School Board Updates

I have some various updates on the two main local school boards in Champaign and Urbana. The Illinois State Board of Education released its 2019 report cards on school districts state wide, including Champaign's Unit 4 here and Urbana's District 116 here. (other specific schools and districts can be looked up here). Urbana's School Board had a presentation of their report card at their last study session (video here, PDF of presentation slides here, and agenda here). 

Urbana was also in the news recently over possibly adding more school resource officers. From the News-Gazette earlier this week:

The Urbana school board is considering an intergovernmental agreement with the city that would make possible an expanded use of school resource officers.

The school district, which currently has a single part-time school resource officer, is considering having two full-time officers instead.

Under the proposal, the officers would be stationed at the middle and high schools.

On Tuesday evening, district Superintendent Jennifer Ivory-Tatum reviewed the proposed agreement with the city and police department, which the school board could vote on at its Nov. 19 meeting.

If the school board approves the deal, Mayor Diane Marlin said the city council would vote on it sometime before year’s end.

Full article here. More background on this issue from the News-Gazette last month here. At the State level, there has been a recent push to close a potential loophole requiring parental notification before students are interrogated about crimes by School Resource Officers. More on that from WILL here.

Champaign's School Board recently came to a settlement agreement with its outgoing CFO, with the reasons still being unclear. From the News-Gazette last month:

The Champaign school district and its chief financial officer have agreed to go their separate ways.

After exiting a 29-minute closed session Tuesday night, members of the Champaign school board voted 7-0 to approve a settlement and release agreement with CFO Tom Lockman.

Under the terms of the deal, the district will pay Lockman $151,975, less applicable taxes and withholding, by Jan. 10, 2020. He will also receive money for any unused vacation time he has or will accrue through November 2019.

In turn, Lockman agrees to resign from his job effective Dec. 31 and take an unpaid leave of absence beginning today.

More at that full article here. Unit 4 is also getting pressure to expand the dual-language program at the International Prep school. From the News-Gazette a couple weeks ago:

A series of parents who appeared before the board Monday praised the benefits of dual-language education for their children and asked members to consider extending the programs through eighth grade...

The problem, according to Stegmaier, is that there isn’t any referendum funding available to add the extra years of classes parents and students want and some other desired amenities.

In fact, an initial floor plan developed by BLDD Architects calls for putting fifth-grade classes in portable classrooms...

The school board directed the district staff to research cost estimates for various options, including a possible expansion through eighth grade, based on the feedback from parents, and bring that back in November.

Full article here.