really good news that District 150 has one of the highest-ranking middle schools (Washington Gifted Middle School), which has predominately white students; while also having the third and eighth-lowest-ranking middle schools (Trewyn and Lincoln, respectively) and the second-lowest-ranking elementary school (Tyng Primary School at the time it closed in 2009), all of which have predominately black students (the majority of the rest of the schools in District 150 are also predominately black).

While the news for the select few families at Washington Gifted is outstanding, the gross disparity that exists in the education of black children in Peoria does not escape me.

Click image to view column headers

Across all sections of the ISAT test, 100.0% of Washington Gifted School students met or exceeded standards, which is better than 99% of all schools in Illinois.

Some statistics (i.e., gross disparities):
District 150: 29% white; 62.4% black; 2 Asian; and 5.9%Hispanic.
Washington Gifted: 72.3% white; 12.6 % black; 14.3% Asian and .09% Hispanic.

While the comparison (district vs school) is not exactly apples to apples - the picture is clear.

Washington Gifted School 2010 School Report Card

17th homicide, second day of new crime initiative

Anthony M. Johnson, 43, of 906 E. Nebraska Ave. was pronounced dead at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center at 10:37 a.m. He is the city’s 17th homicide victim of the year. Johnson was standing outside a house at 1215 N. Frink St. about 10 a.m. Sunday when he was shot multiple times, Peoria County Coroner Johnna Ingersoll said.

Also shot were his stepson Justin Stanley, 27, and sister-in-law Angela Johnson, 30. Ingersoll said initial reports she received stated their wounds were not considered life threatening.

Two men believed to have been the shooters were arrested near Lincoln Middle School after leading police on a high-speed chase and crashing their car. Source

Hat Tip to Jenny (posted to the pjstar at 2:20 p.m.)

UPDATE: There are also now confirmed reports of a shooting on Columbia Terrace around 3:45 a.m. in the morning; and another man shot in the 500 block of East Gift street about an hour and a half before that. Police say both men suffered non-life threatening injuries.

A 5th grader argues that year round schools will hurt the economy

At last night's School Board meeting, District 150 Superintendent Ken Hinton recommended to the BOE they consider using Lincoln Middle School as a pilot program for year-round schooling (like the Valeska Hinton Center).

Year round education has many pros and cons. However, I believe that the immediate need to increase reading retention alone far out weigh any cons.

Lincoln has wonderful facilities and because of it's position in the Valley, year round schooling would benefit the surrounding neighborhoods greatly.

Oh sure, the ghetto quick shops (i.e., small businesses) are going to miss the kiddies coming in to spend money they got from Lord knows where, but the kids really should be in school.

I would hope that the Board approves Hinton's recommendation.