Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for May 11, 1998 Odds & Ends - As in End of the Year!

Day 14 of the strike with no end in sight...

Oops...I dozed off for a second and had a horrible nightmare!!! Let's try that again...

Only 14 days of school left with the end very much in sight...

There, that's MUCH better!

Fortunately, we have only mundane "end of the year" type stuff to discuss:

• May 15th-- THIS FRIDAY --is the deadline for requesting all of your "summer money" in one lump sum. This request must be made in writing to the Superintendent. (See Section 4.3 of the Contract.) A lottery will be used IF there are more than 15 such requests.

• The new term life insurance provision has been implemented. As of April 1st, each employee of Cairo School District Number One is covered for $20,000. By now you have probably received a letter notifying you of the agent's intent to contact you. This is because each of you has the option of purchasing-- at your expense--insurance for your spouse and/or children.

• All participating employees in the District's Golden Rule Health Insurance program should have received a refund check on April 30th for $72.08. You should also make sure that you are now only paying $0.46 per check for said coverage--this is half of the $0.92 that we are required to pay for life insurance coverage each month. (Family coverage and/or dental insurance would be in addition to this amount.)

• The Cairo Board of Education is getting serious about its search for a new superintendent. After developing search criteria based upon the surveys of employees and public, the Board has scheduled four special meetings this week--May 11th, 13th, 14th, and 15th--to interview candidates for the position.

• And in the "last but not least" category...it is again time for the election of officers for the 1998-99 School Year. Current officers are Ron Newell (President), Deborah Hammel (Vice President), Ledora Beard (Treasurer), and Karla Patton (Secretary). If you would be interested in running for one of these offices, please notify one of the above by Friday of this week. Ballots will be prepared and the election will be held on Tuesday, May 26, 1998.

In what may well be the final CAT Tracks of the year, I would like to wish all of you a very pleasant summer. The past few years have been filled with stress--the "normal" stress of our educational duties, compounded by labor/management conflict and negotiations. Our jobs will certainly not be easy in the coming years. However, a Contractual Agreement good until the year 2001 will now allow us to focus on what we were hired to do--educate the children of Cairo School District Number One.

Now THERE is "a significant difference"!