CAT Tracks for November 24, 2002 Timely IEA Insider

Check out this week's IEA Insider.

STATE SUPERINTENDENT ROBERT SCHILLER...

...complains to the United States Department of Education..."a deadline of January 31, 2003 would not provide enough time for states to complete required plans" concerning the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) requirement under ESEA (No Child Left Behind)...YOU know...the requirement that is the driving force behind the sanctions which the ISBE and the Cairo Board and administration are threatening us with...

Hmmmm...maybe Superintendent Schiller will be sympathetic with our complaint that we are NOT being given a fair chance to comply...in the ISBE/CSD #1 mad rush to implement punishment of teachers in Cairo, IL.

WE ARE NOT ALONE...

...as IEA President Anne Davis begins the process of appointing a special task force to develop the Association's strategic actions around ESEA and its impact on IEA members....especially on collective bargaining agreements...like ours!

The IEA is well aware of what is going on in Cairo...and in other districts throughout Illinois. The IEA will bring extensive resources to bear in protecting years of hard-fought gains made by locals since the passage of the Illinois collective bargaining law in 1984.

POSTSCRIPT: There was an interesting little article in an insert in this week's Southern Illinoisan. The article was listed (appropriately) under "Weird News"...under a banner headline of "Coffee enemas make it hard to recruit patients". The news of interest concerned the Edison Schools...one of the "solutions" proposed by ISBE and the Cairo Board of Education and administration. The article states:

"The for-profit school administration company Edison Schools Inc., reportedly low on cash but with 20 particularly troublesome Philadelphia high schools to manage, tried to cut some corners in September until reined in by the school board. According to an October dispatch in Toronto's Globe and Mail, Edison ran low on cash and (1) had to send back newly ordered textbooks, computers, lab supplies and musical instruments; (2) tried to move its Philadelphia executives out of their downtown offices and into vacant school-system rooms to save on rent; and (3) suggested to the school board that students could acquire valuable experience if they were assigned various work projects (for free) for Edison. The latter two ideas were thwarted by the school board, but the students were still making do with old books and equipment."

Hmmm...I was reading the draft performance agreement yesterday...noticed a recommendation about "get rid of all old textbooks". Maybe they better delay that decision...