It's back to school time, but some kids won't be in the classroom.

And a grand design for downtown Moline in the city's.

East Moline students returned to the classrooms earlier this month, but there are some big changes being planned to better align the district with the city's population.

And it comes at a time when all Illinois schools are dealing with a problem that has long lasting repercussions chronic absenteeism.

We talked with East Moline School Superintendent Doctor Kristin Humphries about all these challenges.

As the new school year begins.

How exciting is a new school year?

I mean, it seems like superintendents are.

Absolutely.

You know, you're you're you're all set.

You're you're ready for a new year.

Kids are two.

In some ways they are.

And I think parents are ready for the students to go back to school as well.

I'm really excited for the new school year.

We, you know, this is this is always our Super Bowl.

Here is when we kick things off.

And today's our first day.

Our teachers are back today.

Our students will be back on Wednesday.

And you know, I always on my first day of school, I always wear a new pair of shoes.

And that's a big deal to me because when I grew up, we grew up very poor.

But my mom always made sure that we had a new.

I had a new pair of shoes to start my first day of school, and for a student, that's a big deal.

And it's the promise of something new and something better.

And for many of our students, when they see our teachers on the playground or, that first day of school, or they see a friend or somebody they haven't seen in 2 or 3 months, it's just it's that new thing that, hey, this is a new adult that might believe in me.

This is a new friend I might make.

And this is an opportunity for us to really reconnect with our students and, kick off a great year.

And we're hoping that, this, this this week in particular, Wednesday when our students return is that kind of day.

And I never want to forget that.

I never want to forget that feeling on the playground.

And I make sure I go to a different school playground every year.

And it's just it's a treat to see it, and it's a treat to look out and see those families and students reconnecting with teachers, because education has changed so much over 20, 40 years.

But it's still kids reconnecting with teachers.

Absolutely.

It's teachers.

You know, we can talk about I we can talk about remote learning.

We can talk about, you know, Khan Academy and all these wonderful tools we have out in the world.

It's about teaching and learning, and it's about reconnecting, and it's about in-person learning from the amazing teachers we have all across our country.

Whenever we talk, we seem to always get back to finances, which is, you know, of course, dollars and cents is so critically important to you to make sure that the money is best spent.

We have seen changes in state funding hasn't been enough, to support school districts in Illinois.

You know, it.

It's.

I have to say.

Yes.

And of course, we always we're need more.

And the state has been working on that.

Governor Pritzker has kept his promise to to fund the evidence based funding formula 350 million a year.

And it's been a life changer for East Moline schools, where at one point, we might have had about 15 days cash on hand.

Back in 2017.

Now we're over 100 days cash on hand.

East Moline School district.

We were one of the most underfunded system.

So while there are advocacy groups out there saying no, we need $500 million per year in the funding.

You know, we were promised 350 million, and the state has delivered that.

And we don't want to look the gift horse in the mouth.

It's been a change.

It's been a game changer for East Moline schools and our students.

And, we're very appreciative.

And we're going to continue to build on this and hope the state continues to fund that, because it's doing as promised.

And, we're able to provide more support for our students.

You have a statewide view as well.

I mean, I know that you're the superintendent for East Moline, but you understand how funding has affected each of the school districts.

I still remember a few years ago, we did a story on the fact that Geneseo was doing so well.

And then right next door help me with the school district was, I want to say, Cologne.

Cologne is right next door.

And it was like one of the poorer districts.

Or is that improving in the state at all?

Trying to level that out of it greatly.

It has greatly improved.

There are so they have four different tiers of schools in East Moline still in tier one, but we're about ready to leave at tier one and go into tier two, tier four or those funded systems.

Geneseo.

And I don't want to quote what they are, but they're probably tier three or tier four.

There are school districts like East Moline or Cologne, where you, you are tier one and you're, you're underfunded based on the state, how the state funding formula works.

So it's hard to have that that disparity in one community.

You've got parts of Corona where parts of the city goes to Corona, schools and parts of the city goes to Geneseo schools.

And just depending on what side of the street you live on might determine what your education is.

And education in the state or across the country shouldn't be dependent on your zip code.

It should be.

We need to fund kids at an adequate rate.

You know, the local effort has to be there, too.

You have to tax the local.

Property tax owners have to do their part as well.

But if the state's doing their part, we can come together and really serve all children, not just dependent on where you live.

And let's talk about one of the largest minority populations is in East Moline.

I mean, tell me how the school system is making sure that those students are better served.

You know that it's a concern right now due to federal funding.

We do get some federal funding, with our second language learners.

