PEORIA, IL - The Peoria District 150 School Board heard only three members of the public comment on Oct. 28 at its committee of the whole meeting, where comments are limited to two minutes at the end of the meeting.
Thankfully, the meeting was less than an hour.
Activist Terry Knapp warned of credit card abuse by a school administrator from North Carolina in Supt. Lathan's hometown, and passed out copies of newspaper articles. The Emerge Peoria blog has published this information, on Oct. 23.
Other parallels from North Carolina include rewarding staff members with free meals, Knapp said, a pattern that Lathan has followed, charging the food on her card.
He questioned why there was no paper trail on what $50 gift cards, bought on e credit cards, have been used for, and reminded the board that sales taxes were unnecessarily paid on some credit card purchases.
The credit cards are also called p-cards, as in North Carolina. Lathan requested the card use shortly after she took her post with District 150, and the board approved it, activist Sharon Crews told the board in her comments.
She also questioned the district's lack of competitive bidding, after researching the bids. See her comments, below, in writing.
Board president Rick Cloyd verbally clashed with Sevino Sierra, the third activist to comment. The Peoria Journal Star described this incident.
Here is a recording of the comments.
--Elaine Hopkins
Comments from Sharon Crews:
Someone on a blog recently wrote “Sharon talks; the board yawns. I don’t offend easily, so I have kept trying to be heard. Tonight’s agenda seems to indicate that you may have heard our complaints about contracts for which bids were not offered in the past.
I have gone through all the minutes for the last three years and copied all the contract data from the consent agendas. I have given you a copy of three categories of contracts.
My findings are that only four—only four—contracts in three years show any competitive bids.
Seven other contracts used the word “bid” in the explanation but there was no evidence of competitive bids. Feel free to offer proof to the contrary.
I have, also, included the descriptions of 40 other contracts for which there are dollar amounts but no competitive bids.
For the majority of contracts the public was kept in the dark as to how much was spent on each.
I am very afraid that the Education Fund’s purpose is not being respected. Much misuse, I believe, is due to the overspending done on the superintendent’s p-card. I was amazed to learn that you made the p-card decision as early as August 23, 2010. Talk about blind trust.
Please consider that lawyers do not have to be consulted about every FOIA, administrators and principals do not have to eat every time they meet, and so much travel does not produce comparable educational results.
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