Contract renewals for District 150 administration have been put off — for now.
At Monday night’s board of education meeting, board member Chase Klaus pushed for delaying the approval of contracts until a clause requiring district administrators to live within the City of Peoria is added.
“We’ve talked about the live-in requirement in the past,” said Klaus. “We need to instate some sort of live-in requirement within the district for these positions.”
Such requirements have long been a topic of discussion by the board, with public commenters often adding pressure to make the change.
“My position would be to table this (tonight), add an addendum that would have a live-in requirement with a grace period, and then I’d be happy to approve all these personnel,” said Klaus.
The board unanimously approved the motion to delay the contract approvals.
Also at Monday night’s meeting, Peoria Public Schools Advantage Communications program director Mariela Garcia-Alvarado recapped the performance of the district’s speech team from their competition in Santa Ana, California.
As reported by WCBU on Jan. 10, six District 150 students were invited to participate in the tournament. Garcia-Alvarado shared that all six students received awards, and they remained as focused as ever, even on the big stage.
In reference to their practice methods, she said the students were standouts.
“(The students) really tried to show off how hard everyone works in Peoria (District) 150,” said Garcia-Alvarado. “You know when you’re taking speech seriously if you’re the one that’s talking to a wall while everybody’s passing by you.”
Following the presentation, superintendent Dr. Sharon Kherat stated that she intends to bring an action item to the next board meeting to approve the continuation of the Advantage Communications program.