Currently, East Moline School District speaks, almost 48 languages.

And it's hard for many people in the Quad Cities.

They don't believe that there's that many languages in the entire Quad Cities.

Well, in our 13.1mi school community, there are 48 languages.

And, you know, there I've we're very, you know, diversity is our superpower in East Moline.

You know, companies like Google and John Deere, they're looking for people to come together.

They're looking for people that have worked with other people from different cultures or different backgrounds.

And East Moline schools, you get that every day.

That's the training ground.

Our students have an opportunity to to do that, and our teachers really cultivate that, that cooperative learning that that communities need in the future and big companies want.

So we work very hard to, to provide that base of education for all of our students.

Right now in East Moline schools, we currently teach bilingual education in Spanish, percussion, Arabic and French, and Ave as well.

And research shows if a student learns how to read and write in their home language first, they'll learn English at an academic level in about 6 or 7 years.

Those students will start beating English learners on their test scores because they've learned it at such an academic level.

And we're supporting our students with all these different languages because we know that it'll really impact our community later, and we're excited about the work they're doing.

It's so important to keep kids in school.

And I know that, Illinois is creating yet another task force in regards to, chronic absenteeism.

How is East Moline really done, in the effort to keep kids in school?

Yeah, that's a that's a that's a big one, especially there's a lot of factors at play here.

The state change, the, there's something called chronic absence and the state change the definition.

I want to say maybe six years ago, something like that, where it was if you missed 18 days of school, you were chronically absent, which of course, that's 10% of the year.

That's a lot of the year.

But they change that to 5%.

So now if you miss nine or more days of school, you are chronically absent.

The pandemic kind of threw gasoline on the fire because we told people, if you don't feel well, don't send your child to school.

Right back.

When you and I went to school, our mom said, no, unless you're throwing up, you're going to school.

That's what you do.

And it really it's really impacted the way individuals, now, feel about being present, their students being present.

If they're not feeling well, they don't want to spread something.

I understand that, but we've got to we've got to balance that with really.

We really need students in school.

We're working with different community partners right now.

United for schools is a big thing.

United Way has funded, thankfully at one of our schools as well as elementary, and it's made an impact.

I know what Madison and Davenport and Washington and Moline.

But part of that initiative is to really improve student attendance.

Amongst all of our students.

And it's also improving behaviors as well.

But we've only had it for six months, and it's already been a big game changer in East Moline, schools are chronic absences improved by 6% last year?

It's still entirely too high.

The students from white students, are probably in the middle.

And, our African American students have among the best attendance, which is not normally when you look along, what's going on nationally?

The Hechinger Report just recently came out and said about we've we've gained about 50% of the losses we made for chronic absences after the pandemic, but there's still too much going on.

Affluent communities are doing better than the less affluent communities, but there's still a problem nationwide, and East Moline is working hard to tackle these things because we know without having kids in school, they can't learn what they need to be with that teacher.

That's the most important thing we can offer our students, because we know our teachers are trained and they're doing a great job, but we have to have them in school.

One last areas, East Moline schools.

In the next school year, 2627, we'll be seeing some big changes depending upon.

I know you're still having meetings with the parents on that, but, look, to change of school boundaries and how you're using the school buildings.

Yeah, we're we're, we we we sat down last year for a strategic plan.

We brought some community members in, and we looked at a long range strategic plan.

And on the roadmap, the community, the committee identified through parent surveys and parent focus groups that the parents would really like to have fifth grade back in the elementary schools.

So we started having conversation about conversations about how we could do that.

At the same time, we also have an issue with our transportation fund in the East Moline School District.

This last year, we deficit spent $781,000 in that fund.

And that's not allow you you can deficit spend.

But at the end of the year that fund has to be at zero or above.

So we had to move money from working cash, which is kind of our savings account, to the transportation fund, to cover that shortfall.

And we have to do that every year.

I've been superintendent for with East Moline for 16 years, and that deficit continues to grow due to the state prorated transportation even more.

And that's a problem for us.

So we had to look at ways we could change our boundaries to make them make more sense.

And, have more students had the ability to walk to school.

And also, we thought that it was really important to put fifth grade back in the elementary.

And, we think our families really like that.

But this isn't just about numbers on a spreadsheet.

This is about creating long term, substantial financial, sustained success for our district and really changing our trajectory for the long term.

Last word, new school year.

All of these possibilities all the way from seniors who are ready to graduate to those kids, as you said, pre-K or K, that's just entering school.

It is a special time.

It is a special time.

And might the best day of the school year for me is always the first day you're you're on the your I go to I start my middle school because they start school first and I welcome the kids and they're excited.

