VIDEO: Lee says Quincy getting great "bang for the buck" with School District

4 months, 3 weeks ago by Bob Gough

Interim superintendent provides overview as he prepares to depart

As Cal Lee wraps up his 100 days as the Quincy Public School District's interim superintendent, he gave the Quincy School Board an assessment of where the district is. 

During Wednesday night's School Board meeting, Lee gave about a 25 minute presentation where he talked about the district doing a good job with limited resources.

Lee said Quincy spends $2,000 less per student than the state average and  has one of the lowest tax rates in the state along with teacher salaries that are $20,000 a year less than the rest of the state and administrator salaries that are $18,000 less than the rest of the state.

He suggested the District develop a long-range strategic plan that includes looking at restructuring the schools, including moving 9th grade out to Quincy High School and converting the elementary schools from K-3's to K-5's.

Lee said while 70 percent of the community has no direct ties to the school district, meaning they don't have children or grandchildren in the district, the district must encourage community involvement and be transparent in its actions.

In order to sustain that, Lee said the School Board must provide leadership and develop alternative sources of revenues with a referendum being the last resort.

Lee's last day as interim superintendent is January 31. The School Board has yet to select its next interim.

Click here to follow Lee's slide show presentation.

In other action, the Board voted to give the food and non-food line item contracts to Kohl Wholesale and Fox River Foods. Bimbo Bakeries won the bread contract to provide Sara Lee bread products.

And the District's wireless upgrade is in progress. Business Manager Joel Murphy said the pilot project would be implemented at the high school and the board office by mid-February with a goal of full implementation by the start of the 2013-2014 school year.