Unit 4 Special Meeting and Updates

 

Photos provided by Natalie Schneider

Heads Up! There is a Special Meeting of the Champaign Schools Unit 4 Board of Education next week on April 9th to interview applicants for the two vacancies on the same school board.  There were 26 applicants for the two vacancies according to the News-Gazette (WCIA coverage here). After our last Unit 4 updates in March looked at the controversies surrounding the district and the resignation of board vice president Jamar Brown, there was an addition resignation of another board member. From the News-Gazette last month:

For the second time in two weeks and a day, a Champaign school board member has resigned after serving less than a year in office.

On March 4, it was Jamar Brown, who said months of “mistrust, missteps and misinformation” had left him seeing “no value” in continuing.

Tuesday night, it was a similarly frustrated Mark Thies, who in a letter to board members and Superintendent Shelia Boozer said he’s come to realize ”that my vision is not aligned with the future direction and initiatives of Unit 4.”

That full article here including some details of Thies' resignation letter that mirrored Jamar Brown's concerns about a lack of respect and trust. WCIA had the full text of Thies' resignation letter here. WCCU had some responses from parents as well here. WCCU had an additional interview with board member Betsy Holder about her concerns with the district and a response from Board President Dr. Gianina Baker.

Next week there is a regular school board meeting scheduled on Monday evening, as well as an additional special meeting for interviewing applicants for the board's vacancy on the next evening on Tuesday.

More March Meetings:

Since our last update there was a March 20th special meeting to address the process of appointing people to the two open seats on the board (video here, agendas here). There was a number of public comments before the board president laid out that process. The timeline and other details were discussed and agreed to by the remaining board members. WCIA's coverage of that meeting is here. WAND's coverage specifically covered the citizen complaints and concerns about transparency here.

There was another regular meeting that was cancelled shortly after it began on March 25th. This caused a great deal of confusion for members of the public who found themselves locked out of the building. While the meetings begin at 5pm, there is a closed session at the beginning of Champaign board of education meetings to discuss employment and disciplinary issues. The main public portion of the meeting generally doesn't start until after 6pm.

The very beginning of the meetings, before entering the closed "executive session" is technically public, but it is generally not included in the meeting videos. Few (if any) members of the public show up for the brief call to order and vote to go into the closed session, which would also mean waiting for an hour or more in an empty room while the board meets privately.

The News-Gazette had coverage on the walk outs and confusion after the meeting.

Amy Armstrong said she’d asked twice in the past six days — once in a meeting, then again in a Monday morning email to President Gianina Baker — that the item calling for the special election of a new board vice president be tabled until the board was back to full strength.

When Baker declined to pull it at the start of Monday’s meeting, Armstrong walked out, followed by fellow member Betsy Holder.

With only three members left at the Mellon Administrative Center — Baker, Heather Vazquez and Bruce Brown — the meeting was called off for lack of a quorum... 

But with no meeting, there was no public comment session, leaving them to air their frustrations outside. 

That full article here. WCIA had similar coverage and explanation of events:

The seven-person board currently has two vacancies. With less than four members, the board cannot meet in order to be compliant with Illinois’ Open Meetings Act.

The two members, Amy Armstrong and Betsy Holder, walked out of the meeting after Armstrong objected to the agenda since it contained an item for electing a new Vice President. Jamar Brown, who served as vice president, resigned from the board earlier this month.

Only three members were in attendance after Holder and Armstrong left. With no way to continue, the meeting was cancelled.

That full article here. According to at least one of the school board members that walked out on social media afterwards: the doors had been unlocked for the public at 5pm and members of the public were inside when the initial open session was called to order. There appears to be questions as to what exactly the quorum rules dictated if the meeting began with a quorum, but no longer had one afterward. For example, could there have been public comment, even if there weren't enough members present to vote on action items. A hurdle there would be whether or not they could even approve the agenda to get to that point.

Other Updates on Unit 4 Controversies:

• Illinois Public Media had an updated (as of April 1st) overview of the Unit 4 controversies here.
  
  
• The News-Gazette had coverage of the lawsuit surrounding the transfer of Booker T. Washington STEM Academy Assistant Principal Rebecca Ramey here. She claims that it was retaliatory, specifically against her wife's criticism of the Superintendent. Coverage of Unit 4's response and denials of the claims here.
  
  
• One of Unit 4's Deputy Superintendents will be returning to the Urbana school district for an administrative position there, according to the News-Gazette. The article notes that this is the latest in a number of recent moves from Champaign schools to Urbana's District 116.
  