You know we think oh this kids don't want they want to go back to school and the parents want them back in school.

Two kids need that routine.

And I've never been part of a community where the parents are more appreciative of what they receive.

And from their school district, from their teachers in particular.

And, it's just fun to see.

It's fun to see a parent with that first kindergarten child, that first day of school, and they're turning it over to a new teacher, and they're just watching.

And they're, you know, it's it's a hard, emotional day for some parents.

But it's a neat day, too.

And it's wonderful that they put that promise in us that we do not take that lightly.

Our thanks to East Moline School superintendent doctor Kristen Humphries.

Still to come, charting the future of Moline downtown.

But first, a look at some great events and activities as the summer starts to wind down.

It's thanks to visit Quad Cities.

Check out the things to do this week in the Quad Cities.

Get ready for another book club at the Atlas Collective.

It's a great way to get back into reading and meet new friends.

It's the 10th anniversary of Recycle the Runway.

Watch as designers transform materials into masterpieces.

Then take a seasonal guided tour of the German-American Heritage Center on August 30th.

Next, attend the largest and most prestigious karting street race in the world by heading to downtown Rock Island.

Finally, enjoy live music at Lithia Creek Vineyard and Winery on the last day of August.

For more events like these, check out our events calendar at visit Quad cities.com.

Moline now has a blueprint for its downtown, one where acres of land and riverfront access is freed up thanks to the removal of the old Interstate 74 bridge.

We featured Renew Moline president and CEO Alexandra Elias to talk about it, but I'm afraid I made a mistake in identifying her in the interview.

So we want to correct that error and hear from her again.

Here's Alexandra Elias from Renew Moline.

So the detailed plans of what the downtown area could look like came out as expected.

It really centers on a park system that faces the slew in the river.

Yes, the mix K plan, which is the riverfront master plan.

We've also called it the Riverfront and Center plan.

So it's a portion of downtown, not all of downtown, but it really does focus on, you know, that Crown Jewel, which is the riverfront area.

There were no real surprises in it was the I wouldn't describe it as surprises, but I think confirmation that access to the river is important for the community.

The community wants to experience and touch the river.

Maybe not literally, but they want to get close enough to it that they feel like they're, you know, next to it.

And, you know, we have a downtown bike path that's very active, that's in that area.

And so people are accustomed to accessing it.

But that particular location right near the I-74 bridge on the west side is just, you know, it's been industrial for a long time.

And so creating beautiful public space out of that has really been a welcome message from the community.

But when you say quite some time since the founding of Moline, that is true.

It's been an industrial site all along, and that's what actually brought John Deere and the mills all.

When, you know, Moline history is based on downtown being more industrial than than, than a beautiful park system.

And in a way, getting rid of the old I-74 bridge just opened up the opportunity to make this more of a gathering place.

The downtown area.

It did 14 acres of redeveloped property, and that's the area between the city's water department, which is there now, and the new bridge and then the river and River drive.

So a very large, contiguous 14 acre area that is really the city's front porch.

And now the city has control over that property to make decisions with the community on what that looks like.

One of the areas, you brought up, were the water, departments located.

And I noticed in the drawing was that it was a bit of a splash pad in front of it.

Am I wrong?

I I'm I'm not sure.

I saw a splash pad.

Yeah.

I can't remember what it was.

Or a fountain of some sort.

Yeah.

So there's a centerpiece.

You know, as urban designers and city planners, we think a lot about view corridors.

We think about views to the river.

We think about when you're on 19th Street and you're looking toward the river, what do you see?

And, you know, trying to create a view corridor with something interesting at the end is always a focus for urban designers, because one of the, areas that the Urban Institute was talking about when, when they did their study that was released about four years ago, is that they were calling for just something that was bold, and they had a huge fountain shooting up that you can see in the rivers.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

They were looking for something bold.

Do you see anything bold in this plan?

Because I have to tell you the truth, I didn't see anything all that bold.

Well, I think the city's, planning for public space along the riverfront.

In response, really?

To what?

The community wanted is bold in the sense that it's, you know, a strong decision in the right direction.

I also think that there are themes that the Urban Land Institute provided in that work four years ago, including activating the river itself.

You see, in some of the images from RMC.

Now, there are images of, kayaks and activities that are actually river based.

That was a theme that came out of the, of the, Urban Land Institute work.

Also, just activating that area for the public was really a theme that was very strongly, emphasized in the Urban Land Institute work and has continued through this, mixed plan.

The drawing also showed kind of a new hotel if like if I'm right.

