 |
CAT Tracks for November 17, 2009
ROBBERS ALL |
On a day that the Cairo Financial Oversight Panel held a Special Meeting "off site" - Room 219 of the Wham Education Building on the campus of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois - the President of the Cairo Association of Teachers received the latest "bill listing" (aka "Open Accounts Payable List") for Cairo School District Number One.
The agenda for the Cairo Financial Oversight Panel indicated that the meeting was for the purpose of discussing the "District's Finances" and to make plans for the future - citing "personnel and employment", "collective bargaining", and "litigation" for special attention.
No CAT representative attended the meeting since it was clear from the agenda that this "Special Meeting" was a CLOSED MEETING. (The fact that the meeting was held 60 miles from Cairo rather than IN Cairo may or may not have been significant.)
The predictable outcome of this meeting will be more forecasts of gloom and doom - the end of the world by 2012. (Oops, that's the movie currently playing at your local cinema). No, make that the end of Cairo School District Number One by 2012. (In fact, THAT prediction was made by the Cairo BOE during last year's contract negotiations with the CAT. (Actually, the prediction may have been 2014...I don't recall and I don't plan to look it up. What's a year or two in the grand plan for pending demise.)
It would simply be another year or two that Cairo School District Number One chooses to pay lawyers instead of the people who provide educational services to the students. (Hell, teachers were lucky in "getting stiffed" by Cairo School District officials...they only had to twist in the wind for a year without a contract. The noncertified employees of the District - custodians, maintenance personnel, secretaries, teachers' aides - are STILL working without contracts...contracts which expired on June 30th, 2008 - sixteen months and counting!)
Okay, have I sufficiently heightened emotion?
If not, stay tuned...it's time to talk "litigation".
Again, since no CAT made it into the distant sanctum, we shall have to speculate on what the FOP "discussed" about litigation...
Did they spend their time doing the math...how many dollars they would have to subtract from educational employees in order to satisfy the coffers of the District's attorneys?
Did they spend their time discussing strategy...what new argument the District's attorneys are going to use to justify the actions that led CSD #1 to be sued? I mean, a new month is approaching...time for another excuse. (During the past four years, they have yet to top their original excuse...that they looked into their crystal ball and made a decision in May 2005 based on what would happen a month or two later. THAT was a good one!)
Did they spend their time selecting a new "victim"? I say that because the victims of their lawsuits are NOT people who do anything wrong...they are people who were performing the tasks for which they were hired to the satisfaction of their immediate supervisors and to the admiration of their fellow educators.
Awwww, hell...
Maybe they just spent their time working the calculators...trying to determine an appropriate "holiday bonus" to give to Robbins, Schwartz, Nicholas, Lifton & Taylor, Ltd. (If you have ever struggled in a restaurant trying to determine the tip, then you certainly have empathy for the Cairo BOE and FOP. Your bill was probably less than $100...only TWO figures. The Cairo BOE and FOP are having to deal with SIX FIGURES!)
Okay, okay...enough teasing. It's time to get to the main event!
Below is Page 13 of the aforementioned "bill listing" for Cairo School District Number One...the listing that the Cairo BOE will approved at tonight's (November 17th) meeting.
Pertinent to the above "rant" is the second vendor on the page..."ROBBINS SCHWARTZ NICHOLAS" and the provided description..."BOE ATTORNEY 9/09".
Can I get a Cha-Ching?
Don't know this for a fact, but I would dare say that the entire $14,585.39 was spent to keep James Gibson from working. (Okay, okay...the money was actually spent to defend the District against "allegations" by James Gibson and CAT that the District violated various laws in their treatment of him during the 2005-2006 school year...and beyond! Bottom line...instead of paying James Gibson maybe $4,585.39 in salary and benefits to help educate the students of Cairo School District Number One in September, 2009, the District chose instead to pay Robbins et al $14,585.39 for...well, NOTHING...at least nothing that directly benefited one Cairo child.)
Outrageous?
I think so...
In fact, I'd say it's a crime!
That is why from this day forward, I shall refrain from typing out "Robbins, Schwartz, Nicholas, Lifton & Taylor, Ltd." I shall not even afford them the respect of my oft used "Robbins et al". Nope, from this moment on, I shall use the more appropriate descriptor..."Robbers All".
