Somebody email me, call me or send me a fax of what transpired at the “Making Schools Work” seminar or whatever sponsored by the Barton’s last week. I scanned the JS when I got back from being out of state and if there was coverage, I couldn’t find it. I’m always interested in ways to improve our public schools even though I’ve known how to make schools work for years; I’ve been writing letters to the editors for 10 years and I’ve been blogging on the subject since late 2004. How? First you get as much state and federal government out of everything you possibly can in the public school system (probably an impossible task), then you get more business people to run for the board, (probably another impossible task) then you hire an administrator with a doctorate in finance and business management and with an understanding of social issues and with an understanding of the demographics of the community and then you let that person, with the boards approval, and input from the top teachers, fill all other positions. You can always hire education specialists of all types; you appoint them as principals based on their ability and not by seniority or tenure. Do not make them administrators until they get their degrees in business along with their education degrees. Run the public school system like a business where you either turn out an acceptable product or you fold up and get out of the way of the private sector. The administrator then becomes the number one spokesperson for the entire system, not the budget director. How many times have you read or heard about the budget director of Peoria County stepping up as spokesperson for the county? Probably never, because the Peoria County Board elects a board chairman and they both hire an administrator. The administrator and the Board Chairman are the spokespeople for the county. By having the administrator, preferably or the board chairman be the public spokesperson, you don’t have confusion and doublespeak as you read and heard over the past few days about the pay raises for two people in Peoria Public School District #150 administration. I’ve already commented my opinion in my last two blogs on this subject which I believe represent the majority of this community’s opinion.
Consider this Merle Widmer’s “Visions for Better Schools”. I believe I’m entitled to a vision as so many other “leaders” like me have grandiose visions for this community. Mine may be grandiose but it’s real and attainable and part or all of it is a top priority. Also my vision is shared by millions of other real leaders all across the Country. I blog on the attained results of community visions whenever I hear about them or pass them on by email to other leaders in this community.
Everything works if you have the right people running the system. It’s pretty obvious that nationwide our system of selecting school administrators from the field of education is at least 20 years out of date. Its way past time to realize that education is a business, especially when you have a budget of around $140,000,000.00 as does District 150. The JS says that 54% of this funding comes from local taxes. Schools should be under local control in all communities and federal and state governments should be there to help communities; not legislating unfunded mandates among other common sense defying directives..
Six months after I was elected to serve on the Peoria County Board, I told all elected officials that we were going to run the county like a successful business. Some said it couldn’t be done. We did and the majority of credit goes to our County Board Chairman, David Williams, Administrator Patrick Urich, our elected officials especially “Trip” O’Connor and our administrative staff including our IR Director, Russ Haupert and our Budget Supervisor Donna Schwab and a county board that largely laid politics aside (not all) and worked for the benefit of the community. Popular opinion is that we have so far succeeded in running Peoria County government “like a successful business”.
Its way past time for district #150 and some other local public entities to run taxpayer supported publics business in a more businesslike manner. District 150 can start with slashing some excessive salaries, combining administrative duties, stop promoting by seniority, stop padding pensions and by keeping the Edison concept; this concept being battled by the union, not because of its cost, but because of its competition to an entrenched anachronistic system.
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