CAT Tracks for August 23, 2011
AREA ART & MUSIC CUTS

...featuring Cairo as the lead story.

Spewing propaganda for CSD #1 is none other than newly-inked Interim Superintendent Leotis Swopes.

Talk about speaking with forked-tongue...

...as he pockets his $500 a day, lives in his free cottage, and accepts $300 per month for his utilities.

"Cash flow problem", says Leotis.

Interim Superintendent Swopes sure doesn't speak from personal experience...the cash continues to flow into his deep pockets.

A helluva situation...


From the Southern Illinoisan...


Link to Original Story


Art, music programs hit hard by cuts

BY STEPHEN RICKERL
The Southern

Cutbacks in state funding have claimed art and music programs in one Southern Illinois school district and the budget crunch might force other districts to make tough decisions.

Cairo Unit School District 1 Board of Education was forced to cut art, music and other electives programs, as well as staff at its last board meeting. Superintendent Leotis Swopes said although several positions were riffed, some staff members were moved to other programs where they are certified. Between a stand-alone reading program in the elementary school, and art, music and physical education at the high school, Swopes said about 10 staff members were let go and others were reassigned.

Swopes said without question the cuts are because of a reduction in state funding.

Cairo USD 1 received the highest financial recognition from the state, Swopes said. The state being behind in payment means the school district has to dip into their reserves.

"When you see that, and you can't anticipate that, you kind of have to guesstimate as best you can what you can do and still survive. We anticipated about a $600,000 cut, so across the board we made those same kind of cuts."

Swopes said it's easy to do the math and figure how much money needs to be cut from a budget, but the hard part is knowing those figures are attached to teachers and students.

"The numbers play out. Math is just kind of straight up and down," Swopes said. "The hard part comes in talking to the people because it's a very tough economy and you don't want to see anyone unemployed, yet you have to try to favor a wholesome program for kids, especially at the high school level who are anticipating going onto college and beyond. You don't want to short-change them for the offers that they might have. But typically electives are the things that go first."

Marion

Financial strain isn't exclusive to Cairo USD 1. Budgets woes were a hot topic during the last Marion Unit 2 School District board meeting. The board discussed a tentative budget for this fiscal year that showed the school district is more than $3 million in the red.

Frank Barbre, one of the districts interim associate superintendents, said Marion is no exception to the trend of decreasing state aid revenue. Barbre said the district's finance committee will be meeting to begin the process of determining how to best reduce expenditures or increase revenue.

"The revenues are just going to be so much less this year primarily because of less state aid, less state funds," Barbre said. "Most school districts, and certainly Marion, are going to no doubt have to start looking at reducing expenditures."

Barbre said it varies from district to district as to what decisions and cuts will ultimately be made. But all of the options that are available will be looked at and the district will have to consider which cuts can be made that affect students the least.

"If we have to make reductions we want to make them in such a way that it is least deterrent to the educational program the students are here for."

Not all districts are facing tough decisions on their music, arts and other elective programs.

Carbondale

Carbondale Community High School Superintendent Steve Murphy said his district hasn't had to make any cuts. Murphy said because of state funding formulas, the district draws more of it's funding from their local tax base versus from state sources.

"We're roughly about a quarter of our funding, 25 or 30 percent of our funding comes from the state," Murphy said. "And so when the state cuts, we feel it, but we don't feel it like some districts that may get 85 or 90 percent of their funding from the state."

Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon, the governor's point person on education, said budgets are tight, but music and art is important in student development.

"I understand that everyone's budget is in a pinch, from the federal government down to the school districts," Simon said. "But as a passionate supporter of the arts, I see the connection between the arts and the rest of school. In particular, that music-math connection is significant for a lot of kids."