Unit 4 Updates

Following up on a previous Cheat Sheet post previewing this week's Champaign school board meeting, there has been a great deal of coverage and updates from and after the meeting. The full meeting video is available here and board agendas here. This post highlights a few of the topics: the ACLU/NAACP concerns about equity in the gifted programs and discipline, the potential programming swap between the International Prep Academy and Garden Hills campuses, and an updated report on the bond sales issue.

I strongly recommend watching at least the public participation at the beginning of the meeting to see the incredible and dedicated community members concerned about their local government. From young kids who want to expand a successful educational program to people who escaped authoritarian and failed nation-states to achieve the American dream locally. People fighting for equity, for their neighborhoods, and for the future of our children.

The public comments and meeting itself hit on two major topics that got a lot of local coverage in the news. WILL had an overview of the ACLU/NAACP letter that was raised at the board meeting Monday:

The Champaign County chapters of both the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) jointly sent a letter to the Champaign Community Unit School District 4 Board of Education and superintendent Susan Zola last week, highlighting a lack of access to gifted and advanced placement classes in the district for black students, as well as disparities in discipline and academic proficiency for black pupils, as compared to their white peers. Less than 10% of black students in Unit 4 schools are proficient in math and reading, compared to nearly 50% of white students, the letter states. White Unit 4 students are also more than seven times more likely to take AP classes than their black peers, according to federal data.

In their letter to the district, the groups urged school district officials to meet with them to specify how the district intends to address the disparities...

A court-ordered consent decree mandated the district improve racial equity measures in the early 2000s. A settlement was reached in 2009, and district officials at the time promised to make racial equity a priority moving forward. But ACLU of Champaign County president Carol Spindel said equity in the district has, by at least one measure, gotten worse in the last decade...

In 2009, black students were more than five times more likely to be suspended than white pupils, the letter from the ACLU and NAACP states. District data indicates that black students were nearly nine times more likely to be suspended than whites in 2018...

A spokesperson for Unit 4 schools, John Lyday, wrote in an email that district officials plan to meet with the NAACP and ACLU members soon. “This was a very thoughtful letter. The District takes it seriously and looks forward to having a discussion,” he wrote.

Full article available here. Additional coverage from the News-Gazette here and WCCU here with a video segment. More background at a previous Cheat Sheet post previewing the meeting here. The News-Gazette coverage also highlighted the potential programming swap between the International Prep Academy and Garden Hills campuses that brought out a great deal of public participation:

The board didn’t make any decisions, and members emphasized that this was the first of several discussions around the idea of the current Garden Hills elementary, a federally funded magnet school, moving into the West Kirby Avenue location of International Prep Academy, a K–5 bilingual school, and the current IPA moving to Garden Hills Drive.

While IPA students and parents spoke overwhelmingly in support of expanding the school through eighth grade at Monday’s packed board meeting, Garden Hills supporters and multiple board members expressed concern about the swap and had questions about what it would mean for Garden Hills students and families...

Superintendent Susan Zola said the proposal stemmed from internal staff conversations to address three issues:

— Middle school capacity.

— 227 open seats at Garden Hills, where “a lot of those students arrive to that campus in late July, August and September, so they’re students that are in transition oftentimes,” Zola said.

— IPA families wanting to continue bilingual schooling through eighth grade.

That full News-Gazette article is available here. WCIA had additional coverage on this issue, including a video segment here, including this excerpt looking towards the future:

Neighborhood association president Chad Smith said some of the confusion and uncertainty around the topic could have been prevented had the district approached the Garden Hills community first.

“I just wish that…in the future that when these conversations are had that Unit 4…get input before making decisions,” he said. “With this, I know that no decision was made, but I think a lot of the fears could be eliminated by simply having a conversation with the neighborhood association ahead of time.”

District officials said Monday they would hold forums on the topic next month.

That full article and segment here. WCIA also had some coverage before the meeting previewing the campus swapping proposal coming up at the meeting here.

There was also the latest report on the bond sales issue (coverage from WILL last month here). The report is available at the 1:10 minute mark on the meeting video here. Description of the report from the agenda:

The essence of the report will be relevant passages from the “School Building Bonds, Series 2019/20 – Option Recommendation” memorandum found in your Dec. 6, 2019 “Weekly Update” received Friday.  The relevant passages will include:  the “parameters”, summary of options, ROC and Finance Committee meeting member feedback, and consensus of the Administration-MA/UW Team as to the preferred option upon which to proceed.  This will be followed by a calendar of next steps.

There are all sorts of nitty gritty details for folks who are interested in the financing nuances that go into funding the school district budget. From the WILL article on the bond issue from November:

It’s unclear how much Unit 4 taxpayers will be on the hook to pay back. In addition to the $110 million in bonds sold two years ago, the district also sold roughly $15 million worth of premium bonds. Guy Cahill, a business consultant for Unit 4, said that extra $15 million doesn’t count toward the total referendum amount that voters authorized in 2016. Additionally, he said, the district could choose to sell premium bonds during the upcoming bond sale — meaning the district could receive proceeds greater than $73.4 million...

The district must sell the bonds before February to allow the Champaign County Clerk time to record the sale on the tax levy for next year. Cahill said authorizing the sale now allows the district the option to sell before the December holiday season, if the market proves favorable at that time. He said a weaker economy and lower interest rates could help the district. 

That full article here.