The Cairo Financial Oversight Panel held its regular monthly meeting at 4 p.m. on Monday, February 28, 2011 at 4 p.m. in the Board Room at the Central Office. That meeting was followed at 6 p.m. by a BOE-FOP Joint Meeting for the purpose of District planning.

Below are the respective agendas and related documents.

As anticipated, there were NO ANNOUNCEMENTS OR VOTES ON PERSONNEL...except the approval of actions taken last Thursday by the Cairo Board of Education.

Following the documents are a few random comments...

The FOP meeting began at 4 p.m. with all three members present. (Members: Chairman Glenn Webb; Elizabeth Lewin and Manul Goins.) Joining them for this meeting were ISBE Representatives Debbie Vespa and Carl Holman; Cairo BOE Members Brenda Gooden and Vernon Stubblefield: Superintendent Leotis Swopes; Financial Advisers Jim Bales and Lee Rogers; CSD Business Manager Justin Miller.

It was a "routine" meeting with no surprises. A closed session was conducted from 4:04 p.m. to 5:03 p.m. The meeting was recessed at 5:25 p.m. (The FOP did approve the actions taken by the Cairo Board of Education at its Thursday night meeting...including accepting the resignation/retirement of Superintendent Leotis Swopes.)

The Joint Meeting of the Cairo Board of Education and the Cairo Financial Oversight Panel was convened at 6 p.m. All three members of the FOP remained for the evening session. Answering roll call for the Cairo Board of Education were Harris, McBride, Gooden, and Stubblefield (who presided in the absence of Burris.) Arriving later were Coleman at 6:16 p.m. and Brown at 6:21 p.m.

No visitors asked to be recognized.

The agenda for the joint meeting was approved without change.

A motion was made, seconded, and passed to enter closed session at 6:07 p.m. A motion was made, seconded, and passed to exit closed session at 6:45 p.m.

ISBE Representative Debbie Vespa was asked to discuss "facilities". (In the earlier meeting, it was acknowledged that a petition had been submitted by a taxpayer to block the sale of bonds for an addition to Cairo Elementary...that the timing of the submission prevented the measure from being placed on the ballot this Spring...would be Spring 2012 at the earliest.) Ms. Vespa indicated that since the District would not be able to hold a referendum until 2012, it might consider a different direction...to build a separate building for elementary students on the CJSHS site, connected to the "Green Hallway" area by a breezeway, with a separate entrance that would allow for isolating the younger students from the older students.

Ms. Vespa also discussed moving the 6th grade to CJSHS in the coming school year...freeing space for moving the Pre-K classes back to Cairo Elementary.

And, yes, there was talk of closing the Central Office (the old junior high building) again in order to save $50,000 of operating expenses. (And, yes, I'm still agin it. $50,000 out of an $8-9 million budget doesn't sound like a lot to pay for the flexibility that it offers the District...especially after closing Bennett Elementary. But, hey...what do I know? That's why they never paid me the big bucks!) BTW...there was talk of Central Office personnel being relocated in the Green Hallway at CJSHS (like last year) or in the former Superintendent's cottage.

(Other possibilities were discussed, but I couldn't keep up!)

Ms. Vespa concluded her remarks by indicating that Cairo Elementary was still in desperate need of a new boiler...that hopefully it would be acquired under an Energy Efficiency Grant (using plans already drawn up by the District's architect...and already paid for.) The District would have to match the funds at a rate of 50-50. A concern is that the state has only alloted $9 million in such funds for the entire state, that there have been over 300 school districts apply for funds...totaling approximately $65 million. There is some talk that the state may appropriate another $30 million, but with the various budget discussions on-going, it's anybody's guess as to what the final outcome/outlay will be.

The BOE and the FOP then turned to a very brief discussion of the following questions:

I'm sorry...

I failed miserably in keeping up with the comments, although there wasn't much more than what you would deduce from the questions themselves.

The "biggie" seemed to be the financial projections - anticipated deficit spending for the current and next three fiscal years, meaning spending more money than you take in...never a good thing!

Those projections were:

FY11 - $200,000

FY12 - $900,000

FY13 - $1.4 million

FY14 - $1.8 million

That's certainly a "gloom and doom" financial picture and I certainly have no factual basis for disputing those projections.

However...

Those of us in the trenches (especially during negotiation years...like this one) have heard all of this before.

The thing that keeps nagging at me when I hear these annual fiscal forecasts is my knowledge of the Cairo School District Treasurer's Reports since at least 2005.

In 2005, the District had $2.5 million in its account at the First National Bank...but school officials claimed that according to their projections, the District would be broke within 5 years...would have to close its doors.

In each of the five years since, the "going broke/we're broke" tune has never wavered. It was clear..."We're on the eve of destruction"...complete with charts on the wall of the Central Office Board Room.

Now, six year on...

I picked up a copy of the latest Cairo School District Treasurer's last week. With the 2005 balance of $2.5 million in mind, I cast my eyes on the current balance...

$3,782,545.44!

Whassup with that???