The Peoria Public Schools Board of Education Friday evening voted in favor of a one-semester contract with Elite Community Outreach’s Game Changer program, with the understanding that plans for the second semester would be decided in the coming months.
As part of the Safe School Program, Elite is charged with behavioral guidance for at risk students. The original item proposed to fund both semesters with a $624,000 contract, $304,000 of which would come from the Illinois’ Safe Schools grant.
The Friday result came out of an amendment proposed by board member Gregory Wilson, who suggested funding only the first semester with half the funds, $312,000. This was to give the board time to figure out where they were and a chance to plan.
The vote originally collapsed during a heated Monday meeting over a discussion concerning whether the contract item was legally posted.
With students returning Aug. 5, Wilson thought there was a responsibility fiscally and to the student population, including the most vulnerable, to get something approved. The new contract would be subject to attorney revisions at a later date.
The Friday meeting was quieter but still combative. Seven of the eight speakers were in favor of the contract, with the other not mentioning their leanings. Still, disagreements and questions from some board members abounded.
Public commenters say it's a 'game changer'
Peoria PAC Vice President Devon Sydnor reminded the board of his life of mentorship at schools like Manual High School and Trewyn Middle School. The political action committee educates Peoria's on candidates and elected officials on the needs of the Black community; Sydnor said Elite’s Game Changer program is one of those needs.
“I’m going to emphasize Black community,” Sydnor said. “It’s needed. So, sometimes when people can’t relate to what’s going on, I really do struggle with it.”
On Friday, Sydnor also spoke emotionally against the behavior of the board during Monday's meeting. He said he did not understand the contentiousness or lack of decorum at a school board meeting.
“You’re supposed to be working for these kids,” Sydnor said. “Everybody. Everybody. And all of a sudden, it’s who got who, tit for tat. It’s nonsense. You need to be working for these damn kids. You need to — and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. That’s why I’m in these schools when I was. They need it. They really do need it.”
New Cornerstone Baptist Church pastor Mark McConnell was calmer but still adamant in his words. He said the greatest responsibility of public leaders is to prevent tomorrow’s problems, not just solving today’s. Elite, he said, is built on that idea.
He said Elite seeks “to identify barriers before those barriers become life-long burdens.”
It seeks to prevent a child struggling with attendance from turning into a dropout, he said, or a student lacking positive guidance from becoming a young adult stuck in bad cycles of unemployment, crime and hopelessness.
A young person, McConnell said, needing someone to believe in them now, may be a future business owner, teacher, nurse or community leader.
“The question is not whether intervention cost money,” McConnell said. “Every intervention does. The real question is whether we will invest early when lives can still be redirected or pay for a greater cost later after problems have become deeply rooted.
“Education has always been more than teaching, reading and mathematics. It is also about developing character, responsibility, resilience and hope," he said.
Speaker Lynne Costic said the program is a game changer and can make a difference. She shifted blame away from Elite regarding claims of uncertified teachers in the program, which is required to receive state funding. Teachers are assigned by District 150, she said, and if they are not certified, it is the district’s fault.
“For the naysayer, if you have not taken the time to visit and see the program in action, stop in,” Costic said. “See the program. The staff works hard with each and every student. The students are not taught in silos. Don’t get it twisted. Just because a staff member may not hold a degree does not mean that that person is not capable of helping a student with their class work.”
Another speaker, a parent, said Elite was needed for the students she thought were being thrown away by the school district. If she has the choice, she will send her son to Elite for high school, she said, because she knows he will be listened to there.
Elite founder Carl Cannon’s message at the speaker podium was simple: “Education, not incarceration.”
“We don’t just take them into the safe school, put them on a laptop and don’t teach,” Cannon said. “We give them a barrage of social, emotional learning, understanding. We have to get behavior under control. Our teachers deserve to have the opportunity to teach.”
Skepticism remains
Despite the support from speakers, some on the board questioned the contract. New board member Andres Diaz was the most vocal and had a list of questions.
Among his comments was an acknowledgement of what the program could do but also concerns that Elite is not always the one solution. He said there are also over 12,600 other students the board needs to consider when deciding how to spend resources.
“This is about the taxpayer dollars and what we have seen as results,” Diaz said. “I’ve done some data harvesting off of what little data I’ve been able to get, and I don’t have a feeling that our district has ever reviewed it. And what my fear is that we continue on doing the same things and expecting different results instead of understanding maybe the story with these students.”
Some in the gallery and on the board seemed to grow impatient as Diaz’s comments and queries wore on.
Board President Paris McConnell disagreed with Diaz that the board had not looked at data and were not informed. She also questioned why he was asking so many questions about a contract that still needed to be finalized by the lawyers.
Vice President Martha Ross criticized Diaz, saying she did not see a point in his approach unless they were going to handle every contract approval the same way.
“The last I looked, we were [an] over $200 million organization, and we give so many contracts to a lot of people,” Ross said. “And nobody ever asks the question as to why this person is getting this much and is this person getting this much. This is not the way we operate.”
As a Latino man, Diaz said he was insulted by Ross’ insinuations that he was negative on the program due to the race of the students. He said his comments were not against any program, which garnered vocal disagreement from one or two in attendance. He said he had asked many questions about every contract that had come before the board in the past month.
Despite nay votes from Diaz and board member Brenda Wilson, the one-semester contract passed. After the meeting, McConnell told reporters the goal was to have the spring semester figured out by the end of August.
“Because it’s that serious, and we want to be able to understand what treatment we have for our children, which are a very vulnerable population, and public education is for everybody,” she said. “We don’t get to pick and choose. We don’t get to deny anybody. It’s public education, and so, we find creative ways to meet our students where they are.”
Following adjournment, board member Sarah Howard stressed a point that she felt was lost in the meeting: Peoria is seeking its own safe school program. The one-semester Elite contract is simply to buy time for PPS and Elite to figure everything out come January.
“I believe Elite has a place at PPS, and the Game Changers model of surrounding students and families would be a critical supplement to our safe school,” Howard said in a Facebook post after the meeting. “I anticipate there will be continued partnerships after the transition is complete. This allows us as a district to operate in compliance, and frees Elite to do the work they do best.”
As for Elite’s future, Cannon believes in the program’s work the past five years and the model’s ability to work outside Peoria.
“Because what we’re doing here, playing in Peoria,” he said, “we’re going to make sure plays everywhere — because we’re saving lives.”
