Local: Cahill is toast
Posted in Local with tags Add new tag, Cahill, District 150 on February 13, 2009 by Billy DennisOn Tuesday, full-time journalists and bloggers in Peoria started getting calls and emails from folks tipping them off to the fact that Guy Cahill, Peoria School District 150’s hot-shot, hired-gun treasurer, had been fired. I’ll leave it to others to relate the details, because almost all of what I know I received second-hand from several bloggers and journalists who spent Tuesday trying to track the story down. And yes, this was the story I thought WEEK had all but nailed down when I asked readers to watch the news that night.
I would have printed it Tuesday, but had an ethical obligation to my source not to. The mainstream media held it because no official source would confirm it. But today the Journal Star’s Dave Haney has the story, based on anonymous sources from within the district, apparently.
The article was effusive in it’s praise of Cahill’s fiscal genius. My opinion of him was that he played games with numbers, essentially giving the board the numbers it needed to hear to justify the actions the administration and some board members wanted to take (moving Glen Oak School to the park and gutting the school day for grade schoolers) . I thought the board deferred to him far too often.
But things change. The information I am hearing suggests this departure is much more the board’s idea than Cahill’s.
Perhaps this is a coincidence, but the departure comes very shortly after the board put together a panel of experts to go over their budget. Did the process of gathering the panel expose the board to opinions of Cahill that were less than effusive with praise?
Peoria Blogger Emerge Peoria is engaging in some interesting commentary with a member of this panel. It’s a good read, and perhaps indicating that this panel is going to operate transparently. Feel free to go visit and show her some leave and a comment or two.
