Anthony Cole is known in Chicagoland as a real estate broker. His other aspects of life as an educationist and accountant are not known to many until recently when he emerged as District 144 school’s board president. He spoke to our editor, Joseph Omoremi on his vision for the troubled district and how he has restored financial discipline into the schools as well as lift the district from financial and academic watch lists.
Excerpts:
Inquirer: Congratulations on your election as the board president. How has the school district being faring since your election?
Cole: Well, thank you. I won the election on April 1, 2003. It was my re-election into the board. I’ve been a school board member for the past four years before my recent re-election and things are shaping up for the district. Inquirer: So the economy is not biting your district like neighboring districts going under? Cole: We are operating under the same economy. However, most of the people on the board in the past were not particularly doing what was expected of them. So I recruited four or five people among them to run with me and we won the election. Now we have a controlling board and were sworn in on April 7, 2003. I’m now the board president of public school district 144.
Inquirer: What is the student’s population of the district?
Cole: I have eight schools in my district. They are located in four different cities, Country Club Hills, Hazel Crest, Markham and Oak Forest. In the eight schools, which are elementary schools, I have about 3,800 students.
Inquirer: Around the time you were elected, there were news reports that some neighboring schools were undergoing financial crises?
Cole: Yes. It is not my school, the district is located in Hazel Crest and that is why I called Hazel Crest but the district is 152 and half. In fact at the time of their trouble, they want us to absorb them. However, as the chair of the financial committee then, I decided against such move bearing in mind our financial statement and financial position, it will not be easy for us to absorb the schools. Our financial situation is not that great at that time.
Inquirer: What did your district see that the troubled neighboring school district did not see before they landed in financial crises? Cole: All the schools, about 50 to 60 schools in the state of Illinois are having trouble because of the funding system. The funding of schools in Illinois is based on property tax and the house in each of the communities differs. An average house in Harvey is about $60,000 whereas an average house in Wilmette is between $500,000-$600,000.
And when you base school funding on property tax, you find out there is a great disparity in funding of education. While some districts can afford to build new buildings and buy every book, computers and other facilities needed, the other schools are struggling. And the schools are competing for the same teachers and good teachers will go to where they can pay better.
Inquirer: The former Gov. George Ryan promised to increase or change the school funding?
Cole: That is what the politicians say during election. Besides, when they started the lottery, they said the money realized would be used for funding of schools. Are they doing that today? No they are not. In fact, they are funding only about 23 percent of the school funds. It is this big disparity that is causing problems among many schools. In my district alone, the transportation deficit is about $2 million.
The government does not re-imbuse the whole amount we spend on transporting the children to school every year.
Inquirer: Despite all these limitations, why is your district not going underground like neighboring districts?
Cole: It is true that we are not Harvey, we are not Wilmette either. We are not Homewood/Flossmoor where you can see houses in the $2 million range. Yet, there is a big disparity competing with these affluent neighborhoods in giving our children quality education. It depends on how you manage the money.
Inquirer: Is that the difference?
Cole: Yes. How we manage the money separates us from the neighboring districts. Inquirer: Can you expatiate on that? Cole: I was the chairman of the finance committee before I became the president. However, I discovered that the board members never had inventory of all the assets of the schools since the schools were created. They don’t know the fixed assets of the schools. That was my first accomplishment. I insisted and emphatically stressed that we must have inventory of all our schools to know what we have, be it computer, books and everything. I gave them an example that supposing there is fire, how do you determine the cost of materials or assets lost.
Inquirer: What difference did that make in getting you out of financial troubles?
Cole: A lot. You see, as an accountant when you don’t have inventory, you cannot adequately prepare your financial statement. Your fixed asset is part of your financial statement and if you don’t have your fixed asset, there is no way you can take depreciation.
All the financial statements they’ve been preparing before the inventory did not reflect the true financial position of the district. Inquirer: Was that part of the reasons why the other recruited board members elected you as the president? Cole: Most of these people were president of the Parent Teachers Association (PTA) and they’ve been attending meetings and know my positions.
They know that I’m a true advocate for change and they know that I’m truly concerned about the welfare and the excellent education of the children. So when I told them that I would like them to run with me on my ticket, they were willing to ride with me especially when the previous board members were not doing their jobs.
Inquirer: What have you been doing since you became the president?