  
• The News-Gazette published its own criticisms and opinion on the Unit 4 controversies in an editorial on March 16th.

City of Champaign: Council and Township Updates

 

This post has some candidate updates and links as well as an overview of recent City of Champaign Township and City Council meetings earlier this month.

Municipal elections are coming up soon, with a consolidated primary election on February 23rd and the General Election on April 6, 2021. The Champaign County Clerk has an unofficial "Meet the Candidates" page here and sample ballots when they become available here. There's a non-partisan Candidate Guide available here.

While most of us were just hoping the 2020 elections were over in November, local candidates were already having to get ballot petitions signed and submitted for the 2021 elections (see candidate calendar here). By December some candidates were facing objections at local Electoral Boards (what is this?) and running into the convoluted precedents on what counts as a conflict of interest under the law versus what may seem like common sense. The News-Gazette highlighted local objections in a December 8 article:

Champaign’s electoral board held a similar hearing Monday, going over the rules and setting 6 p.m. Dec. 15 to hear the objection from Rochelle Funderburg against District 3 candidate Justin Hendrix.

He is up against attorney Matt Sullard and personal trainer Daniel Iniguez, who Mayor Deb Feinen helped collect petitions for.

That prompted several public commenters to ask Feinen to recuse herself from the electoral board...

In her challenge, Funderburg objected to Hendrix not putting the date of the election on his statement of candidacy and to various names on the petitions.

She alleged some signers weren’t in District 3, some weren’t registered to vote at the addresses they provided and that some handwriting wasn’t legible.

Full article here. Fienen did recuse herself from the board, but the legal nuance of ballot signatures knocked Hendrix off the ballot anyways:

After being knocked off the ballot last week for the local spring elections, activist Justin Michael Hendrix filed Monday to run as a write-in candidate to represent Champaign’s District 3.

The Champaign electoral board voted 2–1 Friday to remove Hendrix from the ballot, with Councilman Tom Bruno and City Clerk Marilyn Banks voting in favor and Councilman Will Kyles against...

“By his own admission, (Hendrix) sought guidance and used a commonly-used process by many elected officials and volunteers today,” Kyles said. “But unbeknownst to him, and even myself, that database that he utilized was not synced with the county clerk’s office. Who would have known that?”

That full article here. The full videos of the Electoral Board hearings for Hendrix are available at the CGTV website under City Videos here (with the first electoral board meeting starting 12/7/2020 and the hearing specific to Hendrix starting 12/15/2020). If you've listened to the public participation in recent City Council meetings, you will have heard Hendrix highlighting his write-in candidacy and harshly criticizing those he believes unfairly knocked him off the ballot as a listed candidate.

City of Champaign Township and City Council Meeting 1/5:

The City of Champaign Township (what is this?) board is made up of the same members and covers the same jurisdiction as the City of Champaign City Council. So, their meetings are generally tucked in before a City Council meeting on the same day at the beginning of the month. The first meeting this year had a financial report submitted (available here) and like a lot of local government entities was approving COVID-19 relief funds through bureaucratically named "Community Development Block Grant" or CDBGs. The agenda with links to the details of this funding and other information is available here. The video of the Township meeting is at the beginning of this video on CGTV.

Rita Conerly, a candidate for City of Champaign Township Supervisor in the Democratic primary on February 23rd, raised the issue of the current supervisor using the office to mail residents an informational flyer on Township services. She described it as campaign material due to the proximity of the election and the incumbent featured prominently on the colorful mailer. Front and back view:

I'll leave it to the lawyers to figure out the legal line and readers to decide the ethical line on this one. 

The City Council meeting (agenda, video) was called to order immediately after the Township meeting adjourned. If you dig into the weeds, you'll see that the items voted on also mostly involved COVID, from CDBG funds to extending the Emergency Orders the City is operating under during the pandemic. The Council Bills passed without any significant discussion or controversy. The bulk of the meeting involved audience participation (video starts here).

Many of the public comments focused on the eviction moratorium likely to expire at the end of this month. WCIA had an article on that here based on a Housing Authority update. There is an Eviction Moratorium Open Letter that has been circulating for signatures. Local Activist Allan Axelrod encouraged the entire board to support moratoriums on evictions and utility shutoffs. Council member Alicia Beck of District 2 noted her intention to sign it.

There was also a City Council Study Session this month on the Black Lives Matter mural proposal. Full Cheat Sheet post on that available here.

