Like the Times editors, I have mixed thoughts about the ordinance. I can understand shifting administrative costs to the perpetrators of crime, and there are several lines of recourse available to appeal the fees. However, the ordinance punishes those accused, not convicted, of certain crimes, and I think that’s problematic. Isn’t our justice system supposed to pivot around the idea of “innocent until proven guilty”?

On a much brighter and less controversial note, ICC is opening a South Campus on Hanna Drive in Pekin. This is wonderful news for the community. While initially offering vocational training courses (welding, HVAC, mechanical & electrical maintenance), I’m sure that course offerings will expand in the future.

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 of well-dressed and well-behaved teenagers all in one place, that was exactly the scene at Pekin Community High School’s pep rally on Friday morning.

Note to the Times - the majority of adolescents aren’t slovenly juvenile delinquents. These students in particular deserve a little more respect.

Along these lines, a New York Times editorial by columnist Nicholas Kristof caught my eye today. In response to the incredulity of some of his readers that 30% of African-Americans believe that HIV was deliberately engineered by the federal government to kill black people (one of the topics brought up in Jeremiah Wright’s infamous sermons), Kristof provides a laundry list of stupid ideas and harebrained theories that a large fraction of all Americans, white or black, hold to be true.

Money quote:

The dumbing-down of discourse has been particularly striking since the 1970s. Think of the devolution of the emblematic conservative voice from William Buckley to Bill O’Reilly. It’s enough to make one doubt Darwin.

There’s no simple solution, but the complex and incomplete solution is a greater emphasis on education at every level. And maybe, just maybe, this cycle has run its course, for the last seven years perhaps have discredited the anti-intellectualism movement. President Bush, after all, is the movement’s epitome — and its fruit.

While Bacon did not feel that voting yay or nay on selecting a new District 108 superintendent or approving the fiscal 2008 budget was worth his time (he abstained from both votes), Sir Bacon, Lord Champion of the People’s Pocketbook, has been thrown into a tizzy by a recent board vote regarding the renovation of HVAC systems at Starke school.

The 108 school board, 6-1 with Bacon the lone dissenter, voted earlier this month to grant the contract for said renovations to Commercial Mechanical, Inc. with subcontract services provided by Johnson Control Systems. The accepted bid was well under the $1.3 million budgeted for this work, but a bid from an alternative subcontractor (Technical Solutions & Services [website not found]) would have cost the district $40,350 less … at least in the short run.

Based on this article in the Times and personal communications, Johnson Control Systems services HVAC control systems at multiple District 108 schools, and District 108 administrators have been quite pleased with their services. It does seem silly to have multiple service contracts for different schools in the district, especially if the quality of the services provided has been satisfactory to date. Sometimes the cheapest isn’t always the best in the long run.

Dean Bacon’s train of thought doesn’t run along the same tracks as mine, however. Cheapest must be best, in his view, and he’s taking this matter to the Tazewell County States Attorney’s office.

District 108 attorneys certainly reviewed this contract before it was submitted to the board and found no cause for alarm. Bacon’s feeble attempt at a witch hunt is a complete waste of time for the State’s Attorney and for District 108 administrators and board members.

In fact anyone can simply look up the portion of the Illinois School Code governing such contracts and see for themselves that the District 108 board and district administrators are clearly operating within accepted parameters. While the code states that a school board should accept the lowest bid on such contracts, it also states the following (emphasis mine):

The accepted bid does not have to be the lowest bid in terms of contract price, where the award is made in the public interest, in the exercise of discretionary power granted under the laws, without fraud, unfair dealing, or favoritism, and where there is a sound and reasonable basis for the award as made.

Mr. Bacon, by taking this to the State’s Attorney, is implying that there is “fraud, unfair dealing, or favoritism” in play here. That’s clearly the gestalt behind statements such as this one by Bacon quoted in the Times:

If they (school officials) were going to go with Johnson Control Systems then why would they allow other companies to bid for the job? Deals like this lead people to wonder what’s really going on.

Of course, as far as I can tell, Bacon has not a single shred of evidence to back up his innuendo of fraud and favoritism.

This is quite simply a publicity stunt. Mr. Bacon is seeking to call attention to himself by playing the “Champion of the Taxpayer” card … but this Bacon is really bologna. He’s wasting the time of District 108 and Tazewell County officials, and since time is money, Mr. Bacon is the one uselessly throwing away taxpayer dollars for his own self-aggrandizement.

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 resignation of Don White and (2) the fiscal 2008 budget??? I certainly can’t. I would say those two votes should be quite important for a school board member.

