Southeast Missourian

CAIRO, Ill. -- Cairo teachers were expected to report to their schools today, but not to their classrooms.

After a fruitless emergency meeting between the Cairo Association of Teachers and the school board, the 71 union members decided to go ahead with a planned strike. The group's online newsletter directed members to report to picket lines, because each would change from "educator to union activist." Superintendent Robert Isom canceled classes.

The teachers' contract expired in August after two months of negotiations.

School district officials insist that the district is financially strapped and forced to borrow even to meet payrolls.

But CAT president Ron Newell said he is skeptical of that claim because the Illinois State Board of Education removed Cairo Unit School District No. 1 from its financial watch list this year.

The next step is for a CAT financial expert to sit down with the district's accountant and agree on just how much money the district has, Newell said. That meeting hasn't been scheduled, but until an agreement on the balances is reached, it is impossible to decide on a contract, he said.

Right now, the district is offering a pay and benefits package worth $112,000, according to a press release issued Wednesday by school board attorney Barney R. Mundorf, or an increase of $1,577 per teacher.

Newell said it's misleading to call the offer a raise because the district cut bonuses worth 3.75 percent given last year and also didn't grant some teachers the regular step increases on the salary schedule. In addition, teachers are being asked to pay for their own health insurance, which the district pays now. That would cost about $130 per month for each teacher.

Newell, a math and social studies teacher at Cairo High School, said the union wants regular step increases, restoration of bonuses and for the district to continue paying health insurance. He said the teachers have no choice but to strike.

"We put off the strike before because they said they were going to meet again," he said. "Just because they sat there tonight after pressure from the parents, we don't trust that they are actually going to do anything."

Isom, the superintendent, didn't return phone messages Wednesday.

The district already fired 10 teachers and 17 other district employees in a cost-cutting measure, according to Newell and the press release.

Teachers and the Cairo School District have a turbulent history. CAT went on strike for 24 school days from November 1994 to January 1995 and threatened another strike in 1996.