District 150 and area businesses need to jointly-invest in programs to help students. That’s the message from author and economic futurist Rebecca Ryan. She spoke to more than 100 business people at Peoria City Hall. Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis says Ryan’s advice reminds all groups to make pro-active investments in programs that help students:
“Instead of just saying woe-is us we don’t have the highly-skilled workforce, or for the city to say oh woe is us we’re having a lot of crime problems because these kids aren’t in school and so on, it’s how do you address those. The common key to these things is education and we keep talking about education and it sounds almost too simple but that’s what it is,” Ardis says.
Ardis, the Peoria Chamber of Commerce and District 150 co-hosted Ryan’s presentation. Ryan was the guest speaker at the District’s annual Back-To-School pep rally. Superintendent Grenita Lathan says goals for this year include getting all students reading on grade level by third grade and boosting communication with parents. Last year saw some in the community call for more transparency and communication with district decisions.