Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for October 29, 2005 FOP & RANDY DUNN VISIT

Today's Southern Illinoisan reports on Thursday's visit by State Superintendent Randy Dunn to the CSD #1 FOP meeting...

Cairo school district books in order, contract settled

BY: FRED KELLER
FOR THE SOUTHERN

CAIRO - The financial books of Cairo School District 1 are now in order, and the teachers' union is happy with a recent three-year contract that was quietly and smoothly negotiated.

State School Chief Randy Dunn dropped by a meeting Thursday to visit what he termed financial advisers working as the legislature intended the system to work.

In February 2002, the State Board of Education created a financial oversight panel for Cairo District 1 when a former superintendent said the district was "in the midst of a major financial crisis," and 60 days from being broke.

Cairo schools were accustomed to dealing with a bottom-line deficit of a few hundred thousand dollars a year.

Cairo Association of Teachers President Ron Newell says a three-year contract ending in 2008 was negotiated in a "nice and quiet way. It was a different kind of negotiation. We're very happy."

"I don't know what the magic was," Newell said. "In the first year of the oversight panel, they turned things around."

Jack Hill, a former Shawnee College president, chairs the group. Former superintendents Glenn Webb from Goreville and Sam Harbin of Mounds Meridian schools are also in the group. They have hired three financial advisers.

Cairo Superintendent Gary Whitledge and school board President Joe Griggs say the magic is in everyone working together, reassigning staff workloads when needed, and again making teaching and learning the primary goal.

Andrea Brown, former regional school superintendent who is now on the State Board of Education, handed Griggs a plaque for assistance with financial oversight, restructuring, review of support personnel, completing contracts with four unions, working for mutual goals, and maintaining an effort to improve instruction.

The effort hasn't been easy. This is the third year the solid 1940s-era junior high school has not been used for regular daily classes.

A report came that the building would need more repairs than were cost effective. After bond issues failed, seventh- and eighth-graders were crowded into the new high school.

The school district's academic tests are still a problem. A large majority of students are minority and have family incomes below the poverty line.

Griggs says motivation is a problem. When he attended those schools, he says, even after school and summer employment was available, which now is not.

Newell agrees that "there are no jobs in Cairo, no motivation to work, no businesses to visit and think that you can someday work there if you improve your proficiencies."

"There is job instability, and kids just don't see the reason to work."

The district has about 700 students, and in the last few years has dropped 20 to 40 students a year, Whitledge said.

"This year we dropped 50. We expected a rebound after Labor Day, but it didn't happen."

Newell said he keeps hoping the decline will stabilize, but it has not. Griggs says families move on when they can't make income to pay the bills.

Meridian Superintendent Ray Puckett said he and counterparts from Cairo, Egyptian, Century and Cairo districts meet monthly to discuss how to improve scores. This year his school is trying money as a motivation.

Meridian eleventh-graders will receive $75 each if they meet state standard test scores mainly for reading and math, and $100 if they exceed the standard.

Some 36 students are eligible, and Puckett says it is not a major expenditure for the school. It's the second year for the plan, and he is seeing some improvement in the scores.

Newell has seen sanctions that are spelled out in the "No Child Left Behind" legislation. In the sixth and seventh years of schools that fail the standards, he says it "could get nasty." The state can opt to fire the school board one year and fire the teachers the next.

"It's insulting, like telling us we haven't been trying," he said. Parents in some situations might have the option to send the children to adjoining districts. "Would that help, in our case?" he asked.

He said each state plan to meet the "No Child Left Behind" law is different. Dunn said Illinois' plan was amended last year and will be again, especially for the 2007 reauthorization.

"We need to look at growth models and ways to add value instead of hitting the districts over the head. We will seek to recognize improvement."

Dunn says there are a small handful of financial oversight panels operating in the state. He says it is important to look first at expenditures involving teaching and learning. Then in schools with limited tax base, they must look at leveraging grant money.

He called the Cairo situation the best example in the state of a panel working with a school board.