Unit 4 Roundup

A few Unit 4 items from this past week on Unit 4's facilities sale tax, a "reunification drill" and students pushing to change Unit 4's dress code. Last week's Tom's Mailbag had an explanation of what the school district's 1% sales tax is used for:

The Champaign school district has received about $7.5 million a year over the last three years from 1 percent countywide sales tax, according to Tom Lockman, the district's chief financial and legal officer. "Proceeds from the countywide sales tax can only be used by school districts for school facility purposes," said the district's spokesman, John Lyday. "Unit 4 used revenue from the countywide sales tax to renovate seven of the district's elementary schools (Booker T. Washington, Bottenfield, Carrie Busey, Garden Hills, Kenwood, Robeson and Westview).

"In February 2010 the district sold bonds for the renovations using sales tax revenue as a source to pay debt services on the bonds. The sales tax revenue continues to be more than is needed to service the bond debt which allows the district to pay for other facility needs such as roof replacements, parking lot pavement, boiler replacements, etc.

"Decisions on spending priorities are made by the Unit 4 Board of Education. A 10-year capital improvement plan was prepared when the countywide sales tax was enacted. With the scope of the referendum projects now better defined, an updated capital improvement plan is being developed for board review and discussion in the coming months."

The full Q and A here.


Unit 4 had something they called a "reunification drill" covered in yesterday's News-Gazette:

South Side students shuttled to State Farm Center in Unit 4's first 'reunification drill'
...
Reunification drills — like the one practiced recently by South Side Elementary students and families and scheduled to be repeated the next two years elsewhere in Unit 4 — are another way schools can prepare for the worst.

In a letter to families prior to last week's drill, South Side Principal Bill Taylor explained that emptying the elementary school, loading students onto buses and transporting them from the school to State Farm Center was part of Unit 4's effort to practice "how to handle an event, like a major storm, that could require temporary relocation of students from their home school to another safe location."
...
South Side's drill was meant to be a model for the district, so other administrators from Unit 4 campuses were also invited to watch.

Their notes, as well as those from the Champaign police and fire departments, will help the district's Crisis Team debrief later this month.

Thomas said that would include discussing "ways to improve the drill."

He said similar drills will be held for students at two other schools the next two years — a middle school in 2019-20 and a high school in 2020-21 — on dates to be determined.

More information at the full article here.


WCCU highlighted a continuing student effort to make Unit 4's dress code more equitable. The students addressed the Unit 4 school board Monday during its public participation (at 4:18 mark in the video here). The WCCU article and video segment here:

More than a dozen Centennial High School students said it should be up to them to determine the way they dress.

The girls are also part of a group called "Empowered."

These students said the current dress code uses discriminatory language that students feel promotes racism, sexism and isn't 100 percent inclusive to all...

Students want the district to follow Evanston Township High School's dress code policy. They even have a petition with more than 750 signatures...

On Thursday, these students will present more material and research to the Disciplinary Equity Advisory Task Force, which can revise the student code of conduct and that includes the dress code.

More at the full article here. According to Unit 4 the presentation to the DEA Task Force will be occurring in the classroom with the DEA's chair in attendance. There is no DEA meeting scheduled Thursday.


There were also a couple recent articles on contract bidding for Unit 4 referendum work yesterday and today on the News-Gazette website here and here related to that same Unit 4 board meeting.