Below are the "minutes"...

The meeting was called to order at 6:06 p.m. Present for the meeting were Griggs, Brown, Mallory, and Gooden.

Also present were the District's two attorneys...Barney Mundorf and Christi Flaherty.

No visitors asked to be recognized to speak. Following approval of the agenda, the BOE voted to enter closed session at 6:08 p.m. The BOE voted to exit closed session at 7:20 p.m.

There was no action concerning matters discussed in closed session.

The Superintendent did inform us that the Sylvan Learning Center was charging the District $35 per hour for tutoring services and that their tutoring personnel did have to possess teacher certification. Sylvan is offering $10 per hour for those actually performing the tutoring. (Hmmm...Charge $35 per hour...pay $10 per hour.)

There was also a brief discussion concerning the number of cheerleaders and problems with transportation of same.

The BOE voted to adjourn at 7:27 p.m.

So...what was the meeting about? Well...as it says above..."for the purpose of discussing issues related to pending and current litigation."

This is just an educated guess, but at least part of the discussion most likely concerned the recent decision handed down by the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board in the case of Lorenzo Nelson v. CSD #1.

Most of you have heard the rumors by now...because some of you told me. I intentionally did not say anything, having not yet seen the decision. I do not do "hearsay". Well...tonight I have a copy of the decision in hand...and, it is true. The IELRB ruled in favor of Lorenzo Nelson...on all counts.

Always the cautious one, that is all I am going to report. The decision gives the parties the right to appeal, so who knows if it is actually over. It should be...the ruling was decisive...again, on ALL counts. Appealing would seem to be a definite exercise in futility...pouring good money after bad. But...as we well know from painful, personal, past experience...from the "bad ol' days"...stranger things have happened. This is a "new era"...so, hope springs eternal!

Anyway, you will know when everything is official...you will literally see the writing on the wall. (If/when the District accepts the findings, they must post a notice for 60 consecutive days of what they will and will not do.)