I mean, I was looking at the building and it looked like that was new construction.

So everything north of River drive would be new construction with the exception.

We have one building there that could remain, which is the Spiegel building, which has been the subject of a discussion for a public market.

And there are a number of options being evaluated for that.

But you know, the hotel, the residential development that's sited there, you know, is really an invitation to the private development community to come forward with ideas.

The city is open to discussing, you know, any and all development proposals.

I think in a lot of ways, the master plan is sort of a marketing piece to tell people here are the beautiful public improvements that the city intends to construct in that public private partnership type format.

And so for developers that are looking for, you know, a place to site residential development or a hotel or a retail commercial, you know, all of those things are really on the table.

I think the concept plan that you see is really just an idea of what could potentially happen.

But the city relies on private investment then to come forward and say, here's what we would like to do.

That's what I was going to get at, is that it really is, an invitation, as you said, for private developers, because it's not just, municipal money that's being used here.

That's right.

And I think that's what people need to remember is that, you know, when the city puts forward a plan, it is, in fact a plan.

And as you know, if you've remodeled your house, plans sometimes change based on, you know, what you can afford, what you know is, current at that time in terms of need.

You know, we know that we have a need for residential development downtown.

And so we are hopeful that those residential sites, you know, we'll move forward.

As I mentioned, also the public market as sort of an anchor for that area is being looked at both for, you know, more of a historic building renovation in this building.

But also the city is being very wise about this.

And in looking at all options, including a new build of a public market.

So obviously, you know, a historic building is pretty cool.

But it has some constraints that a new build might not have.

And so I think really in looking for an anchor project and something that could start early, is, you know, the public market could be one of those things.

The Urban Land Institute study, which I keep going back to, is, they mentioned two of the big things in regards to downtown Moline was empty storefronts and too much to too much asphalt.

Do you think that this latest plan help solve some of those problems?

Well, I think it prevents, I shouldn't say prevent it, but it, it certainly offers an alternative to redeveloping that area in a way that concentrates parking and structures and really allows sort of a centralized parking approach to development around it.

And then, you know, having access to that public parking for people that are going to an event, say, at the outdoor amphitheater that is shown in the plans and other things.

So really centralizing that parking to make sure that we don't have, you know, here's an asphalt lot.

There's an asphalt lot.

It's more of a centralized approach in the riverfront area.

And it's also a way to like, make sure that the historic parts of downtown remain, but also add these amenities to bring more people into the downtown area, because there is no real gathering spot downtown.

I think there is Bass Street Landing.

Yes, Bass Street landing.

I think, you know, we have different activity centers.

We have the vibrant arena at the mark.

We have Bass Street Landing, we have the retail corridor, there's Fifth Avenue.

And so if you're, you know, if you're in downtown at lunchtime, you see a busy Fifth Avenue with people walking back and forth.

And I think what we want to do is extend that activity.

One of the, observations that the Urban Land Institute had was that you have activity on, pedestrian activity, retail activity on Fifth Avenue, and you have it on River drive, but we're missing those North-South connections.

And so I think really a large part of our residential focus going after projects has been to fill in some of those gaps and create that, pedestrian activity that connects those things.

It is an, a project that, as we said, private investment, but also renew Moline in the city of Moline.

What is the timeline, perhaps to get something that an amphitheater or a park or something tangible that people will start to notice?

That's a hard question, Jim.

I think, you know, those are capital, public improvements.

They're expensive.

They're long term investments.

You know, I know that the city is working on their capital improvements program now.

They do that with a three year planning focus.

And so I think that's really something that the city will be paying attention to.

One other area that was mentioned in this study is that there's a need for more study.

And and you brought up part of the supplemental studies, including the River drive traffic study, the tower investigation, as it's called, which would be what I still referred to as the Coney Tower.

And then, as you said, the Spiegel Building and the possibility of a food hall.

When I talked to you last, that was something that you were so excited about.

Is the possibility of making this building into this culinary institute, where people would learn you'd have a rooftop restaurant, real possibilities.

Is that still somewhat a concept that that, is gaining any momentum?

It is.

We, I don't remember the last time you and I talked about this, Jim.

I think it's been a couple of years.

And so we were very fortunate to receive money from the Dear Foundation to do further study on what I called then the food based ecosystem.

And so, looking at some of our local vendors and our local institutions that take care of those vendors.

So Mercado on fifth Fritos Farmers Market, you know, who have waiting lists for folks that want to be vendors in those spaces and either can't because they're outdoors and they're not year round.

