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CAT Tracks for February 16, 2010
BOE MEMBER ARRESTED |
I'm sorry...that was mean.
This is a story about a member of the DONGOLA Board of Education...not Cairo.
Hey, maybe it's an omen...a preview of coming distractions.
Received notice yesterday that the Cairo Financial Oversight Panel has rescheduled its regular monthly meeting...changing it from next Monday to this Friday, February 19, 2010, at 10:45 a.m.
No, I don't expect anybody to get arrested at the FOP meeting...they are extremely quiet and orderly proceedings.
However...
While posting the FOP meeting change on the CAT Calendar, I noticed my notation about this week's regular meeting of the Cairo Board of Education...
That's a meeting that has "potential".
IF parents show up...and IF the Board of Education does not take proactive steps to change the meeting site to a larger room, tempers could definitely flare.
Dongola...
Who woulda thunkit?
From the Southern Illinoisan...
Dongola school board member arrested after dispute
By Tom Barker, The Southern
DONGOLA - A Dongola school board member was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct Friday evening after an argument with officials in the school superintendent's office.
Bob Layman, Dongola resident and member of the school board, said he was handcuffed by Union County Sheriff's deputies at his home Friday, after returning from the Dongola School District 66 office, where he and Dongola resident Carol Hanson entered into an argument with the superintendent's secretary, Wanda Snell. He claims he did nothing to justify an arrest.
Layman said Hanson had requested information from the district through the Freedom of Information Act and her requests were denied, prompting Layman to question Snell as to why.
"I'm not sure what precipitated it," Layman said. "I told her I thought she was wrong, and she said she didn't have to give her anything."
Layman and Snell argued over Freedom of Information Act laws, and Snell filed a complaint with the sheriff's office shortly after he left, said Superintendent Brett Gayer.
"Basically, he was out of order," Gayer said. "They're only school board members when they're at the board table, and at that particular time, he was not there as a school board member."
No official information on the arrest was available from the Union County Sheriff's Office on Monday, but Layman said a complaint with five signatures was filed against him. He also said he posted $75 bail to be released and is scheduled to appear in court March 9.
Despite the claims against him, Layman said he did nothing to intimidate anyone at the school district office.
"I would hope the charge will be dropped and the record be expunged," he said, "but that's a process that you have to go through."
February 18th - Regular CSD #1 BOE Meeting - 6:00 p.m. - Central Office Board Room (Superintendent Swopes announced on WPSD TV Channel 6 on February 3rd that the closing of Bennett Elementary school and the relocation of its students would be a topic of discussion.)
