CAT Tracks for November 18, 2002 SECRETS AND LIES

More details are beginning to emerge concerning the clandestine meeting between the Cairo Board of Education and the ISBE...

Once we pinned down the date...October 29th...we were able to elicit a tentative "roll call" from witnesses. It appears that two or three ISBE representatives met with CSD #1 representatives at the District central office. According to observers, the Cairo participants included Dr. Isom, Constance Williams, Joyce Champion and four (4) board members! The four Board members is significant...if true, that would violate the Open Meetings Act since it constitutes a quorum, requiring proper notice.

We don't know what transpired behind closed doors...yet. However, the outcome - the "draft performance agreement" - makes for some pretty easy speculation. Contrary to public pronouncements on the occasion of the ISBE visitation, it is very apparent that the ISBE is either orchestrating or assisting a "takeover" of CSD #1.

Contrary to any established rules and regulations...and in defiance of many, ISBE officials and the Cairo Board of Education and administration have entered into a performance agreement to take over the high school at the end of this year. In doing so, ISBE is ignoring "extenuating circumstances" published as part of their own findings...namely, the educational impact of "environmental factors". According to ISBE, the 65% unemployment rate, an 80% welfare rate, mobility and truancy rates that more than double the state average, etc. are inconsequential...it is solely the fault of the teachers who are "all...certified and endorsed for their teaching assignment." Hmmm...wonder who does this certifying/endorsing stuff...would it/could it be ISBE, by any chance?

Obviously, the District jumped at this plan...makes the teachers the scapegoat and lets the Cairo Board of Education and administration off the hook! In the past, when the spectre of low performance was raised, the first step in the recovery plan has always been the removal of the Board and administration...a recognition that effective/ineffective leadership sets the tone for success/failure in the school district. VERY convenient for them to be able to select another group for sacrifice...especially when it is a group whom they publicly blame for the labor/management discord that has plagued the District.

So...ISBE and District officials hold a secret meeting...write a performance agreement with absolutely no input from the people that are to be held accountable for its implementation...and give them four months to work a miracle...or else! Does that sound valid and reliable to you? I think not!

As I indicated before, this will NOT go unchallenged. The Illinois Education Association has been notified and officials are already devising a response. They have promised full support in fighting this flagrant, heavy-handed effort at union busting. We are not alone!

We do not know when the "performance agreement" will be officially adopted by the Cairo Board of Education. Their next regularly scheduled meeting is TONIGHT, November 18, 2002, at 5:00 p.m.

WORD FROM THE TRENCHES

The high school is only the first target...

The Pre-K program has been selected for special attention. Although praised in the past...by both local and state officials...the "current" ISBE inspectors have decided it should be changed...should follow the "Egyptian" model. Our Pre-K teachers were ordered to leave their classrooms and make an on-site visit to Egyptian school.

Do not know what our teachers found at Egyptian, but I have heard from teachers and staff what took place at Emerson Elementary in OUR Pre-K classrooms that day...a day when the "educational gurus" subbed for our teachers...chaos! Much punching, kicking, and screaming resounded from the classroom and throughout the hallways as the recommended curriculum of "do what you want when you want" was implemented.

That's the true shame of this sham...CSD #1 has good teachers...no, make that excellent teachers...teachers who have given of their time...their lives...to the children of Cairo. No "outsiders" will be able/willing to do what we do on a year-in-year-out basis. They will come in for a few months...wreak their havoc...and leave...counting their significantly higher salaries. (These folks make BIG bucks...as in more than local adminstrators!)