Dean Bacon doesn’t seem to think so. He abstained from both votes. I posted previously about Bacon’s abstention in the vote to appoint Bill Link superintendent, and Nick Vogel writes in the Times about Bacon’s abstention in the budget vote.

This begs the question – what’s the point in Dean Bacon remaining on the school board if he’s not going to participate in the most important decisions that the board makes? If he had objections to Dr. Link becoming superintendent, he should have voiced them on April 30 and taken a stand. If he has objections to the 2008 budget, he should voice them and take a stand. Instead, on both of these major decisions, Dean Bacon punts.

Quoting Bacon from Tuesday’s Times article regarding the 108 budget vote:

I won’t vote yes for a budget that’s unbalanced. And there really was no point in voting no, so I abstained.

No point??? No point??? Other than IT’S YOUR JOB as a school board member, do you mean?

This is disgraceful. Pekin needs to remember this inexcusable inaction and abstain from voting for Dean Bacon in the next school board election.

For reasons he did not care to explain to Times reporter Nick Vogel, school board member Dean Bacon abstained from the vote to hire Link as superintendent.  All Bacon had to say was the following:

I’m not happy with the selection or the contract.

OoooooooooK.

Isn’t hiring a new superintendent one of the more important duties of the school board? Why would Bacon abstain from that vote? If he wasn’t happy with Link or the contract, why didn’t he vote no?

In the spirit of transparency and responsive governance, I feel that Bacon owes the parents of 108 students an explanation for his abstention. I’ve emailed Bacon asking him to do just that. If a school board member has serious concerns regarding our new superintendent, I feel they should be voiced publicly.

As a parent of District 108 students, I’d like to thank Chad for standing up for our teachers and their students so publicly. I’m sure the teachers of District 108 thank you as well.

Maybe Schmidgall’s breakdown of Mangan’s numbers will illustrate the fallacies in his arguments to a few more people. Of course it won’t sway the diehard Manganites like Dean Bacon, Ed Emmons, Mike Noyes & their ilk. Mangan and his acolytes seem to live to trash the system without offering any constructive solutions of their own.

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.

The IASA Exemplary Service to Education Award is presented to individuals in recognition of exemplary leadership contributions to Illinois public schools, the field of school administration and students.

I guess I should thank Jim Mangan and his cohorts for helping to drive this menace to Pekin schools away from our community.

[end sarcasm]

Congratulations, Don. You deserve it.

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 two different scenarios: the total consolidation of District 303 with all its feeder districts and the isolated consolidation of Districts 108 & 303. Superintendent Paula Davis presented these figures to the District 303 board at a special meeting on Tuesday night.

I’m not going to discuss the numbers mentioned for the total consolidation, because that’s just not going to happen. As the Times article points out, the other feeder districts have shown NO interest in that scenario.

In regards to the isolated consolidation of Districts 108 & 303 supported by Jim Mangan and the Citizens for Pekin School Consolidation, the following quote from Davis sums things up the best (bold emphasis and bracketed clarification are my own):

When you look at the incentives [for consolidation provided by the State] we would stand to gain almost $150,000 in the first year of consolidation, in the second year we would gain $1.8 million … in the third year we would gain a total of $140,000 and in the fourth year $135,000, but after the incentives are done we’re in the negative, we start losing money.

So … consolidation would only provide a short-term benefit, and that’s IF the State came through with the promised incentive monies. The State of Illinois hasn’t done a very good job living up to their financial obligations of late, so I wouldn’t count on that money.

Basically, these numbers tell us that consolidation is a big financial toilet flush … money down the drain for NO BENEFIT.

Jim Mangan, of course, is in complete denial. He just doesn’t believe the numbers. When confronted with yet another potential negative consequence of consolidation – litigation with the other feeder districts over transportation costs – Mangan made the following statement (bold emphasis mine):

I’m not convinced that that lawsuit will be a reality. At this point in time I think that’s kind of a scare negative for people to hang on to now that they don’t have the loss of revenues negative to hang on to.

What?!?! No loss of revenues negative? Did you HEAR what Paula Davis said, Mr. Mangan? Short-term benefit … long-term LOSS OF REVENUE. Like I was saying … pathologic denial.

Then there’s this little gem:

[Mangan] also suggested that a consolidated district could give some of that new money to the feeder districts in exchange for their cooperation in moving forward with a consolidation vote.

Is Jim Mangan authorized by the residents of District 303 to offer BRIBES to the feeder districts? Where does this man come up with this stuff – La Cosa Nostra School of Governance???

Here’s MY bottom line for consolidation:

1. No academic benefit.

2. Short-term financial gains WAY offset by long-term financial losses that would likely require TAX INCREASES to make up the shortfall.

3. Lack of feasibility given the current statute governing school consolidation – it just CAN’T happen without the consent of the other feeder districts.

