CAT Tracks for March 20, 2014 REGULAR BOE MEETING...AGENDA PLUS

The Cairo Board of Education held its regular meeting on March 20th at 6 p.m.

With the exception of Arnold Burris, all members were present.

Examples of Excellence:

CJSHS Teacher Ryan O'Shea was present and informed the BOE of the recent Illinois Beta Club Convention held in Springfield, specifically of the accomplishments of Senior member DreQuan Green (who was present and showed the BOE members and the audience his Harris Leadership Award. There will be a separate posting from The Cairo Citizen of DreQuan's award and his election as Vice President of the Illinois Beta Club.)

Public/Private Hearings or Petitions:

There were no visitors seeking recognition, but BOE Member Rodney Moore used this place on the agenda to remark on the apparently poor service being rendered by the District's bus service (Illinois Central). According to Mr. Moore, the buses are breaking down on a regular basis, both in-town and on road trips. Replacement buses fare no better than the buses they replace. (Mr. Moore's comments were echoed by Superintendent Andrea Evers and other BOE members.) The contract with Illinois Central expires this year and open bids will be solicited, the hope being that another company will be awarded the contract and provide better service. (Illinois Central was selected because it had submitted the lowest bid, but the Superintendent/BOE hopes that ISBE will allow the selection of another company, even if it is not the lowest bid, in light of the shoddy service being provided by Illinois Central "after the sale". In an outrageous example of "service provided" by Illinois Central: When it became time for the Beta Club to return to Cairo after their convention in Springfield, the bus driver informed Mr. O'Shea that there was no money available to purchase gas for the return trip! A series of long-distance phone calls involving Superintendent Evers and the bus company finally secured gas without Mr. O'Shea having to use his personal credit card. Geez...

Approval of Consent Agenda:

Once again, there was a squabble over whether or not to approve all four items by a single vote or whether to approve each item separately. Mr. Moore (to the tune of much grimacing and eye rolling by other members) wanted the minutes voted on separately (although he didn't indicate why.) Mr. Moore was reluctantly given his wishes, the minutes were voted on separately, and he voted "No". The other three items were then approved as a group without question or comment.

Report of the Superintendent:

A laundry list of items were addressed in rapid fashion (too fast for this old CAT's challenged hearing and arthritic paws.)

The items included:

• Governor Pat Quinn is scheduled to deliver his Budget Address on March 26th. Reportedly, he will propose 100% funding of General State aid rather than the reduced amounts received by school district in recent years. Superintendent Evers indicated that Quinn's proposal is not necessarily what will happen.

• Collection of local property taxes is complete...at 92%.

• Alexander County has paid the District for use of the CCEC building (the old Junior High building) during the time the county had to use the building when its building was closed due to the roof being damaged during a storm. (The county received payment under its insurance for temporary relocation and forwarded that money to the District.)

• A recent ROE visit went well, as did a Pre-K inspection.

• ISBE will be auditing eight of the District's programs. Superintendent Evers indicated the coming audit was "normal", not due to any problems with the programs.

• The fire marshal will be making an annual inspection on April 16th. (This is normally done during the winter, but the bad weather this year forced all such inspections to be delayed until spring.)

• This summer (June 16th-30th), the United States Armed Services will be conducting a health clinic in Cairo...offering free dental (cleaning, not cosmetic), free vision (including eyeglasses), and school physicals (including sports.) Superintendent Evers indicated that her comments were a courtesy "heads up"...that the Armed Services would issue an official press release as we near to actual date.

• There was a mention of upcoming testing...including that the District volunteered to be field tested for PARCC...the infamous Common Core testing. This year's testing will supposedly be for "information gathering" rather than the promised/threatened "high stakes testing" causing waves across the country. (So, hopefully our "failure" will not be reported state-wide.)

• ROE is closing on June 30, 2015. In preparation, let the dismantling begin! As indicated on the agenda, there will be an auction on March 27th which will be attended by District personnel. Reportedly there will be a round-robin selecting of "free stuff", surplus materials that ROE is unloading. At the same time, there will be a bidding for other surplus property...including a couple of 23-25-passenger buses, a 15-passenger van with 90+ thousand miles, fire-proof cabinets, etc. Superintendent Evers expressed her opinion that the District might consider bidding on the 15-passenger van for use by sports/athletic teams.