Taxpayers Hoppin' Mad Over New Greenville Superintendent

Jeff Strieker had the luck-- or should I say bad luck?-- to take over from Melanie "Big Spender" Allyn as Bond County Community Unit #2 Superintendent. There have been at least five protest letters in the Greenville Advocate about the appointment, with much of the anger stemming from the fact that the school board didn't interview any other candidate for the position besides Strieker AND Strieker doesn't reside in Greenville as all other superintendents have. The president of the United States doesn't live in Mexico, does he? No, but apparently Greenville's superintendent can live in Breese.

And Greenville taxpayers can pay his "reasonable moving expenses" within three years to move him into our town where we have the pleasure of paying him $115,000 a year, one of the best-paid superintendents in the state of Illinois.

You can see why Advocate readers are hoppin' mad.

The school board owes the public an explanation for why, in these economic times, they couldn't see fit to interview even one other candidate for the superintendent's job. Is it really that unimportant that you'd spend less time interviewing for the superintendent's job than you would for a position as a janitor at the high school?

Next post: the Bond County Health Department also outsources its millions in contracting work, to Korte Co. of Highland, as if Korte weren't swimming in greenbacks already.

Greenville's Taxing-and-Spending School Administrators

I found myself agreeing with two letters to the editor in the March 25 edition of The Greenville Advocate. Nona Ennen and Carla Maples both write in to complain about (in Ennen's case) the specifics of the district purchasing the former LPL Financial building for the princely sum of $250,000 and (in the case of Maples) the general fact that the school district seems to have a severe case of the gimmes-- gimme more, gimme better, gimme different, gimme taxes to pay for it.

I agree that the school district has more pressing needs than a brand spanking new office for the superintendent and other administrators. I also think that if a new office was needed, a less expensive solution could have been found than stealing away the LPL Financial building (for a price so high that LPL doesn't even have a building now, they took that price and ran!) Melanie Allyn makes upwards of $100,000 a year, but the vast majority of Greenville-ites do not. In fact, for many people in Greenville, $250,000 would be their salary for five years-- if they're very lucky and make $50,000 a year. For most people in Greenville, that might be 10 or 20 years' worth of salary. Maples points out in her letter that Greenville currently has a high unemployment rate and a low income and our tax dollar stewards-- AKA administrators-- need to therefore monitor their expenditures very carefully, and I concur with her assessment.

Most students in Greenville don't even live in a house that costs $100,000, let alone $250,000. Most teachers don't even break $40,000 or $50,000 even after many years of loyal service to the district. I really have to shake my head at what the school board and administration is doing these days, and I'm glad there are other people in Greenville who have not yet gone off the deep end either and agree that something is wrong with this picture and our tax dollars are being wasted.

We all need to remember this when it comes time to elect the school board-- they did not seek public input on this decision, yet they will ask for a tax raise this year as they do every year. Let's throw 'em out.