So the idea that has really gelled is that idea of a public market, which is indoor, low cost vendor space for someone like you who's making empanadas in your kitchen and you would like to sell them, and perhaps you're selling out on a Friday night at Mercato.

We also know that we that those vendors have a need for, say, canning, bottling and packaging that they don't have in the community right now.

Someone told me recently that we're a lot of our local vendors are buying tortillas from Chicago.

And, you know, why is that happening?

So, just looking for ways to accommodate that need by the vendors that are in the food entrepreneurs that are here already into a form, a formal public market type format, I think has taken shape and really gelled.

So, you know, it's evolved away from not necessarily away from, but, you know, will it have a restaurant on the roof?

Who knows?

You know, we'll have a culinary institute.

We hope so.

I think the success of that public market and administrator Vitas and I just got back from the International Public Markets conference a few weeks ago in Milwaukee and experienced a bunch of different types of markets.

And what I say about public markets is that if you've seen one market, you've seen one market because each of them is really designed to be conducive to what that community needs.

What the vendors and food entrepreneurs in that community need.

And then it's really layered programing.

I mean, it's everything from, you know, having a wedding and special events to, you know, training for food vendors in how to take photographs and market their product and all kinds of things.

So it's really a I think I came away from that conference in, in the last year and probably since we spoke, I've learned a lot more about really the ecosystem that those public markets are.

And I would say that we're excited about that.

You know, the, the, the reception that that idea has gotten has been positive overall.

I think, you know, it's a complicated, complex project that takes a lot of effort and, you know, funding to put together something like that.

But it's been done in other communities.

We don't have it here.

And it can augment rather than compete against something like that.

That's exactly right.

That was the premise that we started out with from the beginning, is that we wanted to offer things that people needed for freight House, Farmer's Market, Mercato on fifth and others that they didn't already have access to.

And so if we could offer something like that, then we're not duplicating, we're not competing, and we're supplementing the success that's already here.

So this downtown plan that's been released, what is it going to take to make sure that it's not a binder that's sitting somewhere gathering dust?

I mean, how do you how do you put this into action?

I would say carve off bite sized pieces, if you will.

You know, the city will be marketing those individual development spaces.

The city has an economic development manager that's been on staff now for about 18 months, and he has a lot of great experience from other cities.

So he will be a key component of, you know, marketing those spaces to developers that can really turn the key on, you know, starting the engine on some of that stuff.

So, that'll be a big focus for all of us.

Optimistic.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I think, you know, the real game changer was when the city acquired all of the property in north of River drive.

I mean, that was really a game changer because they really now the conversation is just with the community, just with, you know, with the community who lives here and works here, plays here, but also with the development community about what's it going to take to put in 250 residential units in that area?

What's it going to take to put in an amphitheater?

So they have the building blocks in place, and that's a big thing that not a lot of people see, but is just foundational to, to the work that we do.

our thanks to Alexandra Elias from Renew Moline.

We're celebrating the upcoming 250th birthday of America by highlighting the people who helped make our region a better place to live.

Everyone has a role in the fabric of our nation.

In a way, it's their civic spark.

And Daniel Sheridan now leads the United Way of the Quad Cities Community Impact programs.

And before that, he was a long time leader of the Davenport Youth Theater.

His work has impacted thousands of young people's lives.

So we asked Daniel Sheridan, what is your civic spark?

Well, for me, storytelling has always been a really important part of my life, and the opportunity to share a story and an idea and understand other people.

And my work at junior theater for 16 years allowed me to build the voices of kids so that they could participate in the democratic process.

They can participate by thinking about others and speaking with clarity and confidence.

And then the work at the United Way of the quad Cities is about convening and lifting voices to make sure that, you know, a democracy doesn't just happen at a federal national level.

It happens on a hyper local level.

And we have to engage every citizen and respect them and understand them and give them a seat at the table.

And I think that that those conversations, those stories are what make America America and helps build the fabric of a great country.

Our thanks to Daniel Sheridan, senior vice president of community impact with United Way of the Quad Cities.

On the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device and streaming on your computer.

Thanks for taking some time to join us.

As we talk about the issues on the city's.

A new school year and an old problem.

I'm Jim Mertens this week on the city's, This is totally wrong.

This is the.

No, no, this one's right.

I'm sorry, I thought I was too.

I'm doing too many shows at one time.

We'll.

A new school year and an old problem.

I'm Jim Mertens this week on the cities.

We talk with East Moline School superintendent about the upcoming 2025 school year.

But we also talk about the problem of chronic absenteeism being seen across the state.

Plus, the new way to map out downtown Moline.

Join us for the city's Sunday at Four on the city's public television station.

Wqpt.