County Board member working on her bucket list

"When I turned 50 I said I was going to try to do some things that I have always wanted to do. One thing on my list was to sing the National Anthem at a sporting event. Bradley's mens games will only let people in the music dept at BU or faculity/staff sing at their games but they told me I could sing at a women's game so...I said ok so.......

I am going to sing the National Anthem at the following Bradley Girls Basketball Game! I hope dont' forget the words!"

Friday, Feb. 25 @ 5:30 PM vs. Northern Iowa (this is a televised game live on Fox Sports Midwest, Fox Sports Kansas City, Fox College Sports and Comcast SportsNet Plus).

Good showing locally by African-American Women in November 2 election

Jehan Gordon Illinois House 92nd District
Incumbent state Rep. Jehan Gordon, D-Peoria, easily won re-election Tuesday for a second two-year term to the 92nd Illinois House District seat. The 29-year-old Ms. Gordon, won by beating out Republican Peoria City Councilman Jim Montelongo. Final Numbers: Gordon 62% - Montelongo 38%

Ms. Gordon was the first black woman to win the 92nd District when she was first elected in 2008; and the second woman to represent a district that includes the southern two-thirds of the city of Peoria, including Downtown, West Peoria, Peoria Heights, Kickapoo and portions of Bartonville and Limestone Township. Source




Mary McDade 3rd District Appellate Court Justice retained her seat. She was less than popular because of her decision and consequential defense of reducing the prison sentence of Dione Alexander (a/k/a “the Woodruff High School shooter”) from 24 to the minimum six years. Final numbers: 26,174 Yes - 11,186 No.

Judge McDade, the first African-American to hold public office in the ever progressive Peoria, was elected to the District 150 BOE in 1968 and served a five-year term that ended in 1973. She was president of the board in 1972-73. During that time she was part of the effort to desegregate the schools, to increase the number of minority teachers, and to include multicultural textbooks, and she personally worked diligently to try to stem the tide of what she considered “exponentially-increasing expulsions”.

She is also a co-founder of the Human Service Center; and was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Peoria Public Library where she served three years. Source

County Board District: 3 Lynn Scott Pierson, Democrat. Twenty-four year incumbent Lynn Scott Pearson, 68, of Peoria was challenged by Republican Karrie Alms, 51, of Peoria. Final numbers: Pierson 783 - Alms 319.

Mrs. Pearson, a retiree of Caterpillar, Inc., has an extensive background of community service. She has served as President of the Board of Directors for Friendship House and Chairperson of the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission. She has also served as a member of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program Advisory Council and the Peoria County Democratic Women Committee. District 3 is all in the city of Peoria and includes Downtown and northeast along the river, with boundaries of Knoxville, Nebraska and Glen Oak Park. Source


County Board District 1: Bonnie Hester, Democrat. Mrs. Hester ran uncontested and has spent 35 years in the public sector: 25 for the Peoria City/County Health Department and most recently as Program Assistant for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.

Before her retirement from the Health Department, Mrs. Hester served on the Health Care Committee for Peoria County Employees and as president of local union AFSCME #3665. She was president for 14 years. District 1 boundaries: Rt. 116 in City of Peoria south and city and township limits. Source

County Board District 5: Rachael Parker, Democrat. Mrs. Parker ran uncontested and is currently employed by the City of Peoria as a Development Specialist in the Department of Economic Development.

Mrs. Parker was elected to the District 150 BOE in April, 2007, to serve District 2. She is also a small business owner with two home based businesses. She will be required to forfeit her seat on the BOE in order to serve on the County Board. Source

Honorable mention:
Recorder of Deeds: Evonne Fleming, Democrat.

Evonne Fleming has worked in the Recorder's Office for 21 years. She ran on the platform of improving the indexing system to be more user-friendly, protect historic information and increase office morale. Final Numbers: 20,585 Fleming - 29,337 Horton.

Unfortunately for Ms. Fleming, we Peorians are notorious for our belief that family members should inherit elected positions, which makes it no surprise that Fleming would loose to Republican Nancy Horton, who was appointed to the post in March, after the Jan. 29 death of her husband, former Recorder Brad Horton.
Source

Urban legend - the #150 Marauders

It’s interesting how getting information on District 150 school fights is almost like running down an urban legend.

About one week ago, I was exiting off of 74 at lower Knoxville Avenue. As we approached Glen Oak we heard and saw an un-marked Police car with siren blaring and lights flashing, zoom by. As it was just around the time school was letting out, we assumed they were headed to Peoria High School.

