.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Proviso Probe

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

D209 has a regular and special meeting on the same night

Proviso Township High Schools (District 209) board of education had a regular and special meeting last night.

The most significant points:

1. The district will borrow from its reserves to meet payroll on Friday. This is necessitated by Gov. Rod Blagojevich vetoing the property tax legislation last week. This delayed the county sending out bills. And the delay sending bills will cause the county to delay paying school districts.
2. During public comment a freshman at Proviso East said she does not feel safe in school. Another woman raised the issue of class sizes.
3. Bill Kirchner of Forest Park pointed to a number of non-educational areas where D209 spends lavishly compared to Morton and New Trier. And then he pointed out that on educational salaries and expenses D209 spends less than these districts.
4. Kevin McDermott of Westchester raised a number of questions about the budget. He pointed to discrepancies between the budget online and the one briefed to the board at the meeting. He pointed-out that the budget has grown 13% a year for the last two years while former superintendent Stan Fields and business manager Nikita Johnson have been crowing about deficit cutting. McDermott also criticized the budget for having large amounts of money under "other".
5. Barbara Cole of Maywood questioned the move to dismiss the foundation. She alleged the board ended the foundation project b/c the people working on it were insufficiently loyal (in a political sense) to the board of education. Cole also expressed a preference that the district conduct a nation-wide search for a new superintendent.
6. Robert Libka was given a one-year contract for $160,000 to be superintendent.
7. I raised the issue of the president of the board of education, Emanuel "Chris" Welch, dating the business manager, Nikita Johnson. I said this was relevant to the budget because Welch is approving his girlfriends (fiance's?) budget.

[UPDATE: Forest Park Review (Josh Adams) has his coverage.]

Labels: , , , , , , ,

10 Comments:

  • Conflict of interest? Who Chris? Discrepancies between the online budget and the actual? Whhhhhat? In Proviso? Why are you so surprized at anything those crooks do? Rape, pillage, plunder is the order of the day and all in the name of the lord.

    Amen

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:04 PM, September 25, 2007  

  • Did board president Chris Welch ever answer the question regarding his improper intimate relationship with his business manager Nikita Johnson?

    I heard it's all the buzz around the teachers lounge.

    We should bet...who's going to be escorted out in handcuffs first by the feds...Nikita Johnson or Chris Welch.

    I'm going with the under dog on this one, so my money is on Nikita Johnson!

    Any takers?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:52 PM, September 26, 2007  

  • Welch will not answer that question because they are getting married in December 2007. They have been engaged since July of this year. Welch is using Nikita and her aunt. My money is on Nikita. Welch realizes when he marries Nikita she is exempt from testifying against him in court once the feds indict him.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:29 PM, September 26, 2007  

  • Thanks for this very informative post -- it was a good addition to the report written by Josh Adams of the Review.

    By Blogger chris miller, at 9:21 PM, September 26, 2007  

  • Carl can you help with finding out what can be done about the intimate relationship between Welch and Johnson. I understand that they are both consenting adults, BUT HE IS THE BOARD PRESIDENT AND SHE IS THE BUSINESS MANAGER! HOW TACKY?

    Chris Welch is now conviently dating the business manager. If I recall, Welch was openingly dating an SRO officer that worked at West, then when Johnson was hired as business manager he jumped ship. Why now does he date her when he had many opportunities to form a relationship with her before her employment at Proviso.

    Stevie Wonder can see through Welch's plan! But is Johnson really this naive?

    Johnson needs to watch her man, because he has eyes that wonder! Get my drift?

    By Blogger till_death_do_us_part, at 10:34 PM, September 26, 2007  

  • I may be wrong, but wouldn't D209 have had to borrow to make payroll even if the tax bills went out on time?
    Property tax bills would normally be mailed in early September and be due October 1st. That means D209 wouldn't have seen any property tax revenue until what, late October or so at the earliest under normal circumstances.
    My point is, even if the tax bills went out on time D209 wouldn't have seen the revenue by September 28th.
    So the real story should be, D209 is too broke to make payroll, not that it couldn't make payroll because of the governor.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:56 AM, September 28, 2007  

  • Johnson and Welch were already "secretly" dating well before she became Proviso's Business Manager. I heard she has now been crowned the new Assistant Superintendent. Has Proviso ever had an Assistant Superintendent?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:30 PM, September 28, 2007  

  • Chris doesn't date; he uses. Nikita is an asswipe and will be flushed down the toilet.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:46 PM, September 28, 2007  

  • give me an "a": you couldn't be more right! In Chris Welch's mind, women and people in general, especially women, are amusement and disposable. Welch is very sick.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:57 PM, September 29, 2007  

  • I would like to extend a congratulations to Ronald "RC" Anderson.

    Hmmmmm...how much coke will $75,000.00 buy?

    And dosen't "Real Coke" have a felony? Let me guess...no background check.

    We should all be proud!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:42 PM, October 04, 2007  

Post a Comment

<< Home