The District 303 School Board officially declared the school district consolidation issue dead on Monday night by declining to carry through with an official study of the issue. With a mandate from the state requiring inclusion of the other feeder districts in deciding this issue, and no interest from those districts, most board members concluded that a consolidation study would be a waste of $30,000 (minimum). There were two dissenting votes – Mark Rossi and … do I even need to type the name?
Jim Mangan, of course, continues to thoroughly wallop the dead consolidation horse. I’ll certainly give him credit for persistence. From the Times article:
A big incentive for the merger, Mangan said, would be improved scholastic performance by students, which he believes would indeed happen. However, even if it did not, he said, “it’s still a winner financially” and therefore the board should move ahead with it.
He continues to insist that consolidation will bring academic improvement, even though he has never offered any evidence to that point. He also remains under the delusion that this would be a financial boon despite evidence presented previously. Mangan’s sure that the administrators are cooking the numbers.
District 303 Superintendent Paula Davis took a bit of an exception to that …
Davis said Mangan’s statements were accusatory and “patently unfair,â€? and pointed out that District 303 has gotten “the highest ratings possible over the course of the years” by the state, because of its financial responsibility.
Thank you, Paula Davis. It takes a lot of nerve for an administrator to dress down a board member, but in this case I believe it was well deserved. The fact that Mangan is leaving the board makes it easier to stand up to him, but I still admire the pluck.
If Ken Hinton were presenting the evidence on the projected financial viability of school consolidation, I might agree with Jim Mangan. However, both school districts do well in financial reviews by the Illiinois State Board of Education (while District 150 in Peoria is on the “watch” list), and District 108 has won awards for budgetary excellence. In that light, Mangan’s suspicions are baseless paranoia.
Since moving to Pekin, my impression has been that the public schools, in general, are fighting hard to do the best they can for our students. Of course there is always room for improvement, but school district consolidation is clearly not the answer. Jim Mangan needs to climb off his dead horse, but somehow I doubt that will happen.
5 responses so far ↓
1
Tom 2
// Mar 28, 2007 at 8:48 am
The Peoria Journal Star also covered this meeting, but I can’t find the online version of the story. However, there was a paragraph in the story that really brought it all home for me.
On Page B5 of the March 27th Peoria Journal Star, Karen McDonald writes: “He (Mangan) acknowledged he doesn’t have any proof a merger would improve student achievement, something officials in both districts have questioned all along.”
Really?!?!
So, it’s been proven a merger will not be a financial boon to the district, and even the great Jim Mangan admits it won’t benefit the students. Then why does he continue to push for the merger and the study? What’s his motivation?
I don’t get it.
2
knightindragonland
// Mar 28, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Sometimes I wonder if the whole point was to demonize and run out the foreigner, 108 Superintendent Don White. However, I think the most likely reason is that Mangan truly believes that consolidation would save money, despite being hit over the head with a sledgehammer of contrary evidence. I don’t think he cares about academic improvement. Test scores are just ammunition for his agenda.
3
Tom
// Mar 28, 2007 at 8:26 pm
I have said it before, if the parents do the right things by their kids and instill the need for a good education, then most of them will finish school and succeed. there are those who are not going to finish school no matter what is said to them. That is just a sad fact. Mangan has said all along that 108 is to blame for the drop-out rate in 303. Schools can only do so much. ” You can lead a horse to water “, just try to make him drink it though.
4
kiki63
// Mar 29, 2007 at 5:02 am
I think that the high school did the right thing an put a cabash to the study. If you remember correctly so did 108 because they felt that it was a waste of money. End of story and for a good reason. It hasn’t been proven it would help test scores for either district. The teachers in 108 work VERY HARD in preparing the kids for the ISAT tests. I don’t know what the high school does, since my kids aren’t there yet. Maybe they (students) view it as “just another test”. I do think it comes down to parental involvment with the students. Unfortunately there are some parents who either don’t deem it necessary to be involved or don’t have the time. How sad for the kids.
5
Tom
// Mar 29, 2007 at 6:18 am
I’ll bet that if the vote were to be taken at this point, as to whether to pursue consolidation, the outcome would be different. The voters now know what is in the way of consolidation and also more of the facts about it. The vote was taken blindly. To say that the voters have spoken is a little bit questionable.
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