Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter



CAT Tracks for October 6, 2008
A DISTRICT OUT OF CONTROL

Bet you thought this article would be about Cairo School District Number One...

GOTCHA!

NO! The "district out of control" is the Hoover-Schrum Elementary District 157 in Calumet City, IL...where current Cairo Superintendent of Schools Leotis Swopes spent a year as Assistant Principal/Interim Superintendent in 2006-07.

After reading the articles below (and some others), all I can say is...WOW!

We have experienced five years of relative labor-management peace in Cairo School District Number One - especially during the tenure of Interim Superintendents Sam Harbin, Bill Rogers...and, yes, Leotis Swopes (up until the time he was granted a 3-year contract as Superintendent.)

Unfortunately, recent events and comments raise concern about the future...

Is Cairo School District Number One going to return to its unproductive and destructive past? Will CSD #1 "kick it up a notch" and borrow some pages from District 157's playbook?? Or, will CSD #1 take a DEEP BREATH and move forward in the amicable relationship adhered to during a summer of negotiations for new contracts with its employee unions???

Time will tell!

In the meantime, read about the horrors - the EXPENSIVE horrors - that transpired in District 157 before, during, and after Leotis Swopes' sojourn in Calumet City...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Because of the oft-cited accusation of "editorializing to heighten emotion", let me repeat...I am NOT attributing blame for the "horrors" below to Leotis Swopes. As indicated...District 157 was having problems BEFORE Leotis was hired as Assistant Principal or appointed Interim Superintendent...and the problems continued afterward. Many of the stories - including the charges of racism - cite a clear culprit...Rosemary Hendricks.

These news articles are presented to identify the "culture" from whence he came. Some, when explaining the behavior of a child with reference to the parent, make the observation that "he gets it honest."

Things that make you go "Hmmm..."


From The Times at nwi.com...


D.157 parents, staff questions left unanswered

Dist. 157, former Hoover School principal settle lawsuit

Dist. 157 hires assistant principal for Schrum Memorial School

D.157 superintendent's secretary resigns

D.157 taps interim superintendent

Reorganization attempt fails, melee ensues

Dist. 157 travel revives expense questions

New Hoover, Schrum principals chosen

D.157 fires Schrum Memorial School principal

No shortage of issues, candidates in D.157

Hendricks resigns chief post

D.157, former Schrum principal settle suit



Accidentally ran across this "gossip forum" out of Wilson City, MO...

The School Board Was Warned...


Humorous Footnote: A reader of CAT Tracks sent me an e-mail yesterday, relating a movie they had watched..."The Silence of the Lambs". Something I had never noticed (but until just recently had no reason to notice)..."one of the cities in the movie where they thought the killer was, the man who was "skinning" the girls to make clothes, was Calumet City, IL."

Again...things that make you go "Hmmm..."

Speaking as the former "Head Sheep", I can assure one and all...Cairo "lambs" (a.k.a. CATs) shall not be silent!