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CAT Tracks for January 28, 2012
THE APPLE OF THEIR EYES |
What follows is an addendum to the my post yesterday about today's all-day Special Meeting of the Cairo Board of Education...the reported interview of six candidates for the position of Superintendent of Schools for the 2012-2013 School Year.
I told you yesterday that there would be no "minutes" because I was not going to cool my CAT butt on the hard-azzed steps from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.
Then again, being a curious catty sort.
No, I did not break my vow, but there were "minutes"...
Like at 4:35 a.m. when my "Page-A-Day Bad Cat Calendar E-Mail" arrived.
(Ain't makin' that up! After the New Year, I bought a 2012 Mensa-Approved Crossword Puzzle Calendar at half-price. A New Year's impulse-type thing...something to sharpen an old CAT's mind while declining on the couch in the cat cave. As fast as you could say "resolution", that impulse died. Gave the unopened calendar to another retired CAT the following week. However, with such a calendar comes a freebie...the choice of another online calendar. After exhausting my supply of CAT actors/actresses in my epic "CAT Journal: Friday the 13th" tribute, I decided that stock-piling portfolios of up-and-coming CATs might be wise.)
Back to the 4:35 a.m. e-mail...
Struck me that today's "Bad Cat" might well be a sign, an omen.
Cairo School District Number One has a horrendous record of ignoring history, repeating its mistakes...repeatedly.
Rumor has it...
...that despite three public meetings to solicit "community input" as to the qualities and the characteristics that a new superintendent should possess, three meetings that were unanimous is saying "We don't want another Chicago superintendent"...
...that the Cairo Board of Education has been captivated with a female applicant from - drum roll please - C-H-I-G-A-G-O!
(CAT Tracks Editor's Note: I do not know for a fact that this is true, but it is the word on the street from several unrelated, independent sources.)
Despite one "Chicago" superintendent who was fired in February of his first year in Cairo (driving a district-provided automobile back and forth to his "retirement home" in the Metropolis area) and another who lived for four years in the district-provided cottage and was forced into retirement because of his poor performance (only to be rehired as Interim Superintendent at an increased daily rate of pay)...
...despite all this, RUMOR has it that the Cairo Board of Education wants more!
What?
Third time is the charm???
Sigh!!!
Anyway...
Another bite at the Chicago apple, this time a female.
The "Bad Cat" in today's calendar seemed purrfect as the "Welcoming Committee" when she surely takes up residence in the just vacated cottage:
GURL, I JUST LUV UR SHOES!
But...
I was reminded by a friend that I had vowed not to be catty and to let sleeping dogs lie after the dawg's departure...a self-imposed cease fire.
I protested mildly...likening my relapse to the expected lifespan of the aforementioned New Year's resolutions. I mean...Groundhog Day is near!
However, in the end I relented and bit my catty tongue.
However...
CAT day afternoon!
A few more "minutes"...
...blessedly not hours (like from 9 to 4), but more than seconds.
Ventured forth to do some errands around 2:30 p.m.
Couldn't help myself...the curiosity took control, steered me to 2403 MLK Jr. Avenue (aka the District Central Office.) Not as many cars as I expected.
Turned down 24th Street heading west...
Speaking of "apple"...the BIG APPLE...NEW YORK!!!
Now I am fully aware that license plates can be misleading. I have a car parked in my driveway with Washington DC license plates...baby sitting my sister-in-law's car while she wanders the African continent training aspiring journalists. So, if I had been interviewed for the Superintendent's job today, I might have chosen to "exercise" that car and some catty, know-it-all, passer-by might have thought there was an applicant from DC.
That said...
I find it somewhat disturbing that a person driving a vehicle with New York license plates is interviewing for the job of Superintendent of Cairo Public Schools. Whassup with that? (Can't answer that question because CATs have not been included in the search process...don't have a clue as to the identification of the applicants despite a natural curiosity.)
I mean...maybe the person has family in the area, maybe parents who need assistance. Maybe the person is a former Cairoite who made their fame and fortune and is now desirous of returning to his/her roots. There are innumerable explanations.
The fact that s/he a vehicle with New York plates doesn't have to be like another superintendent (whose name shall remain unmentioned) who was out of a job and had to go 375 miles before he could find someone who hadn't heard of him and would hire him. It doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't.
So, as the sun has set upon the first round of interviews, we are left to wonder...
...will the Cairo Board of Education ignore the input of the community, which they sought in three public meetings?
...will the Cairo Board of Education hire the (rumored) apple of their eye, a third "Chicago" superintendent?
...will the Cairo Board of Education GO LARGE, hire a superintendent (with license plates that would indicate s/he is) from the BIG APPLE?
...will the Cairo Board of Education repeat their sorry history of hiring "pigs in a poke"?
I'm not a gambling man, but I don't like the odds of the District landing on its feet...
POSTSCRIPT:
Next on the BOE's Superintendent-search calendar...
February 6th-8th - Superintendent Final Candidates Site Visit in the afternoon with a BOE interview each evening at 6pm.
