Cahokia teachers union demands investigation of district amid contract dispute

Amid months-long contract negotiations, the Cahokia Federation of Teachers is calling for prosecutors to investigate the school district for what they say are financial failures and potentially illegal actions.

The union outlined some of its claims during Monday’s school board meeting and levied additional allegations at a press conference Thursday afternoon. They range from multiple employees being paid for years despite no evidence of actual work to the assistant superintendent being paid $406,000 above his contracted salary for 2024 fiscal year.

“The public deserves to know where their taxpayer funds are going,” said Ray Roskos, the Illinois Federation of Teachers field services director who assists Local 1272, at Thursday’s news conference in Fairview Heights. “The students and the community of Cahokia deserve better than what they’re receiving.”

Prior to Thursday’s press conference, Superintendent Curtis McCall Jr. said the allegations made at Monday’s meeting “did not have any merit” and that “nothing illegal has transpired in the district.” He could not immediately be reached for comment after Thursday’s press conference.

Union officials said the trove of records they provided to reporters Thursday — which they say they obtained through public information requests or anonymous whistleblowers — support their allegations.

The Belleville News-Democrat has filed a public records request with Cahokia Unit School District 187 for documents related to the accusations.

The union is requesting that the district’s board place the administrators on leave and hire an outside law and accounting firm to investigate and audit the finances.

They are also asking the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois to audit all employees, and want St. Clair County State’s Attorney Jim Gomric, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois Steven Weinhoeft to investigate their findings.

Board president Marius Jackson did not respond to repeated requests for comment. So far, no other board members have commented.

At both Monday’s board meeting and Thursday’s press conference, Roskos said he had obtained payroll records for Assistant Superintendent Arnett Harvey via public records requests he submitted to the district.

Harvey, who served as superintendent from 2019 to 2023, received four additional payments on top of his regular monthly paycheck, resulting in an additional $406,000 in gross pay beyond his contracted salary of roughly $203,000 for the 2024 fiscal year, according to the documents the union provided.

District financial records the union distributed show most of the additional payments to Harvey was gross pay. Harvey took approximately $41,000 in additional net pay that fiscal year, the ledgers show.

Roskos and Cahokia Federation of Teachers Local 1272 President Wendy Lochmann, an English teacher at Cahokia High School, questioned who authorized the additional payments and how it benefitted students. Harvey’s wife, Ciara Corley, also serves as the district’s chief financial officer, they noted.

“Why didn’t his wife, the CFO, report this to the board of education in her monthly reports?” Roskos said.

Harvey’s contract also allows him 100 vacation days per calendar year, according to documentation provided by the union. Harvey’s contract runs between July 2024 and June 2026.

McCall told the Belleville News-Democrat that with Harvey’s planned retirement, the district is essentially “buying out his contract.” He said this could result in a slight increase in Harvey’s payroll checks and sick days, but that the numbers Roskos read at Monday’s meeting were “way off base.”

The union also alleges that multiple individuals have been paid by the district without documentation to prove they were working, such as key fob reports, emails sent or received on district-issued accounts, employment contracts, or records showing they clocked in or out of work.

Roskos said the union requested this information via public records requests for Harvey; Leonard Manley, who they said was the assistant athletic director and board documents show was terminated in July 2025; Stephen Brown, who they said was working full-time as an attendance officer for the district while also serving as Cahokia Heights’ chief of police; and Minnie Taylor, who the district’s online staff directory lists with the description “21st Century Grant.”

No records were produced, Roskos and Lochmann said at Thursday’s press conference. They said this suggests the district was either breaking the law by not turning over documents or that the documents do not exist.

The final accusation centers on Taylor, the deceased mother of the Director of Non-Certified Personnel Stephanie Scurlark-Belt, who is married to state Sen. Chris Belt, D-Swansea.

The union alleges the district paid two monthly premiums for a supplemental Medicare plan through UnitedHealthcare for Taylor in July and August of 2025, according to two receipts provided to the union by a whistleblower.

Taylor died in January at the age of 76, her obituary states.

Roskos said Taylor was not paying into employer-provided health insurance. In total, the two receipts addressed to Taylor’s East St. Louis address total $742 and are stamped by Scurlark-Belt, he said.

The union requested Taylor’s employment records, but the district did not provide them, Roskos said. Without an employment agreement explicitly stating the district should pay Taylor’s Medicare premium, Roskos said the payments are questionable.

“In our mind, unless there’s an employment agreement, which there wasn’t one provided, then those payments are illegal,” Roskos said. “It’s an illegal use of public funds to pay those Medicare payments.”

When asked about the allegations regarding Taylor at Monday’s meeting, McCall said the concerns had already been referred to the Illinois Office of Executive Inspector General, and that the state subsequently found them unfounded.

Roskos told the BND that he was unaware the concerns had been brought to the Office of the Executive Inspector General.

The union questioned the lack of records for Manley, Brown and Harvey at Thursday’s press conference.

Harvey and Scurlark-Belt did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Cahokia school staff have been working for months on expired contracts

This week’s allegations come amid contentious contract negotiations.

Local 1272 negotiates contracts for three groups: teachers and certified staff, secretaries, and service employees. All of these contracts expired this summer, and seven months into the school year, no agreements have been reached.

McCall said the negotiations have become tense and frustrating for all involved.

“At this point, these negotiations have turned personal, political and it is my belief that the teachers plan to strike (to) delay the opening of the high school and football season,” McCall said.

However, union leaders say a strike is not currently being considered. Before educators can strike, the union and district would have to enter, and fail, mediation — and the union would need to provide 10 days’ notice of its intent to strike.

“A strike is not off the table,” Roskos said. “That’s the ultimate thing that we have is withholding our labor to get a contract, but we’re nowhere near that process yet.”

This story was originally published February 13, 2026 at 5:30 AM.