Cole: Believe me, sometimes not until when you are in the position to see the whole picture, you don’t know what you are getting into. As a board member, I only saw little problems but now that I’m the president, I saw the total picture, it is enormous. I have to oversee everything; I have to set the agenda and the goals and how it has to be accomplished. When we were sworn in on April 7, this year, our school was on financial watch list. Three of our schools were on academic watch list. That was the first problem. I told the community that in my first year as the president, I’m going to remove the schools from these watch lists. These are the things I’m doing now.
Inquirer: How are you faring in that regard?
Cole: Well. I’ve started to change some of the policies and procedures. I looked at some of my newly elected board members and appointed them to the areas of their competence. They’ve been submitting reports on their finding and what we need to do to make the situation better. In the past, there is an exam for every student in the state for elementary student called ISAT. The past administration did not align the teaching of the curriculum to that test. How did you expect the children to pass?
Inquirer: Miracles happen
Cole: I agree that miracle happens sometimes but that is the first thing we have to tackle. I had a meeting yesterday (08-14-2003) with all the principals of the schools to communicate to them the vision of the board so that they can consistently apply it irrespective of our different schools.
Inquirer: How was the meeting? Cole: It went well and the vision was well received. They find out that this is the first time this is going to be done, for a board to call them and give them their own goals and how we are going to get there and why it takes all of us to work together in order to get there.
Inquirer: What are these goals?
Cole: One is to remove the school from the financial watch list. Two is to bridge the gap in the achievement test. Three is to make sure the children not only learn how to read and write, we want to build the future in terms of discipline, in terms of academics and outlook in life. Your academics alone will not take you anywhere. Your behavior, your perception, your outlook in life and the way you carry yourself are all equally important.
Inquirer: Don’t you think those goals are lofty objectives bearing in mind the state of the economy and your district’s financial strength. How are you going to achieve them? Cole: It is not easy. That was part of my negotiation with the union. I told them of the problems. That means we have to take tough decisions. One of the things I did was eliminate some items on the budget based on their importance and relevance to the ultimate goal, which is the students’ educational excellent achievement.
Two, I’m negotiating with the union and we want to encourage the teachers and we want to match their pay with competing districts. However, we have to do things within certain range. I’m encouraging them to look at the long range and not the short range. What I mean by that is if we did not remove ourselves from the financial watch list and the state said we should close one of the schools; we will lose the teachers and administrators.
Let’s try and give you what we can give now and build on that in the future when we can do better. Inquirer: How did they react to the proposal? Cole: They promised to give me a counter proposal. Also, the old teachers tend to take care of themselves more than the new ones and that is the reason why the money does not flow to the incoming.
I told them we couldn’t afford to do that this time around. We will give something but not in the way it was being done in the past.
Inquirer: How big is your budget and what areas are being eliminated?
Cole: In cutting the budget, one has to make sure things that affect the education of the children are not cut or removed because that is the essence of our election. Without them, there will be no board or teachers, administrators and the union.
Inquirer: Can you be more specific on the eliminated items?
Cole: One of the things I did was they had about seven lab technicians, we don’t need them. We need more people in the classroom. So I’ve let those go. I’m looking at support services, I have not done anything yet but I’m getting some estimate to see what we can do. Maybe if we contract it out, we can minimize and save all the incentives and benefit since you don’t have to pay all the benefits to the contractor.
Inquirer: Besides funding, any other challenges?
Cole: Funding is one and two, is bridging the gap. Also is the excellent education of the children. They are all-important and are the focus of this administration.
Inquirer: What is the best way to fund education since it became obvious that property tax method of funding education is of disadvantage to minorities?
Cole: If we are using property tax, what I will recommend is for the county to collect all the property taxes and put it in a jar and then allocate it. But what they are doing right now is if you are paying property tax to an area, that is the funding for the area.
In Hazel Crest for example about 4.2 percent of it goes to the schools. About 1.2 percent goes to the library and about one percent goes to the Park District. That is the way property taxes are broken down. If the property in Hazel Crest is $60,000 and you charge six percent and four percent of it goes to schools. How much is that compared to where you have a $500,000 house.
Inquirer: Going by your example what will you advise Hazel Crest residents to do?
Cole: I don’t think know. One, the affluent people are making the campaign contributions. They are well recognized at every point in time. The minorities and low-income earners dont even vote. In Hazel Crest when a friend of mine was running for mayor, residents didn’t care. Hazel Crest population is about 14,800 but only about 2,500 voted. Inquirer: Did you tell them the advantage of voting?
