Glen Barton said this morning he thinks a charter school could help stem the tide of people moving out of, or avoiding living in Peoria.
“I think the district (District 150) will be a net winner. We believe this will attract back some of the students who left,” Barton, former chairman and CEO of Caterpillar, said.
Barton added, later, “It’s as simple as choice. The hospitals say it is hard for them to recruit people and get them to stay in Peoria because of the schools.”
Mayor Jim Ardis agreed with Barton.
“People have been voting about the schools here with their feet,” Ardis said. “Lack of school choice has been a big part of that.”
The comments came during a press conference at the Peoria Next Innovation Center. Barton and McFarland Bragg, director of the Peoria Citizens Committee for Economic Opportunity, spoke in support of a charter school in Peoria.
The men said a charter school is still just a dream, but that it is getting closer. A charter school is a public school with open enrollment, which receives most of the funding which a school district receives for a student.
Barton said the 45 or so people involved with the project right now are like a small dog that chases cars.
“We caught one. Now, we have to figure out what to do with it,” Barton said.
The three committees working on the project have until Aug. 1 to submit a plan to the District 150 school board. It is up to the school district whether to approve a charter school.
The planned charter school would focus on math, science and technology. Barton and Bragg said the students emerging from the proposed 5-8 school would be prepared for the technological jobs that need to be filled at employers like Caterpillar and the hospitals. Bragg said by 2015-2020 there will be a major shortage of skilled workers in Peoria if the need is not met.
“We simply are not producing students who can fill these jobs,” Bragg said.
The committee is seeking federal and private grant monies to cover start-up costs. Much is still up in the air about the school including its potential location. The Adult Education Center on Moss Avenue has been discussed, but not finalized.
Yet, Barton said, he hopes to have the school up and running in August 2010.
“We may have to use a temporary location like a church basement,” he said.
“It’s going to be hard, but we have a lot of willing people. The (burden) is on us to staff the school, manage the school and meet the academic requirements of the district.”