A Knight in Dragonland

I’m glad my wife called Sunset Hills School this morning to see if the children would be watching the inauguration of President Barack Obama. The answer was no. They were going to talk about the inauguration, but the children would not be watching the event.
My children stayed home from school today. They’re [...]

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Dean Bacon, District 108 school board member and self-anointed champion of the Pekin taxpayer, is up to his usual shenanigans, although this time he’s really seeking out the spotlight of public attention. Now that Jim Mangan is off the District 303 school board and the school consolidation issue is dead, it seems that Mr. [...]

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No, I’m not talking about the pork product. Whatever you eat for breakfast is fine by me. I’m talking about Dean Bacon, member of the District 108 School Board.
Can anyone think of anything more important to come before the District 108 board recently than (1) who will be the new superintendent after the [...]

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The Daily Times has a good article on this event and a frightening follow-up, and the Journal Star managed to avoid injecting hyperbole in its initial article and the follow-up.
I have not seen any of the local TV coverage on the matter, although one Edison teacher described her class being “ambushed” by a TV crew [...]

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The District 108 Board of Education approved the hiring of Dr. Bill Link as the new superintendent by a six-vote majority last night. Link will begin his duties on July 1 and will earn a salary of $115,000.
For reasons he did not care to explain to Times reporter Nick Vogel, school board member Dean [...]

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Dr. Bill Link, principal at Washington Intermediate School in Pekin, has been selected by the District 108 Board of Education to replace Superintendent Don White. Dr. White is leaving at the end of this school year to become superintendent for the Troy School District in Shorewood, IL.
Link started in District 108 as a teacher [...]

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I’m glad I’m not the only one questioning Jim Mangan’s attack on District 108 teachers. Today’s Pekin Daily Times has a letter to the editor from city council candidate Chad Schmidgall. In the letter Schmidgall praises our teachers by highlighting the hard work that they do for a relative pittance considering the value [...]

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Yet another Jim Mangan diatribe graced the Opinion page of Friday’s Daily Times. This time he’s attacking District 108 for paying their teachers too much.
First off … Mangan’s criticism is blatantly hypocritical. District 303, whose board he sits on, pays their employees nearly the same as 108. Why does 108 deserve criticism, [...]

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The Illinois Association of School Administrators will be honoring District 108 Superintendent Don White with the IASA Exemplary Service to Education Award at their annual conference on April 26. From their website:
The IASA Exemplary Service to Education Award is presented to individuals in recognition of exemplary leadership contributions to Illinois public schools, the field [...]

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I was saddened to learn that the rumors regarding Don White’s resignation as District 108 superintendent were indeed true. In my opinion, Pekin students are losing a quality advocate. My exposure to Dr. White was very limited, but I found him to be extremely intelligent and hard-working. He truly seems to have [...]

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Today the Journal Star Opinion page served as the Pekin School District consolidation battleground. On the pro-consolidation side, we find a letter from Dr. Fred Reader with the sensational title of “Duplicate districts gouge taxpayers.” Challenging the need for a consolidation study is District 108 Superintendent Don White. His piece in the [...]

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It seems that my interpretation of the Illinois statute governing school consolidation is correct, at least according to Don White, District 108 superintendent. White offered his clarification as a letter to the editor in the Times today.
White attributes the following quote to 108 board attorney Mike Tibbs:
A petition to create an optional elementary unit [...]

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Well, it seems like Jim Mangan isn’t the only one who writes “specials” to the Times regarding consolidation. Today we have a piece by former 108 board member Sandi Roos-Ellwanger entitled “District 108 shows voters no respect.”
Ms. Roos-Ellwanger has some not-so-nice things to say about district 108 superintendent Don White and the 108 school [...]

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Both the District 108 and District 303 school boards met on Monday night to vote on tax levies for the upcoming year and discuss the issue of school consolidation.
I’m not going to weigh in on the issue of tax levies. Frankly, all the discussion of abatements and different state & local regulations makes [...]

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Well, we all knew this was coming, right? It’s time to blog about the latest in a LONG series of Jim Mangan rants, and the first since his smackdown at the last 303 school board meeting. First we heard from his journalistic proxy and official brown-noser, Mike Noyes. Now the big man [...]

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