Cole: I questioned them if they paid property taxes, and they answered yes. They still didn’t want to vote. On the election day, we went to all the neighbors to encourage them to come out. For whatever reason, they’ve taken voting for granted. For whatever reason, they are not motivated. For whatever reason they don’t believe in voting. It is sad.
Inquirer: How do we motivate the people to know the importance of voting? Cole: I’m at a loss regarding that. I take voting seriously. People die because of voting and many died before votingright was granted to women and minorities in this country and for people enjoying the benefit to take it for granted is ridiculous. Inquirer: How big is your district?s budget?
Cole: It’s about $30 million. Inquirer: And you fund it through the property tax? Cole: We fund it partly through property tax and sometimes we get some grants from government. When you look at the whole thing, you wonder what will motivate people. And when there property tax go up they cry out. I have to go to City Hall on tax break for companies coming here.
They give the companies between 15-20 years tax break. And when they do that, the money that should go to schools and Park District are already compromised on tax break. Inquirer: How did you get into the school board? Cole: My passion is education.
The first job I did was teaching back home in Lagos. Most of my people call me teacher. When I moved to Hazel Crest, my son was attending one of the schools. I then became part of the Parent Teachers Organization (PTO).
I started attending PTO meetings and people started noting my contributions during meetings. Members of PTO encouraged me to run for election as PTO board member which I acceded to. That was my inroad to the schools board. The following year they asked me to run for the PTO president. And we raised a lot of fund. We sold cookies and I had some diligent and committed members while I was the PTO president. As a president of PTO, I started attending school’s board meetings and one year when they were preparing their budget and we couldn’t follow the budget discussion because copies were not given to the PTO members.I requested for copies.
Inquirer: Why were they doing that?
Cole: They knew my intention that I wanted to review it and make recommendations. I had to write two different letters before they gave me the budget which is public information anyway. They made me pay for the copy. The delay was the motivation and signal I needed that something must be fishing.
Inquirer: How did you build the confidence among the members to call on you to run for election?
Cole: I think it was just my personal commitment. Besides, I’m versed in education and I have something to give to the children and the community as a whole. People will notice what you do and what you stand for. The president I defeated lives in Markham. He grew up in this area and had been the director of Park District in Country Club Hills.
The people know my commitment to the excellent education of the children. And when we are in board meetings, I don’t seek favor. Let’s do what we were elected to do. I focus on what is important and relevant at the meetings. When we leave, we can become friends again. Inquirer: Can you talk about yourself? Cole: Well I was born in Lagos, Nigeria.
I was born into a family of eight. My mother wasn’t educated but she had common sense and was disciplined. She taught us not to wait for people to give you your meal. When you wait for them, they have control over you. That is why people look at us now that we are too aggressive. That was the teaching and our mother made sure everybody cooked.
Inquirer: Where did you have your primary education? Cole: I had my primary education in Lagos. I attended African Church Cathedral Bethel School on Broad Street in Lagos. My high school was in Surulere, Lagos and I came here and had my bachelors in Accounting at Indiana State University. I started at Bloomingdale and finished at Gary.
I went to Governor State University for my MBA. Inquirer: People know you as a real estate broker? Cole: Yes, that is true. I was working as an accountant in 1983 when I wanted to buy my first property and the real estate broker disappointed me. I decided to attend the class, though I was working as an accountant then. At that time I didn’t have 8 am-5 pm job. It was stay till you finished your work or assignment.
Inquirer: Where is that?
Cole: I worked at Michael Reese Hospital. By the time I left the hospital, I had established my self as a real estate person. I just moved into real estate and also went to appraisal school and got certified. Right now, I don’t know if I’m an accountant or a real estate broker or an appraisal.
Inquirer: Since the economy went south, real estate has been going north because of the low interest rate?
Cole: I don’t know if people are really buying. People think because the interest rate is down and people should buy which is not the case. Even if the interest rate is zero, if you don’t have a job, how are you going to pay your mortgage. There are lots of foreclosures now. People are losing their houses. Yesterday I was watching the television and news reports said 18,000 people lost their jobs in Baltimore in the textile industry.