Yes, the esteemed "Chicago Lawyers" are robbing the District blind...which should be surprising since Cairo has benefit of an "oversight" panel, a second set of eyes, if you will. Yet, month after month, the BOE (with the apparent blessing of the FOP) allows the bleeding to continue...
By the way, the law firm formerly known as "Robbins, Schwartz, Nicholas, Lifton & Taylor, Ltd." has company. The District employs another legal firm - Tueth, Keeney, Cooper, Mohan & Jackstadt, P.C. - to do its negotiations. As you can see below, their latest billing was only "chump change"...
Yep, a measly $699.00.
Of course, with the District dragging its collective heels in the matter of negotiating with its employees, it's difficult for the "negotiating lawyers" to rack up suitable billable hours. No negotiations, NO CHA-CHING!
Oh...don't want to leave anybody out. The District occasionally uses another lawyer, whose name eludes me now. He gets a couple hundred bucks ever so often. He probably deals with the normal "legal work" of the District...you know, the kinds of problems that NORMAL school districts deal with.
From this moment forth, I shall NOT DISCRIMINATE...ROBBERS, ONE AND ALL!
Saving the best for last...
If your heightened emotion is flagging...if the sight of so much "blood" has overwhelmed you, dulled your sensitivity...let me perk you up a bit!
Go back and look at "Exhibit A"...the $14,585,39 billing. Did you note the "fine print"...the time period for this billing? It was for "9/09"...the month of SEPTEMBER!
You don't live with this every day like James Gibson (and to a lesser degree, myself.) You have no reason to pay attention to detail.
SEPTEMBER...
Folks, the two-day hearing on the ULPs filed by James Gibson and CAT was on October 27th & 28th...OCTOBER!
If the District...
Strike that!
SINCE the District spent $14,585.39 in SEPTEMBER "getting ready" for the James Gibson/CAT hearing, would you like to venture a guess as to what the District spent in OCTOBER "getting ready" AND actually "holding the hearing" at the Carbondale Hampton Inn...to include lodging and meals for the Superintendent and the Robbers All?!
Stay tuned...
On another topic...
Superintendent and BOE Members on the go!
Before I go further...
I'm about to post some other items from the "bill listing" for this month...mileage and meals for conferences to be attended this week by District officials.
It would be petty to begrudge the Cairo BOE Members their annual trip to Chicago for the Joint Conference of Illinois Association of School Officials (IASBO). Cairo BOE Members do NOT get paid for serving AND they should receive appropriate professional development. (Ouch...a double "bite" my catty tongue experience! Ooooh, what I almost said!!!)
I post the following expenses for two reasons...
- TEACHERS often go through hell trying to get approved for professional development. They are forced to "bunk together"...they are forced to "carpool"...they are harassed about meal money. Yet, when the members of the Cairo Board of Education take off on their jaunts, they do it separately!
- Two cars and one train for three BOE members to go to Chicago. I will "assume" separate rooms. (If you can't ride together, well, you certainly can't stay together!)
- Four cars for three BOE members and one Superintendent to go to Indianapolis, Indiana to attend the annual conference of the National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE).
- Two cars and one train for three BOE members to go to Chicago. I will "assume" separate rooms. (If you can't ride together, well, you certainly can't stay together!)
- For the second year in a row (guess that makes it "annual"), Cairo Superintendent of Schools chose NOT to go to the annual educators conference in his "home town" of Chicago (where he could "sleep for free"), mingle with educators of all persuasions, explore problems common to ILLINOIS school districts. INSTEAD, Superintendent Swopes chose to go to Indianapolis this year...to yet another black educators' conference. (Last year, it was Hotlanta.) Last year, Superintendent Swopes took ONE Board member with him; this year it's THREE! (Damn...next year, Cairo may totally boycott the Illinois Conference...opting for parts unknown!)
Okay, enough is enough.
Below are the individual billings. They were alphabetized by first name in the bill listing...
It should be noted...
The above expenses do NOT include lodging and registration. If you think that they are paying for their own hotel rooms and registration, well...
Never mind!
