A running total of the money owed to District 272 by the State of Illinois is posted on the Amboy High School marquee. Superintendent Quintin Shepherd said the dollar amount will be updated weekly and he encouraged concerned citizens to contact their state lawmakers, Sen. Tim Bivins and Rep. Jerry Mitchell, to voice their opinion. (News photo by Linda Boysen)

With the state falling further and further behind in payments to Illinois schools, Amboy School superintendent Quintin Shepherd said that revenues continue to be the big issue for the district. In order to alert the public, Shepherd said he has started posting the amount of money owed to District 272 on the marquee in front of Amboy High School. Addressing the Feb. 25 board of education meeting, Shepherd reported that $227,782 is owed to Amboy schools by the state – money that has been guaranteed but not paid.

“We’ll continue to update that weekly for the remainder of the year,” Shepherd said. “I think the best thing any one of us can do is to make our voices heard loud and clear. This is going to hurt students and education.”

Shepherd said that people can send an e-mail to their state representatives by going to the school district’s website (www.amboy.net) and clicking on the link to the Illinois General Assembly at the top of the page.

Although money problems are nothing new in the state, Shepherd explained during an interview later that this year is different because in prior years the state would fall behind in payments but had the ability to pay their bills eventually. He said that this year, there is no revenue stream to allow the comptroller to actually make payments and the problem will get even worse next year.

Shepherd explained that the state used Federal ARRA money to make its General State Aid payments to schools this year but there will be no ARRA money next year. “No changes have been made at the state level and the federal funds are going away next year in large measure,” he said. “It's like the perfect storm brewing...”

Shepherd noted that there is a possibility the state will make substantial expense cuts but so far, no one has said where these cuts would be made. He said there is also a chance the state will raise taxes but being an election year, that is unlikely. “I'm less hopeful this year that any real action is going to take place,” Shepherd said.

With so much uncertainty, Shepherd said the District 272 board anticipates making reductions at their March 13 board retreat. Even though the state could promise to make payments for next year, Shepherd said if the money was not then paid, school districts could be driven deep into deficit spending. “If they don't take serious action soon at the state level, a crisis seems imminent,” Shepherd said. “That is why districts are making drastic and substantial cuts.”

PRINCIPALS’ REPORTS

The board heard a report on the new Literacy Night program, which was held at Central Elementary School on Feb. 23. Central principal Jessica McCormick introduced teachers, Carol Schnaiter, Deb Gilmore, Joanie Zimmerly, Anna Willis and Lisa Moore, as well as parent, Gina Boppart, who all spoke briefly about the highly successful event.

Gilmore began by detailing the planning of the event, which was funded by stimulus money. After contemplating the best use of the funds, the educators decided to focus on a different type of family event that would highlight reading. “We had the idea that parents and children can come together at school for something more than just an athletic event and have a good time,” she said.

Gilmore said they began holding weekly meetings in October to decide on the type of activities and how to divide them, how to determine the number of people who would attend, and what she considered the biggest hurdle - figuring out what to feed those attending. “There was a lot of preparation and a lot of it was a guessing game,” she said. “But we mainly wanted to focus on the literacy event.”

With activities that included everything from technology to Bingo, Zimmerly told the board that for her, the night was magical. “In my opinion in the 12 years I’ve been at Central School, this was the most successful night,” she said. “The smiles on the peoples’ faces, the kids, the grandparents that were there, the parents, it was just amazing. We had so much fun.”

Boppart, who attended the inaugural event with her family, said it was very well organized and there was truly something for everyone. “As a parent, I enjoyed learning about all the technology that the 3rd and 4th graders use and the kids really enjoyed showing mom and dad,” she said. “This showed a real dedication to our children and I thank the administration and the teachers for doing this.”

McCormick estimated that from 300-350 people attended the event. “We’re really fortunate to have an amazing staff at Central,” she said. “Everyone contributed – cooks, custodians, teachers, everyone in our building contributed.

Shepherd congratulated the school for their success and read a letter from another parent who praised the event. “I think it was very well received by everyone,” he said. “Job well done.”

Amboy High School principal Jeff Thake said the high school also held a successful event, 8th grade orientation, which took place on Feb. 18. “Of 62 8th graders, 52 attended with their parents,” Thake said. “We gave an overview of the registration process, talked about all the great things we’re doing here at the high school and had tours.”

Thake said the English department is taking a strong interest in novel selections per grade level. “We want to make sure we have continuity not just at the high school level but through 6th or 7th as well,” he said. “Close attention in the selection of novels for curricular purposes will continue to occur between the junior high school and the high school.”

Thake noted that AHS is still accepting participants for the attendance incentive program and said he believes attendance rates have improved.

Thake congratulated the girls basketball team for another good season and Brian Appleman and Danny Bontz for advancing to state in wrestling.

Amboy Junior High principal Joyce Schamberger reported that the 5th grade won best attendance for January with 96.74 percent and earned breakfast on Feb. 16 paid for by the AJHS PTC. She said Prince Cannan Ross and Princess Destiny Ones were crowned during the student council’s recent Sweetheart Dance for 7th and 8th graders.

Schamberger said the junior high spelling bee champ is 8th grader Lindsey McCoy and runner up is 7th grader Liam Ohlendorf.

In her school improvement report, Schamberger stated that book clubs finished discussing On Common Ground and posted team notes on Mr. Shepherd’s Wiki space. She said the scheduling committee shared a tentative schedule for the next school year and Mrs. Zinke told staff members about a new library program, Destiny, and links on the website for reference materials for teachers.

In addition, AHS business and computer teachers, Mr. Stevensen and Mrs. Wiseman, met with Mrs. Steinbach to discuss vertical alignment and curriculum mapping in their curriculum while PE teachers Mr. Full, MS. Boyer and Mr. Jahn met to discuss curriculum mapping and vertical alignment of their programs.

In school improvement, Central principal Jessica McCormick reported that the elementary school now has Activboard in every classroom and that the 4th grade teachers provided Activboard training for K, 1st and 2nd grade teachers. The 3rd grade teachers and resource teachers discussed Read Naturally and Lexia, which are programs used for reading intervention.

She said technology training was provided at the institute day with breakout sessions for K through 6th grade teachers. The 20-minute sessions included Microsoft Word, PowerPoint Activities, Vote Casters, Excel, Activboard Basics, United Streaming, Career Cruising, Brain Pop and Wikispace. “Teachers taught these sessions to other teachers,” McCormick explained. “A lot of the teachers came out having learned quite a bit.”

Shepherd noted that the idea for this type of an institute day was the result of an administration roundtable discussion within the district. “The experts in the classroom offering sessions that they felt comfortable with and then other teachers selecting what they wanted,” he said, adding that the district hopes to expand the program next year by partnering with two other districts. “We can poll all of the teachers in each of those districts to get a feeling for what would be most valuable in terms of what we need. We’ll design our institutes around that for next year creating all our professional learning opportunities based on need as opposed to based on what’s available.”

The next regular board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 25 at Amboy High School.