Stimulus Monies for Schools

The great pork barrel continues to pump out money (no comment here on how "we" are ever going to pay it back), and a parent in Marengo let me know of stimulus monies expected by the Marengo School District. She was alerted by another parent who spotted a small notice in a school bulletin, announcing a meeting for a Friday at 3:00PM.

Now that's a great time, right? A time when many parents will be available, right? Everyone knows that parents can leave work early to attend a school meeting or just knock off for the whole day on Friday or kick back and leave their kids standing at the schoolhouse curb or let the kids arrive home to an empty, locked house (look out for DCFS, folks! if you are at school, will they report you for not being home to care for your little kids?), so that they can attend and participate in decisions about how their schools will spend this welfare benefit from Washington.

And so that prompted me to wonder whether Woodstock D200 will be holding any public meetings to announce how much it expects to receive and how it will spend those monies.

Will it go for "jobs" (retention of existing teachers (Note: lay-offs have been announced)) or new hires? Or will it go for raises? Or technology? Or supplies? Will it go to Special Education services?

The next (last of the school year?) D200 School Board meeting will be this Tuesday, April 28, 2009, 7:00PM, at Mary Endres Elementary School, 2181 North Seminary Avenue.

Although the calendar indicates that the School Board meets on the second and fourth Tuesday except in summer months and December, no meetings are on the calendar for May or June. Is June a "summer" month? What happened to May meeting dates? If the Board meets in May, the second Tuesday is May 12, and the fourth Tuesday is May 26 (day after Memorial Day).