We saw the car turn off Knoxville onto Richmond, we drove slowly across Richmond, rubber necked down the street and didn’t see anything. We proceeded up Knoxville past the old Cub Foods, and we didn’t see anything there either. What is odd, is that I have been hearing people say that large fights took place that afternoon on Richmond and at the Old Cub Foods and pepper balls were dispersed.

I am having a hard time believing that with a Chief of Security as capable as Officer Collins that District 150 is letting their students maraud entire neighborhoods and Officer Collins wouldn’t have anything to say. If pepper balls were dispersed in the area of the school, with students present, he would have given a report on this – right?

I spoke earlier of Officer Collins neither confirming nor denying the reports of violence at last night's meeting. However, I am thinking that perhaps Officer Collins was at the meeting last night for the same reason I was, to see if parents would come forward with more information about the violence.

If children are being beat up and/or hassled on their way to and from school, why didn’t the parents of those children come to the BOE with their complaints? If neighborhoods around Peoria High School are being marauded, why didn’t the neighborhood come to the BOE with their complaints?

General Parker is the President of the Heart of Peoria Neighborhood Association. He and his wife, BOE Member, Rachael Parker live in the area of Peoria High School and are very active in the neighborhood. They both were at the BOE meeting and neither one of them spoke of receiving complaints from neighbors. As a matter of fact, if you go to the Heart of Peoria Neighborhood Association webpage, you will see the photo to the left, along with contact information.

I am bothered to hear people speaking of children with such disdain and I can’t help but wonder if some of the complaints of large groups of scary children are racially motivated. I also don’t like the component of people who didn't want Woodruff to close, implying that people from Peoria High are the problem. As I recall, Woodruff High School had fights and discipline issues just like Peoria High School, Manual and Richwoods. The propensity to fight appears to be District wide.

It was also very troubling for me to view Carl Cannon’s fashion police video. The uneasiness was heightened, when I saw my nephew in Mr. Cannon’s video being pulled to the side. My nephew is a good kid and he does not need the ELITE team to tell him how to behave or dress. He is a kid who is well taken care of; with a father who is gainfully employed and he does not wear baggy clothing to school. He was stopped by Mr. Cannon, at Manual, for wearing Birkenstocks. He was held up for .25 minutes, while Mr. Cannon continued to pull other children over and then he looked at him and said “oh yeah, you can go”. He was humiliated and it made me sad to hear that in his voice. He won't be happy about the fact that he is in a District 150 video, appearing to be disciplined.

Many clapped at the video presentation Mr. Cannon put on. I couldn’t, because it bothered me to see groups of children rounded up that way. It’s all just a little to close to racial profiling for me to cheer on the process. Oh well, I guess if it’s working, that’s more important than the humility of our young people.

The changing make-up of the District 150 BOE

Christopher Crawford

On July 1, 2010, the District 150 Board of Education ("BOE") will hold their annual organizational meeting. At that time, they will swear in new BOE member Chris Crawford, who is replacing outgoing BOE member Dr. David Gorenz. They will also elect a Chairman and Secretary Pro Tempore, along with a new President and Vice President. In November, when Rachael Parker takes her seat at the County Board, there will be another vacancy to fill on the BOE.

With the changing political landscape of being a member of a BOE, recently I have been questioning what type of training do BOE members receive. I know that the ISBE offers training - but do local BOE members take it? How do new members of the BOE learn what their role is - history?

The challenges faced by BOE members are huge. As this District is an urban school district where we are dealing with failing schools and issues of equality in education, much of what the BOE does is receiving constant scrutiny from citizens and political leaders alike.

If the board itself does not appear to have a solid understanding of it's governance responsibilities, how is a new BOE member to proceed? If history doesn't reveal what it should look like, how can we the public demand board accountability going forward?

I like these board members, so I won't use the lipstick/pig analogy, but can we trust that this is more than just a change in make-up, or are we destined for more of the same?

Code of Conduct for members of school boards

Envision Peoria - a veritable Edutopia...

Two days and 68 comments after the Peoria Chronicle started the conversation about BOE member Rachael Parker’s comment about perhaps considering a residency requirement for District 150 employees, the pjstar has essentially compiled all of the comments and put forth “Our View”.

From where they appear to sit:

Shame on you Mrs. Parker for daring to put forth the idea of an Edutopia. Yes, shame on you for daring to hope that teachers and learners could/should live together and care enough about each other to work on building a healthy community. You hope for a community that will embrace and celebrate it’s children, when most would prefer to hold them at arms length. Now, can we talk about keeping these children in school year round?