Hey District 150 Department…

Lord knows I have supported and defended District 150 on these pages many times. I still believe they needed to close a high school.  I have taken the heat for it and praise from some.  I have had foul late night phone calls from spineless bastards and I have had threats.  My name isn’t hard to find and neither is my number.  I’ll also admit it has been getting harder and harder to defend our schools even though I know a lot of fine teachers and staff.  I know a child can get a quality education despite the problems our schools face and I have 2 grown sons to prove it.  Both successful in their grade, high, and college school years.  Products of District 150.  I know some teachers have said as parents we were responsible for their success but I have always maintained that while my wife and I supported our kids and their teachers, it was the schools and their staffs that did their jobs so my boys could succeed.

With that said, I have to also say that I am no fan of the Peoria Public Schools Campus Police.  I know a lot of the officers and they are fine family people doing a tough job.  I know they are an evil necessity in these times of gangs and drugs.  When I went to schools here in Peoria, we had no police in the schools and I feel that our schools shouldn’t need police today which is why I am sad when I see armed officers in our schools.  That is what I mean by being a non fan.  I know though that isn’t the reality.  We must have them.

Which brings me to the Chief of the Campus Police, Ron Scales.  I am not happy with him and I think maybe he should get off his ass and earn some of that 6 figure salary we are paying him.  Instead, he seems to conduct business from his desk or his new fancy unmarked tax payer funded squad car.  Why?

I know a person who works for District 150 as a manager of food services.  She is responsible for feeding 2300 kids a day, ordering the food and supplies and all the paper work that goes with that job.  In all of those over 15 years, she has never ever missed a day for sickness.  She works 10 hour days at the school and she works 2 to 3 hours each evening at her kitchen table just doing the paper work.  Then she gets up at 3am to finish more paper work, then arrives at her school at 4:45am to open her office and the 10 or 12 doors she must unlock and prepare for the day.  This is all done on salary so no overtime is ever paid and very little recognition is offered although she would never ask for any recognition even though the “staff” at her school excludes her on events and emails.  Like she doesn't exist when issues affect her school.  After all, we can’t include the lowly lunch lady can we? 

But, when the food poisoning scare happened at Loucks school a few years back, guess who they pointed the finger at?  She was grilled and checked by the health department and they went through every inch of her well documented paper work.  The food was at temp.  The food was stored properly and yet when the health department determined it was stomach flu unrelated to the food served, there were no apologies no nothing.  She knew it wasn’t the food as food poisoning takes more than 24 hours to develop and these kids were sick 5 minutes after lunch.  You’d think a $100,000 a year school Principal would know that but it was Loucks Principal that point a finger her way.  This manager, lunch lady, or whatever you want to call her cried for two days.  She never got so much as a “sorry” from anyone once it was determined where the illness came from.  Shit, the TV stations never covered that. They wanted video of puking kids at District 150.  Remember all the fuss about school lunches a few years back?  Well, I don’t see any skeletons eating at the schools.  These kids have no problem lining up for lunches.

So, since she arrives at the school at 4:45am, the day shift head custodian is almost always there with the lights on and the door open.  She has keys to every door and can let herself in but this is seldom a problem as the 3rd shift custodians were there or at least they used to be until the District cut out 3rd shift custodians.  Cutbacks you know.

Now things happen. the head custodian’s truck broke down on the way to work and there she was, locked out at 4:45am, in the dark, in a neighborhood that isn’t nice at all.  Oh, she could get in with her key but guess what?  Ron Scales doesn’t think she is important enough to have an alarm code.  Yep, every teacher, coach, staff, and janitor has their code but not the manager of food services.  She can have a key to the door but not the code.  When the Principal said; “Hey, let’s get you a code!”  They did.  He felt she needed to have one so she could enter the school that one time when the head custodian wasn’t able to make it.  This so she wouldn’t have to wait in the dark or walk in the dark back to her car in a neighborhood that has drug dealers, shootings, and robberies like CVS has pills. 

She got her code but the Chief Scales, decides from his desk, without so much as picking up a phone to call her and ask her about it, that she didn’t need a code for the alarm, for that 1 in 1000 times she arrives at school to find no one there.  He decided that the code should be revoked and it was.

Well Mr. Scales let me ask you this.  Would you let your wife stand outside this high school at 5am and wait for someone to show up and let her in?  I doubt it.  So for this Mr. Scales I think it’s time to pull your head out of your ass and do your job.  Who the fuck are you to make this decision without so much as asking the people involved?  What is this manager lady going to do?  Rob the place?  Hell you and your staff can barely protect the place. 

Maybe I need to approach the school board on their next meeting and ask these questions.