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CAT Tracks for July 13, 2011
IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR |
As you will recall, that was the tune sung by Cairo School District Number One Business Manager Justin Miller to the Board of Education at its regular meeting on June 16, 2011. (See minutes.)
The gist of the evening serenade was that the self-described (self-proclaimed?) "broke" school district ended up "in the black" to the tune of over $700,000.
Now, less than a month later, comes an article on the front page of The Cairo Citizen (July 7, 2011 edition):
CSD #1 will get $$790,146...
...while its neighbors receive significantly lesser amounts:
- Century - $166,917
- Egyptian - $480,259
- Meridian - $540,557
Sounds like a pretty damned good year in the offing to me!
Now, I could go on and on and on...
...a rant roiling in my CAT gut.
However...
Two things cause me to bite my catty tongue:
- I don't have all the facts at my fingertips. I mean, what did CSD #1 receive last year in Title I funds? Hell, for all I know, they may have received more! What did our neighbors receive last year? From the amounts they received, Century, Egyptian, and Meridian must be much smaller (richer?) school districts than CSD #1, the self-scribed (self-proclaimed?) Incredibly Shrinking School District. I mean, Title I is a federal program intended to help "level the playing field", to alleviate the effects of poverty...and one would assume the amount of the award is dependent upon student enrollment. (BTW, that dripping you heard in the background when I described our neighbors as smaller/richer was sarcasm...NOT blood from my severely bitten but bandaged tongue.)
- But, far more importantly, the reason I will end this missive abruptly...there is no point, there is no hope.
Cairo School District Number One officials will sing their favorite and familiar tunes of "WOLF!" and "The sky is falling!"...while continuing their eat, drink, and go golfing merry ways. They will continue to cut programs, cut staff, and build, build, build their savings account at the First National Bank. ($3,834,632.11 at the end of May, 2011.)
We, the People...the residents of Cairo School District Number One who pay the local property taxes (to finance and house their Chicago-based Superintendent of Schools) must be content and are left to wonder...especially since one can't hear what the powers that be say at their mumbling excuse for "public" meetings.
I'm sorry...damned cattiness will out!
Let's try that closing paragraph, one more time...
We, the People...the residents of Cairo School District Number One who pay the local property taxes must be content and are left to wonder..."Will it ever end?"
