Urbana District 116 Updates

A few recent updates from Urbana Schools on the new superintendent, construction costs, and school lunch vendors. There was a meet and greet event for the new superintendent of Urbana Schools last week. Excerpts from WCIA's coverage:

[Superintendent Jennifer Ivory-Tatum] already has experience with many of the kids and their families as a former principal in Urbana and as a parent of kids in the district. Now her main focus is working on a plan to repair relationships between students, staff, parents and administration...

For months, parents have been waiting to see how the district would handle their concerns. Scott Dowds has two kids in Urbana schools. He says, "A move to better communication and more stability is what most people are looking for, an ability to get information out and reengage the community and make sure everybody is buying into the ideas they have going forward.”

During the past year, there have been violent fights in the schools, suspensions, and a shift toward distrust within the district. Ivory-Tatum wants to mend the divisions between students, parents, staff and administrators. She says, "We really need to get in and start getting that positive learning climate restored at all of our schools, really looking at cultural climate, hearing the concerns and supporting our administrators and teachers.”

She says she'll be talking to PTA groups, visiting classrooms, and getting people's input on what their vision is for the future. She starts the job on July 1, 2019.

Full article here. More at the district website on the meet and greet here.


The District 116 Board is also dealing with the construction crunch and cost overruns with so much referendum work being done in Champaign. From the News-Gazette a couple weeks ago:

Urbana school board approves costlier-than-expected work on two buildings
...
Mark the Urbana school district as another public body feeling the effects of an abundance of construction work in Champaign-Urbana.

Bids for roofing work at the high school and some parts of work for the middle school came in overbudget, board members learned Tuesday night...

Work will occur over the summer, but the middle school will require additional work at a later date due to only some repairs being in the budget.

Full blurb here. Also Urbana's school lunches will be provided by a new company. From the News-Gazette Saturday:

For the first time in more than two decades, national food-service provider Aramark won't be handling operations in two local school districts after an Illinois-based company beat it out during competitive bidding.

School boards in Urbana and Mahomet-Seymour recently approved contracts with Arbor Management after the Itasca-based company came in as the lowest bidder.

Language in the Illinois School Code mandates that districts choose the lowest responsible bidder in competitive bidding processes; in Urbana, roughly $14,000 made the difference between Abor Management ($2,208,877) and Aramark ($2,222,737)...

In Urbana, those workers can expect a $1-per-hour pay bump; Carol Baker, chief financial officer for the district, told board members recently that that raise had already been built into the new contract...

Baker said the district also added an assistant director's position into the contract.

Full article here.