Paris, Ill. (ECWd) –
During a Special Meeting of the Paris Union School District 95, the board of education voted unanimously (with one abstention) to hire retired Paris (Crestwood) School District Superintendent, Lorraine Bailey, as the temporary superintendent for D-95 until the grant funding issues have been settled or corrected.
In other issues, the district obtained an extension until July 15, 2023, to submit their plan to deal with the audit results.
The Superintendent Larson and Sally Keller are both on paid administrative leave.
The Board President read a prepared statement and told the attending public that there are no actual monies missing.
I voiced my displeasure, during public comment, of the district’s decision to not release the entire federal subpoena and urged them to reconsider.
Watch the meeting video below – meeting starts at the 6:55 mark, and comes out of closed session at the 42:40 mark.
2 Comments
Ms Concerned
Posted at 19:38h, 26 JuneI’ve been watching this. Everything this guy did should be investigated. So glad a non employee was appointed to this temp position. To have temporarily or Permanently placed anyone under his immediate regimen in this position would have been another extension of the board turning a blind eye. Shame on the board for the lack of oversight that the public placed in their trust and the horribly weak and ineffective union for not protecting your teachers.. The district will suffer…….those who benefitted from him taking care of his friends and special colleagues will or should be tainted…..but the biggest travesty is the effect it will have on the students. Hoping for some competency to see this issue through to a resolution that will still care for the coveted education of our children. More than one or two heads should roll over this and the citizens of Paris should be thinking about who not to vote for in the next several board elections. Finally……where were or are the news articles that should have been reporting on this all along? I’m not sure if there is cover up going on here or just gross stupidity!
Curious City
Posted at 22:31h, 26 JuneHow quickly we forget that Lorraine Bailey is wife to Beetle Bailey who is a Dist 95 board member (the one who abstained after the crowd muttered about conflict of interest), she was also appointed in a shared Co-Principle position at PHS and worked with Dr. Larson during that time. More importantly, Mrs. Bailey, sadly, is dealing with some pretty serious health issues and makes it a concern that she will be up for the task physically, mentally and emotionally. Top it off she has no experience in cleaning up a mess of this magnitude much less dealing with grants of this size or number of grants. Many thought Connie Sutton should have been tapped for this position, it would not be her first time dealing with cleaning up a mess that the Board allowed the District to get itself into for it’s lack of oversight, especially with the fact that all but 2 current members of the board would be well aware of this situation since 2019 and every year since as they are apprised of the Audit results by the CPA in an open Board meeting once they are completed by the auditor as is required by law. So it would appear that your final sentence would be a combination of BOTH cover up and gross stupidity. Perhaps hiring the most qualified, instead of cherry picking, would have also saved them a ton of trouble by hiring someone capable and knowledgeable regarding Book-keeping, Grants, Grant Coding, Legers, etc. ALL applicants to such a position should be presented to the Board for selection, instead of limiting the selection, allow the Board to do what it is elected to do!