That may be...

However, the cornerstone underlying "the restructuring plan" being proposed by the Cairo Board of Education has quietly evaporated...and has NOT been replaced.

At its regular January meeting, the Cairo Board of Education was portraying the closing of Bennett Elementary as a "temporary, one-year fix"...that during this TEMPORARY inconvenience, a new $5 million "state of the art" elementary school would be built to house students from BOTH Emerson and Bennett schools.

Following the regular January meeting of the CSD #1 Financial Oversight Panel (during which a representative of the Illinois State Board of Education made disparaging remarks about District's proposal for a new elementary building), there has been no further talk about a permanent solution. It would appear that the "temporary inconvenience" may become a permanent reality for elementary children in Cairo School District Number One.

Without being catty...

If the underlying problem that is driving this temporary inconvenience/permanent reality is a loss of students...and a resultant loss of state funding based upon the District's student population - 20 students a year at $100,000 per - how smart is it to make the educational system in Cairo WORSE?!

Among educators, there is general agreement that two things are crucial to the successful education of children and addressing the achievement gap between Whites and Blacks/Hispanics:

• Make early childhood education a priority, not an afterthought. Every child should have the opportunity to attend a high-quality preschool.

• Small class size.

The current restructuring plan proposed by Cairo School District officials would:

• Either do away with Cairo's preschool program, reduce Cairo's preschool program, and/or relegate it to a "shanty town" of relocatable buildings out behind the CJSHS building.

• Increase the class size of students currently attending Bennett Elementary by releasing teachers AND relocate older students to a building designed (including restrooms) for small children.

Again, without being catty...

Cairo Junior/Senior High School has been maligned for years...as a "failing school". I have used the pages of CAT Tracks over the years to cite "extenuating circumstances" for that "failure" - not the least of which is the socio-economic conditions in Cairo. It is an ACCEPTED FACT that students living in poverty - black or white or other - are "at risk" (a legal term acknowledging that FACT.) This is NOT a Cairo problem...it is a problem "from sea to shining sea." Cairo's teachers at the junior and senior high are NOT BAD TEACHERS, they are teachers who every morning of every work week "suck it up" and dream the impossible dream, fight the unbeatable foe, and give 100% effort to help Cairo children realize their dreams. And, yes, according to statistics - AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) - they fail. Yet, they struggle on...

However, Bennett Elementary has been the shining beacon...the one Cairo attendance center that has defied the odds - broken the cycle of "failure" - met AYP.

AND...Emerson Elementary, including the existing preschool program, helped get them there! State testing does not begin until 3rd Grade, so no state test is administered at Emerson Elementary. However, it doesn't take a rocket scientists to figure out that students who successfully "test out" at 3rd Grade must have done something right during the preceding years.

In short, Emerson Elementary and Bennett Elementary "ain't broke"...CSD officials should NOT be taking actions to disrupt the most successful program it has going!

Dismantle preschool...erect "shanty towns"...cram older students into a facility designed for younger students...lay off teachers who are working miracles...