It's true - Manual Academy Principal, Kherat resigns

Of course the question is why?

Sources tell 1470 WMBD Dr. Kherat has accepted a job in the Springfield School District's Central office, where she will serve as a turnaround officer. This evening, WMBD31 reported that Kherat expressed her dislike of the the constant changes required by the turnaround process as one of her reasons to leave Manual.

The first day of school was apparently one of the last for the principal at Manual Academy.

Sharon Kherat submitted her letter of resignation on Monday, and it was accepted that night by the District 150 administration at its regularly scheduled board meeting.

Kherat announced her resignation to Manual staff on Monday, and the personnel move was posted on the District 150 web site Tuesday.

Kherat’s last day will be Sept . 9.

“It is definitely a great loss to Manual,” said Martha Ross, the School Board member who represents the Manual attendance area. “No one was any more talented or more committed to the success of our children.”

Kherat was named principal at Manual in March of 2008 by then-Superintendent Ken Hinton. She has led a restructuring of the school that included adding seventh and eighth grade academies. She also has raised the graduation rate and attendance rate in her three years at the South Peoria institution. Source

Politics a segue to being famous

First it was Congressman Aaron Schock in Gentleman's Quarterly...

Recently, State Representative, Jehan Gordon, who is engaged to be married to Derrick Booth (Manual High School Basketball Coach), submitted her engagement story to Munaluchi Bridal and was chosen to be featured on their blog. Munaluchi Bridal is a new, upscale bridal magazine, geared towards the upwardly mobile African-American woman.

"We were just STUNNED when we got this submission from Jehan Gordon with these gorgeous images from her engagement session. The trendy couple was photographed by the amazing husband and wife duo, Jarod and Julia, of Schilling Photography. Jehan and Derrick are such a striking pair, and through these images you can just see the divine love they have for each other. Enjoy this love story of Jehan and Derrick…"



More photos here.

Mrs. Jenkins - is she in - or is she out...

UPDATE... on speculation about Richwoods' Principal, Steve Ptacek in the comments.

To say that Mrs. Taunya Jenkins (Assistant Principal, Manual High School, a/k/a Principal of Roosevelt Magnet School) is one of the most disliked Principals in District 150 would probably be an understatement.

Anti-Pundit's current post talks about what the infamous Mrs. Jenkins has been up to lately (something about a pregnant girl, McDonald's, chocolate milk, cereal and Jenkins being black). Out of the post about Mrs. Jenkins and her special management style, came a rumor.

Are we surprised? No, we are not.

Anyhow, the rumor is that the "incompetent", "evil", "racist", "arrogant", "power monger", "bitch", with "fake fingernails", "needs a mint" and will be "returning to the classroom as a teacher".

Can anybody confirm?

Manual High School awarded $6 million 1003(g) grant

Per a comment posted by BOE Member, Jim Stowell last night, Manual High School has been awarded the 1003(g) grant, which is $6 million dollars over a three year period.

Peoria High, Woodruff and Manual High School were all eligible to receive the funding because of their inability to meet state and federal academic performance standards. However, in April of this year, the District decided to forgo applying for 1003(g) grant for Peoria High School, because it would have required them to remove Principal Randy Simmons.

There are four mandatory options for receiving the grant: close the school; convert it to a charter school; replace the principal and half the staff or more; or replace the principal and initiate a series of changes that include removing low-performing staff and instructional reform.

Manual High School, which is considered a Tier II school, was initially federally mandated to restructure in 2008. Under the restructuring plan, Manual was required to initiate changes that called for replacing the principal and removing a large number of staff members.

Some of the changes Manual has undergone so far, include adding seventh and eighth grades at the high school and instituting program changes based upon research by Johns Hopkins University.

Amidst calls to end the John Hopkins program, because it is too costly, just recently Dr. Lathan made the statement that Manual would be continuing with the program. Many in the educational community are concerned with the monies spent on the John Hopkins program. Hopefully, the awarding of this grant will ease some of those concerns.

Congratulations to Manual High School and Principal Kherat.

Manual High School to continue with John Hopkins Model

At the July 26, 2009, Board Meeting, charges were made that information obtained in a FOIA request appeared to indicate that Manual High School has such an excessive absenteeism rate that grades for the 2010 graduating class appeared to have been padded.

These latest charges against Manual High School were made in an on going effort to encourage the BOE to discontinue the John Hopkins Program at Manual High School.

The Program is believed my some to be an indicator of lowering academic standards in the District. However, according to a statement District 150’s Superintendent recently made in a local business magazine, Manual is “going to continue with the John Hopkins Model”.

Okay - I confess - I used to walk in the street

Confession. When I was a youngster going to middle school, I walked down the middle of the street. Not just to and from school, but whenever my friends and I walked through neighborhoods, we walked in the middle of the street. Back then, if you were to ask me why, here is what I would have said:

"We walk in the middle of the street because it is the safest place in some neighborhoods. A lot of people in the area have bad dogs and even though all of us girls try to walk in groups, walking too close to houses is not safe either. So we walk in the middle of the street."

Fast forward to today and I am willing to bet, safety is still the main reason children in certain neighborhoods walk in the middle of the street. Some of you want to call this a part of the "culture", I call it "living in the inner city" and my Momma used to call it "staying safe".

Bottom line - if anybody is walking in the middle of the street for whatever reason and cars are coming - get out of the street. But it is not fair for police officers to sit down at Manual waiting for kids to walk in the street.

As we all know, there are several locations throughout the City that police officers could stake out to find people violating jaywalking laws - not just down at Manual. If we were hearing about police officers writing tickets at other locations as vigorously as they are being written down at Manual, in my mind, the tickets at Manual would be a non-issue.

Tentative H1N1 vaccincation dates

At Monday night's BOE Meeting, five schools were approved to be used by the Peoria City/County Health Department to administer H1N1 flu vaccinations. The tentative dates for the clinics and schools are as follows:

Woodrow Wilson Primary School, 1907 W. Forrest Hill Ave., Nov. 10
Manual High School, 811 S. Griswold St., Nov. 16
Richwoods High School, 6301 N. University St., Nov. 17
Von Steuben Middle School, 801 E. Forrest Hill Ave., Nov. 23

Two alternate locations, Franklin-Edison and Charter Oak primary schools, were also approved.

Source