City of Urbana Updates

There are numerous updates on Urbana City government since our last update in June (available here) where the City Council had just approved the re-appointment of Urbana Police Chief Bryant Seraphin in spite of a deluge of public opposition for the status quo in the wake of the George Floyd protests. Among the demands by activists during public comments were for the charges to be dropped against Aleyah Lewis, an independent investigation into her arrest, and reforming the police review board to be more effective and empowered. Here are just some of the updates and coverage on a few of those issues:

• In July the Council approved training standards for the police review board. Coverage and details from WAND here. A training video for the review board was posted to UPTV here.
• The police review board approved a Taser report that was long overdue and which they were roundly criticized. More on that from the News-Gazette here.
• Illinois Newsroom had coverage about the independent review of the Aleyah Lewis case by a consulting firm approved by the Urbana City Council in June.
• The Urbana mayor committed to systemic change but urged patience at the July 27th City Council meeting. News-Gazette had coverage on that here.
• The Board approved the NAACP's "10 shared principles" on policing at the June 23rd City Council meeting, covered by the News-Gazette here. A small cut to the police budget was also added to a Council budget item that passed (more on that here).

The Urbana Mayor and City Council had a discussion on Public Safety and Policing this week at the end of their most recent City Council meeting (video here). The Mayor went over plans for an Advisory Committee on Public Safety and Policing towards future reforms and policies. There are challenges to fill seats on such a committee when there is already a need to fill vacancies on the review board and Human Relations Commission. Board members discussed possible organization and the advisory nature of the prospective entity.

Earlier in that City Council meeting, Chief Seraphin had an update on a June incident where a driver pushed through protesters in her vehicle on the street and some of the details around that incident.

The Citizen's Police Review Board has been very active in the aftermath of the June meetings and public input, starting with a special meeting on June 24th available here. In that June 24th special meeting there was a long discussion about the new format and guidelines for the review board which also has a new chair. In July there was also a regular meeting and another special meeting. Each runs around 3 hours including public input. The News-Gazette had coverage of the increase in meetings here.

Housing Discrimination Updates:

The City of Champaign recently passed compromised language on their Human Rights Ordinance to limit discrimination on rental housing and criminal histories. The City of Urbana has more broadly prohibited this kind of reentry housing discrimination (as Champaign once did). Cunningham Township Supervisor Danielle Chynoweth has recently raised awareness that even with broader protections, compliance and enforcement of housing discrimination rules is an ongoing issue in Urbana. Earlier this year she gave a presentation on housing issues to the Urbana Human Relations Commission (video available here with the presentation starting at the 15 minute mark). There is also a written report available here which she describes and explains in that same presentation.

At the most recent Urbana City Council meeting there was also an update on housing assistance and funding due to the coronavirus pandemic (e.g. via the federal CARES Act and money funneled through CDBG programs).

Other recent Urbana news items:

The development project at the site of the Landmark Hotel is currently stalled due to the coronavirus. Tom Kacich had an update on the project in his Tom's Mailbag column in the News-Gazette last week here.

Dr. Julie R. Laut was appointed to represent Ward 2 on the Urbana City Council at a special meeting on August 3rd (announcement available here), News-Gazette coverage here). Video of the appointment included a description of the process followed and is available from the City website here. There were two eligible applicants to fill the Ward 2 seat being vacated by Alderman Eric Jakobsson to fill the remainder of his term into 2021. Two of the applicants were disqualified for not living in the ward boundaries according to WCIA coverage here. The applicants made statements to the City Council at the July 27th meeting (video here).

Durl Kruse, a retired public school administrator and long time Urbana resident, had a guest commentary in the News-Gazette and his views on systemic racism and policing were discussed by the City Council during their talks on an advisory committee.

Coronavirus Updates 6/5

It was announced that the daily flyer / announcement updates (see 6/3 informational flyer here) will become a weekly update on Wednesdays. The website will still have daily updated coronavirus information here. Public testing sites like the one at Marketplace Mall will also be open to everyone now, regardless of whether they have symptoms or other factor. WAND had more on the opening of testing to all here.

There was a meeting of the Joint Information Center with some questions from the media after the local updates from C-U Public Health District administrator Julie Pryde and City of Champaign Mayor Deb Feinen. The video of that meeting is available here. Previous videos are available at the C-UPHD website at this link and under the heading "Champaign County Joint Information Center Public Outreach Videos" near the bottom of the page.

A highlight from the questions was an explanation about people who attended the protests and the need to get tested. Administrator Pryde explained how long one should wait to get tested after a possible exposure. The way this infection takes hold and the way PCR tests work, at least 4 days is probably good to avoid a higher chance of a false negative. She reminded listeners that the testing is a tool, not a certainty, however. She encouraged vigilance and safe distancing as in some cases it can take longer (e.g. 14 days).

