Urbana School Board Updates

Our new collaboration with the League of Women Voters and the NAACP of Champaign County is allowing us to share more local government reports and highlights than we have been able to cover in the past. We hope to have a lot more from Urbana government bodies moving forward. Corrie Proksa is the LWV Observer for District 116 Board of Education meetings. These meetings are open to the public and also available on YouTube. From the BoE webpage:

USD116 BOE Meetings are held on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month  (except October, November and March) at 6 p.m. There are no meetings in July. Meetings are held in the Board Room at Tiger Academy, 303 East Fairlawn Dr., Urbana, unless otherwise indicated on the agenda.

There are links to the meeting agendas and minutes on that same webpage. The most recent Observer reports for the beginning of 2025 are available here:

Highlights:

• The 1/7 Board of Education meeting (report, video) included an update on the CU 1to1 mentoring program (jump to video link). There was also an update on technology in the schools (slides, video link) which was followed up by the new year 2025 legislative updates (slides).
  
  
• The 1/21 meeting (report, video) included members Langendorf and Hixson's concerns about a renewed federal push for mass deportation and potential issues with federal agents (jump to video link). Superintendent Ivory-Tatum followed that with some related updates and a brief discussion among board members.
  
  The Student Ambassador report also highlighted quality concerns with Quest Food Management Services, the school lunch provider. Her report also included continued girls bathroom privacy, use, and sink issues. (video jump to link).
  
  There was an overview of the hiring process for middle school leadership positions, along with the introductions and approval of the new hires. There was also an overview of the Vision 2030 initiative (slides, template resolution for school districts, jump to video link).  News-Gazette coverage here.
  
  
• The 2/4 meeting (report, video) included a Student Ambassador report (jump to video link) on new student orientation. The meeting also included an overview of the GEAR UP program (jump to video link on the grant and program) and a discussion about the proposed 2025-2026 calendar. The Board approved the GEAR UP and Vision 2030 resolution discussed at the previous meeting.

2024 Reports:

The District 116 Board of Education Observer Corp reports for October through December 2024 are available here. Highlights:

• The 11/12 meeting (Observer report, video) had the 2023-2024 School Report Card presentation: Observer report, PowerPoint slides, and video jump to link. One of the major points of the presentation is that the district has not bounced back since the pandemic measures in contrast with the rest of the state.
  
  
• The 11/19 meeting (report, slides, and jump to video link) had a presentation about tax revenue and the property tax levy for people interested in the nitty-gritty of that part of the budget. There was also an audit report on the district's financial situation available here.
  
  
• The 12/3 Student Ambassador report raised concerns about privacy in the girls restrooms and concerns about weapons bring brought into the school and whether the metal detectors are effective. There was some additional conversation about this with the Superintendent during that report (Observer report, video jump to link). 
  
  
• The 12/17 meeting included a discussion and vote approving an updated policy on public participation that limited comments to 3 minutes (from 5) and 1 hour total at Board of Education meetings (report, jump to video link). Member Langendorf had an opinion column in the News-Gazette about the public comment and communications policies. There was another opinion piece by a resident opposing the changes here.

More District 116 News:

It's looking like the next school board will begin with a need to fill empty seats immediately after the election due to a lack of candidates for open seats (unlike Unit 4 which has a plethora of candidates running this term). From the News-Gazette:

With four seats about to open up and only one candidate running for election in April, the Urbana school board is gearing up for a challenging start to its next term.

“We would all have to be present in order for us to have a quorum and then for the board to act,” said board President Paul Poulosky. “It’s not a situation we could live with for long.”

Poulosky said the board’s first order of business will almost definitely be to fill those remaining seats as soon as possible.

This isn’t unlike the situation the board was in last year, when all seven seats were open due to redistricting and only six candidates ran for election.

More at the full article here, including some discussion of possibly making changes to the districts and adding at-large seats. The Champaign County Clerk has a list of candidates for local offices, including the Urbana School Board here.