A guy with a masters degree in management information system was shown flipping burger and earning $6.50 an hour. Those who have the money, this is their time but the middle class who barely make ends meet, this is a suffering season. Inquirer: You bought your fist home in 1983 when Africans, especially Nigerians, didn’t see reason to own property here because they don’t want to be tied down
Inquirer: What does buying a property mean?
Cole: When we first arrived here, we came here to get education and many are still locked-up in that time. However, things have changed and many of us are staying here. Even if we have to go back, we have kids here now. People think buying a house is to live there, it is an investment. For example, when we bought the house in 1983 or 1984, we paid $75,000. A nice bungalow, with basement and two car garage. When we sold it in 1994, we made $34,000. You can sell your house anytime.
You are not tied down. People will buy it, after all, you bought it from somebody and somebody will buy it from you. For example, some of us have been here 15-20 years. Let’s say you live in an apartment and pay $500 monthly. At the end of the year you must have paid $6,000. And at the end of 10 years you must have paid $60,000. If you move out of the apartment, you don’t own a brick. The landlord is happy. It is about time we start to look beyond going back.
There are lots of Nigerians buying suites and commercial property. The idea of going back emanates because of shortsightedness. Even if you are going back, you can buy a house and the children have enough room to play. Sometimes they have to burn some of the energies but when you are locked up in an apartment, there is no room for that. Besides, apartments are located near the streets.
Inquirer: What about the investment aspect of home ownership you mentioned earlier?
Cole: Yes, we need to start to look at it as an investment. It is not just buying home for comfort and enjoyment alone. There is an equity you build when you are paying your mortgage.
Inquirer: Recently, some delegates from Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce came to Chicago and other cities here in which you, along with some other Nigerians assisted them in attaining the objectives of the mission. Why all these involvements?
Cole: Well, it is just to show that there are still some Nigerians interested in the well-being and economic development of the country. We told them to continue the trip. Technology has connected the world in seconds. By the time they get back there we will continue to connect with them. Inquirer: How do we come together as a community and even get involved in the electoral process. Cole: There are two issues at hand. One is getting involved in the political process and Africans coming together as a community. They are very simple.
Everyone of us lives somewhere and what you need to do is to start to get involved and do volunteer work. If you want to be an Alderman, or Congressman, just start somewhere. While you are helping the politician, start to look for what you can do to get in line too.
Inquirer: What about building a community?
Cole: Everything is a process. Before, everybody was going home but today we are staying. Now we are buying houses. Now our children are even going to university and most of them don’t even know Nigeria.
We are more confused. These children are going to be the ones that are going to do that but we need to lay the foundation. Africans are moving to the South suburbs be it Markham, Country Club and Alsip. There is a Sesi African stores now in Hazel Crest. We talked about it before she opened it because there is no point to open the store if there is no one to patronize it. The houses in the south suburb are more cheaper than the North suburbs.
Inquirer: What are you going to do with Nigeria?
Cole: We are blessed to be born in Nigeria. And coming to America is another blessing. The giant of Africa coming to the giant of the world. We are really blessed. The only thing is that we have not really tapped into it to really make that country great. They know the importance of those of us that are here and are doing something constructive about our lives. The country is full of natural resources and human resources. Nigeria is a God given country. What we lack is a leader who will coordinate the efforts for the benefit of the masses.
Inquirer: When are we going to get that one?
Cole: We will get there. In the 1999 election that (President Olusegun) Obasanjo won, three of us formed a party-Nigeria Millennium Party and registered it in Nigeria. We had our manifestos and constitutions but former President Abubakar changed the rule midway.
He said any registered party must open offices in at least 24 out of 36 states to be able to move to the second stage. We were able to open offices in 16 states. Inquirer: What happened after that? Cole: We didn’t meet their criteria. Dr. Paul Otubusin was part of it and another lady who ran for a political office in Waukegan. There are lots of things we can do for the country. If all of us can contribute $5 monthly, there is something we can use it to do. Lagosians are meeting in Atlanta. We are planning to move Lagos forward. There is only one Library in Lagos. We can rebuild that Library for the benefit of the young and upcoming ones.
Our age groups are the ones who know Nigeria of the past and can compare it with Nigeria of the present. We are the ones who can lay the foundation for a better Nigeria. There are many things we can do and it doesn’t matter where you come from in Nigeria. Nigerian American Forum gives between five and six scholarships yearly. The future is bright for the country and we should all come together to lift the nation up.