Mayor Feinen explained her latest Executive Order and how it expanded additional hours for private spaces that would apply to certain businesses. The City is looking to expand outdoor seating options next week. While Urbana is adding some more public music options this week, that's something Champaign isn't doing yet, but also considering.

WAND had an article with an overview of the changes from the State's Phase 2 to Phase 3 with a lot of additional details here. A snippet with a basic overview of Phase 2 and Phase 3 from the public chart:

 

WCCU had an article yesterday specifically looking at Phase 3 guidance for Illinois schools and the very different setting kids will be entering when they return to classes. There was a link to the full guidance from the Illinois State Board of Education here.

The News-Gazette's latest update today suggests signs that we could be moving to phase 4 in the central region if outbreaks and cases can be kept under control and within our regional hospital capacities:

To advance to Phase 4 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s five-phase Restore Illinois plan three weeks from now, regions will have to hit the same metrics that they did to move on to Phase 3 last week.

So far, so good for the central region, which includes Champaign, Douglas, Ford, Piatt and Vermilion counties.

More on that at the full article with today's Champaign County updated numbers (including 4 new cases for a cumulative total of 675). WCCU had a brief overview of the County numbers today here. More data from the C-UPHD website here.

I missed the June 1st Board of Health special meeting and update mentioned in my last coronavirus update that covered the previous May meeting. I don't have any additional details on that yet.

A few other recent highlights:

Smile Politely had a quick blurb about a COVID-19 Relief Fund grant and a link to additional information here.

WCIA had an article about the Housing Authority of Champaign County's Youthbuild program providing care packages to seniors as part of COVID-19 assistance.

Unit 4's summer food program is still going on this summer. More details on that from WCIA here.

Urbana City Council and Ward 6 Applicants

This week's Urbana City Council meeting video is online (video here, agenda here). A previous Cheat Sheet post had a preview of some of the topics here. Before the regular Committee of the Whole meeting the Council had a Special Meeting that included approving a couple Mayoral staff appointments (more information on that here) and recognizing local women leaders and women's history month. The city had a facebook post with images here:

The News-Gazette had additional coverage of one of the appointments and how it relates to Urbana's new approach to developing a new Master Plan for the City:

The longtime CEO of Fox Development Corp. has been hired by the city of Urbana for three years to rewrite its comprehensive plan, which was last updated in 2005.

Andrea Ruedi will be paid $150,000 a year to develop the comprehensive plan, which is Mayor Diane Marlin’s next big project after eliminating the city’s structural deficit...

Ruedi will begin immediately, immersing herself in the city government’s activities, and the city will begin developing the new comprehensive plan this summer.

That full article available here. The appointment, discussion of the Master Plan and the rest of the brief Special Meeting is available at the beginning of the City Council meeting video here.


Committee of the Whole:

After the Special Meeting the City Council came to order for its Committee of the Whole meeting. In general they voted to recommend the remaining agenda items to the City Council for final approval. There were some other highlights worth pointing out:

• A housing property Rosecrance wants to return to the City was delayed as the agreement wasn't ready yet (more details here).
• Public Participation (direct link here) included a couple statements read into the record about equity and subdivision sewer problems. There was also a Neighborhood Watch leader Tammy Masters on local safety concerns in County Squire neighborhood in Ward 6 and issues to consider in appointing a new Alderman for it.
• Coronavirus preparation discussion between the Board and the a representative with the fire department. The conversation dealt with concerns with staffing backup plans in case of illness.

Four of the applicants for Alderman for City Council Ward 6 were in attendance to introduce themselves and why they believed they should be selected for the vacancy. A fifth member had a written statement read into the record due to a personal schedule conflict with a surprise second honeymoon. The City Council appeared sympathetic to not breaking that date. The applicants came from various backgrounds and perspectives. From the City's facebook post:

• William Colbrook, Chief of Police/Director of Public Safety Parkland College

• Thomas Hebert, Manager and Golf Teaching Professional, Just Fore Fun Golf Center,

• Andrew Miller, Software Engineer, University of Illinois,

• Joseph Smith, retired City of Urbana Civil Engineer,

• Darius White, Executive Director, Urbana Business Association.

That post available here. The video of their statements to the City Council here with Joseph Smith's written statement read afterward. The Mayor described the choice as a difficult one, but one she hoped to have ready by the regular City Council meeting next Monday March 9th.