CAT Tracks for April 24, 2003 FOP & BOE MEETINGS

A busy day of meetings, but not much to satisfy a CAT's curiosity...

FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT PANEL

The Financial Oversight Panel for Cairo School District Number One held its regular monthly meeting at 1 p.m. on Thursday at the District administrative office. All members were present.

After approving the minutes from the March 27th and March 31st meetings, the panel voted to change the time of its regular meetings from 1 p.m. to 10:30 a.m. to accommodate a conflicting schedule for a person who needed to attend another FOP later on the same day.

The FOP then voted to set May 6th at 1 p.m. as a tentative interview date for applicants interested in becoming the Financial Administrator of the district. (As of this date, there have been no applicants, but there have been a couple of telephone inquiries.)

Mark Mullins of ISBE then gave a report of the District's financial condition. He presented the Panel with a handout showing the projected financial status of the District as of June 30, 2003. If projections hold true...and the District receives its 23rd and 24th State aid payments in June (as promised)...the District would finish the fiscal year with a surplus of $66,000.

BUT...the District would NOT receive any further revenue until mid-August...revenue to meet payroll and pay bills for July and August. The Panel was informed that a draft letter had been prepared to request a loan from the State to cover this period. The Panel was also told that no money had been appropriated to fund such a loan, but that monies had been transferred from certain line items into a contingency fund for that purpose. As much as $900,000 may be needed/borrowed...at a 1% interest rate.

One member of the FOP stressed that he wanted the District to take a close look at transportation, food services, auxiliary services and personnel, teacher-student ratios, and administrator-teacher-student ratios during the coming month.

Another member of the Panel inquired as to the status of the CJHS building...was it going to be closed. Superintendent Isom answered in the affirmative...that the Board had previously made that decision. The Panel member followed up with the question..."Are you going to spend $500,000 to make renovations to the high school to house the junior high students?" The Superintendent said "No"...that the work could not be completed in time for the opening of school next year. As to alternative plans, the Superintendent stated the District was looking at using existing rooms at the high school AND to leasing four modular classrooms at $600 to $800 a month.

The next concern expressed by all members of the FOP was that scheduling needed to be done for next year...that it should have already been done...that the District needed to identify accurate staffing needs and inform the FOP so that it could set about the task of getting the money to fund it. There was some discussion of trying to locate a "scheduling guru" to assist the District in this task.

The Superintendent then gave the District "report". Mostly, this involved providing a summary of last week's Board of Education meeting with votes of approval by the FOP on financial matters.

Two expenditures approved by the FOP involved retirement packages for adminstrators...an addendum to Principal Henderson's contract for this year and an $11,000 upgrade payment for Superintendent Isom next year.

One flurry of discussion involved the Superintendent's announcement that a secretary/bookkeeper was resigning at the end of May and that the District was proceeding with interviews to fill the position immediately...in order that the new person could receive training before the departure of the current employee. Mark Mullins inquired at to whether the position could be absorbed...with the duties divided among other personnel. The Superintendent gave an emphatic "NO!"...that other personnel were already performing several duties...all that they could handle. Mr. Mullins responded by stating that he was simply addressing an earlier proposal by the District that it was going to cut secretarial/bookkeeper hours in order to reduce expenditures...that maybe keeping existing hours could be justified by the additional duties...while saving the District money by eliminating a position. The Superintendent remained emphatic that this was not an option.

This discussion caught the attention of a member of the Panel. He inquired as to the number of staff employed at the District's administrative offices. The Superintendent did a count...six in addition to himself...not counting three personnel funded through a truancy grant. The Panel member than asked what the student population of the District was and the Superintendent responded that it was approximately 925. The Panel member stated that (in his opinion) the number of administrative personnel was excessive for a district of this size...that this is something that needed to be looked at more closely. Another Panel member joined the discussion...inquiring as to the status of the position. The Superintendent indicated that the District was in the process of interviewing candidates. The Panel member then stated that he had no problem with "interviews", but advised the District NOT to hire anyone until such time that the FOP could take a closer look at the situation.

The FOP then went into Executive Session at 2:35 p.m. It exited at 3:02 p.m. and adjourned at 3:03 p.m.

CAIRO BOARD OF EDUCATION

A special meeting of the Cairo BOE was held at 6 p.m. on Thursday night for "the purpose of discussing personnel issues."

A BARNEY SIGHTING!

An indication that something was up...something not good...was the presence of the Board's attorney, Barney Mundorf. The Board immediately entered closed session at 6:04 p.m. They emerged at 6:54 p.m. (Towards the end of the closed session, both President Griggs and Attorney Mundorf came out into the hall looking for the CHS principal...who was not present.) Upon exiting closed session, the Superintendent announced that the Board had set an employee dismissal hearing for April 28th at 6 p.m.

The Board adjourned at 6:56 p.m.