COUNTRY CLUB HILLS, Ill. (WGN) – School District 160 in Country Club Hills met Tuesday night for the first time this school year amid ongoing problems continuing to plague the district.
The district is now under scrutiny as the Illinois Board of Education issued an audit for the last two fiscal years regarding grant money the district received.
This all comes as parents are continuing to sound to alarm about a wide range of problems.
“It’s still broken. It’s broke, and we can’t send our kids here until it’s fixed. They’re at home right now and they should be here learning,” parent Sequoia Williams said.
Parents had previously threatened not to enroll their child(ren) if Supt. Duane Meighan remained in his position.
The lengthy list of issues includes—in just the last two and a half years—district credit card reports in Meighan’s name, showing hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on high end hotel stays and upscale restaurants.
Reports obtained by WGN-TV show roughly $244,700 in charges to hotels, ranging from the Hilton in New Orleans, The Bellagio in Las Vegas, and the Marriott in Atlanta. Those three charges were for more than $27,800 by themselves.
New board president Sharon Mack recently took the reins from Doss, who has been under scrutiny concerning a Ford F-150 truck, which she allegedly purchased from the district for $500. That money has since been returned to her on May 19 when she relinquished the vehicle.
At Tuesday’s meeting, it was revealed the title of the F-150 truck is not even in the district’s name, but exactly who it’s registered to is unclear at this time.
Meighan was suspended last month for 10 days but remains in his position, and some parents have held good on their promise in keeping their child(ren) at home.
“At the end of the day, he is the super over everything and allowing things to happen. It’s the first day of school. You had all summer to get the kids registered. Nothing is done,” parent Latisha Hearon said. “The kids are not in classes. They don’t have enough teachers, no information. I’ll wait until y’all get it together.”
For parents who did enroll their child(ren), there are concerns about who is at the helm in the classrooms.
“This is the second day of school and my son has no teacher and tells me, ‘I don’t think they were hired yet,'” one parent said.
During Tuesday’s meeting, it was also revealed nearly 600 students are enrolled across the district’s three schools, much less compared to last year’s enrollment total of around 1,000 students.
As of July 23, there were 16 staff vacancies across the three schools in the district, with some of those openings seemingly filled Tuesday night.
The district’s chief financial officer also added eight security guards to help alleviate concerns about safety.
Sources also told WGN-TV the city of Country Club Hills is also taking a closer look at the school district’s finances and plans to host a meeting on that topic on Thursday, Aug. 21.
On a positive note, at least one of the schools has made getting students bus access a priority so that children at Sykuta Elementary can get to and from their classes safely. This comes after parents told WGN-TV not all kids had access to a bus.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