4. Strong potential for litigation with the other feeder districts over transportation and other costs, since THEIR tax monies would be going to support kids that are now in District 108.

Numbers 1 and 2 should make opposition to consolidation a no-brainer. Number 3 makes the whole argument a ridiculous waste of time and money. How much school board time has this issue consumed??? Number 4 is just icing on the “Consolidation is DEAD” cake.

Would you like a piece of cake, Mr. Mangan? No? Didn’t think so.

I hope that White’s departure has nothing to do with his constant haranguing by certain forces within our community … most notably Jim Mangan. However, I find it difficult to believe that such frequent and vehement criticism didn’t play at least some role in White’s decision to leave. I’m sure superintendents face frequent criticism wherever they may be, but the unfounded personal attacks against White were way over the top. Why put up with that if you have a good offer elsewhere?

I suppose we can chalk up one “victory” for Jim Mangan and the Citizens for Pekin School Consolidation and a big loss for the teachers and students of District 108. I hope Don White knows that at least SOME people in the community have not been swayed by Mangan’s venom and thank him for his service to Pekin public schools.

From what I’ve heard so far, it seems as if a student that barely passed could theoretically be chosen over other students more academically qualified or with greater economic need.  We’ll have to see how the program develops and what sort of oversight is put in place.  The devil’s in the details.

Geographically, if a Peoria high school HAD to be closed for budgetary reasons, it would make more sense to close Central.  That way the north, east and south sides would be covered and the former Central students could be fairly evenly divided.  This move makes it look like District 150 is abandoning the South Side … because they would be abandoning the South Side.  That part of town has enough problems without District 150 adding to them!

With all the negative events happening in District 150, it really puts Pekin’s school issues in perspective.  While we should never be satisfied and should always keep pushing for better education for all the children in Pekin schools, we can be thankful that we’re not facing the serious budgetary, academic and public relations problems of District 150.

OK, I want to examine Dr. Reader’s piece. Let’s just forget for a minute that consolidation CAN’T happen without the input of the other feeder districts … which we don’t have at this point. Let’s just ignore the fact that this whole debate is completely meaningless without that input. Minor details, right?

Dr. Reader contends that the administration of two districts is bloated, and because of that

taxpayers are getting gouged with the existence of school districts lying on top of each other with duplicated salaries and services.

OK, here are the FACTS. Based on the publicly accessible and readily available School Report Cards, in 2004 District 108 spent 2.4% of its budget on administration and District 303 spent 4.6% of its budget on administration. I chose the 2004 report cards because that is the most recent one available on the District 303 web site, and I wanted to compare the two districts in the same year. Administration is a TINY part of the total budget for the district. Axing an administrator or two isn’t going to make that much difference, people.

Dr. Reader specifically complains about the salaries of the top 4 administrators in the District:

According to information from the Family Taxpayers Foundation, which tracks Illinois public school employee salaries, in the past year the District 303 superintendent earned in excess of $136,000 (total compensation package) and the business manager earned over $128,000. Meanwhile, the District 108 superintendent earned in excess of $134,000 and the business manager earned more than $101,000.

I’ll admit, our administrators are well paid. I have yet to hear anyone that actually works with any of these administrators complain that they’re incompetent. In fact, several commenters here have given glowing praise of Don White. I’ve also heard good things about Paula Davis.

Now, if the districts were consolidated, there likely would be some cuts in administrative positions. They would NOT be cut in half, but let’s say for the sake of argument that one superintendent position and one business manager position were cut from the consolidated district. I’ll even pick the highest paid – $136,000 and $128,000, for a total savings of $264,000. Now, I’ll ignore for the moment that we’d have to pay the remaining administrators MORE because they’d have additional responsibilities. It’s those annoying details again! Anyway …

To accomplish consolidation, teacher salaries for the former District 108 teachers would have to be brought in line with District 303’s salaries. Dr. Reader contends that this would be a drop in the bucket compared to the administrative savings. Ohhhh reeeeeeeeeallly?

As of the 2004 report card, there were 251 teachers in District 108 with an average annual salary of $45,655. For the same year, District 303 teachers made on average $1702 more that the 108 teachers. Let’s see … 251 teachers x $1702 per teacher = $427,202.

Last time I checked, $427,202 was MORE than $264,000. Where’s the big cost savings???

For clarification, I am NOT saying that District 108 teachers don’t DESERVE to be paid just as well as District 303 teachers. They absolutely do. I’m simply pointing out that Dr. Reader’s contentions just don’t add up.

Of course none of this even matters since we don’t yet have the requisite input from the other feeder districts in order to accomplish consolidation. Those damn details!