A Knight in Dragonland

Congratulations to the 88 Pekin High School students who were honored on Friday morning as Illinois State Scholars and Prairie State Scholars.
What I don’t understand is why the Pekin Times article had to demean adolescents in general at the same time it was congratulating these particular students:
Rare as it is to find a sizable group [...]

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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 [...]

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Jim Mangan’s state of denial regarding the “benefits” and feasibility of consolidating Districts 108 and 303 has now crossed the border into pathologic.
The Wednesday edition of the Times contains an article entitled “District views the financial impact of consolidation.” The Illinois State Board of Education and District 303 administrators put together financial numbers regarding [...]

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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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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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Guess who is ranting in the Daily Times again? Come on, I’m sure someone knows the answer to this one.
Surprise, surprise … it’s Jim Mangan. I’m sure everyone is shocked at that announcement. Another “Special to the Times” appeared in today’s paper. I know I feel special for reading it.
This time, [...]

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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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I had just finished a very good dinner, and I just about lost it when I read that comparison.
“I disapprove of what you say,” the French philosopher Voltaire is reputed to have said, “but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Had Voltaire uttered the first line of that famous quote at [...]

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In the Nov. 30 edition of the Daily Times, Judy Tisdale wrote a column on the Opinion page entitled “Consolidation isn’t the only answer.”
Money Quote:
One thing bothers me more than anything else about this proposal. Some people seem to have the notion that consolidation will fix any perceived shortcomings in the elementary education available in [...]

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There was a letter to the editor in today’s Daily Times entitled “Smoke, mirrors.” It was sent in by Tom Frazier of Pekin as a specific rebuttal of another letter to the editor. That letter (by Ray Garber Jr. of Pekin) was written in support of Mike Noyes and his publication of paraphrased [...]

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Last night was District 303’s school board meeting, and boy did I miss a whopper! I really need to start going to these things. Shannon Tebben-Sandoval (journalist for the Times, wife of Edgar and daughter of once-and-perhaps-future mayor, Dave Tebben) has an article front and center in today’s Daily Times.
The actual business of [...]

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My running commentary on the Pekin school consolidation issue is getting some press over at the Peoria Pundit. I guess Mike Noyes has seen what I’ve been writing, although he chooses to address Bill Dennis regarding unsigned editorials and not me regarding Pekin school consolidation. Noyes refers to me as “an anonymous blogger.” [...]

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The Opinion page of the Daily Times weekend edition has an unsigned editorial entitled “Consolidation controversy arises again.” I have to agree with Bill Dennis regarding unsigned editorials in the mainstream media … I’m not a fan. At a paper as small as the Daily Times, it seems especially silly. Come on, [...]

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Until yesterday, I was worried about Jim Mangan. Articles from the Pekin Daily Times printed since the NON-BINDING consolidation referendum (here and here and here) made it seem like Mr. Mangan had gone soft – quoting him in support of a study and saying that he had an “open mind” about consolidation. He has [...]

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