The Peoria Charter School Initiative or PCSI is comprised of a group of community and civic leaders spearheading a plan to get a charter school in the River City.

And tonight, PCSI held a forum to allow Peoria parents, students and teachers to meet others from a high performing Chicago charter.

Kizzie Rogers is a Chicago Math and Science Academy senior.
She says the charter school saved her life...she's the youngest of 8 children none of whom went higher than the 12th grade.

"When I first started out I didn't actually plan on going to college, but now I'm thinking about Ivy league colleges", said Rogers.

She explained to District 150 parents and students that everything at her school from the uniforms to the mandatory college application sessions and ACT courses have put her on the road to success.

"The foundations and all of the requirements are set from day one. This is what you have to do, and this is what you need to do to get there".

And after the Thursday night panel, many 150 families say it's imperative the district awards a charter to provide the same opportunities to area children.

"You have teachers with tenure, you have contracts and they're going to get paid whether they do good or bad. We need to have an option where we know that our kids are going to be successful", said District 150 Grandmother, Sherry Cannon.

But one former 150 teacher, Mike Lawless, says he believes children with parents to busy or too uninvolved to care will be left behind even though PCSI board members say admittance will be based on a lottery.

"In a sense it's not, because not everybody is going to apply for a lottery. If they put everybody in the lottery just by sheer chance, and everybody's kid in 150 by age, that would be a true sampling".

Regardless, Kizzie Rogers says now she's determined to succeed because of her school.

"I'm more elated than they are actually, because I'm taking the first step. Something that I shouldn't be doing since I'm the baby of eight, but I'm very excited".

PCSI hopes to have a charter school under way in the River City by fall of 2010.