[il-talk] Follow-up File: Lauderdale to Lead Two Jacksonville Schools

[Bill Reif]

Hello,

This article appeared in the March 20 issue of the Springfield State 
Journal-Register. This is interesting for what it doesn't say.

Cordially,
Bill

Follow-up File: Lauderdale to lead two Jacksonville schools
By CHRIS DETTRO
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER
Posted Mar 20, 2011 @ 10:30 PM
Last update Mar 21, 2011 @ 06:48 AM
JACKSONVILLE — It isn’t on the terms she would have liked, but Marybeth 
Lauderdale
has accepted the position as dual superintendent for both the Illinois 
School for
the Deaf and the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired in Jacksonville.
Lauderdale, who was appointed interim superintendent for both schools 
Sept. 1, said
she accepted the permanent appointment March 2.
Lauderdale, 52, has worked for the Illinois School for the Deaf for more 
than 30
years, including the last five as superintendent. She’s also been a high 
school literature
teacher, as well as media center director and assistant superintendent 
at the school.
Wants a team
The Illinois Department of Human Services, division of Rehabilitation 
Services, which
oversees both schools, offered Lauderdale the dual position at $106,000 
a year, considerably
less than what both former superintendents made at the state-funded schools.
Lauderdale mulled accepting the job, weighing the salary offer and 
proposing an administrative
team that would involve more duties for four current employees, 
including directors
of instruction at each school.
She said she’d wait for those changes.
“Right now it’s set up just like it was,” she said. “The administrative 
team I had
in mind hasn’t materialized. I’m still requesting that.”
‘Balancing act’
For now, Lauderdale is splitting time between the two schools, which are 
about two
miles apart.
“It’s a balancing act,” she said. “We have administrators at both 
schools, and I
have my pager and e-mail.”
She said of more concern right now is the student head count issue.
“With staffing as proposed, we still have to meet our (student/staff) 
ratios,” she
said. “We have the students.”
The School for the Visually Impaired had 52 day students and 48 
residential students
for the 2010-11 school year, while the School for the Deaf had 79 day 
students and
212 residential students.
“I’m trying to work with the 2011 and 2012 budgets,” she said. ISD’s 
fiscal 2011
budget was about $17.1 million; ISVI’s was $8.6 million.
Proposed budgets for the 2012 fiscal year are $18.7 million for ISD and 
$9.4 million
for ISVI, according to the Department of Human Services website.
Copyright 2011 The State Journal-Register. Some rights reserved