This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, June 21, 2012 - The Illinois State Board of Education took action Thursday that its chairman said he hopes is not just a change in the board of East St. Louis District 189 but a “sea change” in the long-troubled schools.
By voting unanimously to authorize Christopher Koch, the state superintendent of education, to direct the St. Clair County regional superintendent to remove members of the District 189 school board, the state took an unprecedented step in trying to turn around a local district.
“We are putting the students of East St. Louis first,” Koch said, “and for too long that has not been the priority in this district. With the help of this new independent authority, we will work tirelessly to prepare the nearly 7,000 students in this district for success in college and careers.”
The vote also means that Koch’s office will name a five-member independent authority to run the district’s affairs and improve its operations and students achievement. Koch also was directed to come up with ways to measure the district’s progress so that the schools could eventually return to the control of a locally elected board.
Update begins here:
But the ouster may not stick.
On Friday, five members of the District 189 board -- President Lonzo Greenwood, Vice President LaVondia Neely, George Mitchom, Victoria Clay and Kinnis Williams -- filed suit in St. Clair County Circuit Court, challenging the move by the state board of education.
The Post-Dispatch reported that a judge issued a temporary restraining order against the ouster, setting a hearing for July 2.
The five plaintiffs sought an injunction against their ouster, claiming that the vote to remove them was unconstitutional. They said District 189 was being singled out even though more than 100 other Illinois districts meet the criteria cited in the case of East St. Louis.
Board members Carl Officer and Irma Golliday were not parties to the suit filed Friday.
End update
Before the state board vote, Chairman Gery J. Chico said he hoped the new governance would mark a new era for District 189.
“I hope we will not just make this a board change but make this a sea change,” Chico said. “We want to make something happen that will improve things for children.
“I view this as part of a sequence of actions to bring about improved academic achievement for children. If we don’t do this, we won’t have the landscape that we need for change.”
He added:
“I am confident that we’ve made the right decision as we move forward to provide a better education for the students of East St. Louis. We hope to move forward with meaningful reform that will eventually allow this district to stand alone again with a locally elected school board at the helm.”
Officer, the former mayor of East St. Louis, holds out little hope that the state board vote will result in any lasting change. And he said that having a state-appointed board may change who is in power but it won’t do much else.
“This is nothing but a power play to get the money in the district,” Officer said. “This is about you get to hire the employees and run the district or you get someone else do it.
“The state superintendent is a pawn. They are using him to go after the money.”
Officer, who has been on the District 189 board since 2009, said the issue of low test scores is a smokescreen because dozens of school districts around Illinois have academic achievement similar to that in East St. Louis but the state board hasn’t taken similar action against them.
“It’s all about money and power,” he said. “You don’t see them going after Chicago, do you?”
Officer, who had earlier said that he wouldn’t contest a move to oust the board members, said Thursday that he didn’t think the state had the legal authority to remove him and his elected colleagues unless they had committed a crime. And he says he expects the district's attorney to go to court to challenge the state action.
In all this maneuvering, he added, “The losers are the taxpayers and the students.”
Thursday’s vote was the culmination of months – even years – of back and forth between District 189 and state school officials.
When the state entered into its agreement with the district in May 2011, Koch noted the long history of subpar academic achievement by students in East St. Louis. But finances have played an equal role in the state’s interest in straightening out problems there.
Between 1994 and 2004, a state financial oversight panel kept track of how District 189 spent its money; when it went out of business, the district had moved from a chronic deficit to a balanced budget and a small cash cushion.
That situation didn’t last long. Koch noted last year that in the 2010 fiscal year, administrative costs for East St. Louis schools made up 8.7 percent of its budget, compared with a 3.5 percent statewide average; judged against other districts of similar size, District 189 had the highest percentage of administrative costs.
In 2011, only 60 percent of students in District 189 met or exceeded standards as measured under the federal No Child Left Behind law. The district’s failure to meet standards for nine years under federal law triggered the state’s intervention. Details of the district’s academic performance can be found here .
In addition, last month, the State Board named a five-member Financial Oversight Panel for at least three years to improve financial stability.
And when he first wrote the district about the agreement with the state – and the consequences if the district’s board did not accept it – Koch made not secret of the possible outcome of any such showdown, the outcome that was voted Thursday.
"The district board must realize,” he wrote, “that the alternative may include their removal."
After voting to oust the East St. Louis school board, the state board voted unanimously to take the same action against the board in the North Chicago school district, citing similar issues and concerns.