CAIRO -- There is no truth to the rumor that the Illinois State Board of Education was in town this week to close the schools.

"All we're doing in Cairo ... is gathering data as part of our No Child Left Behind program. We're not there to close the schools," ISBE spokesman Lee Milner said.

Milner's remarks were in response to a news release from the Illinois Education Association that said the board would close the district within a year.

Milner confirmed that one Cairo school is on the academic warning list and a second was added to the federal school improvement list, but he said the board is simply on a fact-finding mission.

"At the conclusion of our two days in Cairo, we expect to put together a district performance agreement," Milner said. "And it will involve our board, the regional superintendent of schools office and the Cairo school district teaming together to improve the academic performance of the students there."

As reported last month in The Southern Illinoisan, Cairo school officials have already taken steps to enhance the learning process for students with an aggressive tutorial program. That's after it was learned last spring that state aptitude test scores for elementary and junior high students had dipped below the 50th percentile.

"I don't know where the IEA got its information about closing the schools, but it's completely erroneous," Cairo Superintendent Robert Isom said. "I wish one of the association's representatives had contacted the state board or me before issuing that press release, especially when we are making academic progress."

Isom said that with help from the regional and state offices, goals will be set to increase student achievement at a greater rate than previous years.

"You always want to accelerate the learning process, but it takes time to make things work out right," Isom said.