NORMAL – Members of Normal-based Unit 5 School Board unanimously voted to a one-year extension of the school district’s contract with its busing provider, Cincinnati, Ohio-based First Student Bus Co. District Budget Director Marty Hickman said the contract Board members approved “has no substantive changes from last year” with the exception of a 14.22 percent increase in the amount First Student charges the district.

Hickman said increasing the route charge is how First Student uses route charges to handle costs and make the revenue needed for, among other things, paying their staff. He added the district began the school year running 133 routes and were able to decrease that number to 122 routes.

Unit 5’s initial association with First Student began in 2012 when the two sides signed their first contract. Contract renewals have followed in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020, and last year. The current agreement expires June 30 with the renewal for School Year 2022-23 starting July 1 and continuing through June 30, 2023.

Joe Adelman, operations manager for the district, told Board members “a number of factors” were cause for the extension. Adelman explained he met with Chris Cole, area general manager for First Student, and explained to him the district thought it would be best to extend the contract for one year due to a number of factors including continuing to deal with COVID. Adelman said the district had other concerns.

Adelman added the district told First Student officials Unit 5 will be putting the busing job up for bids in September. “It has probably been eight years since we put this up for bids,” Adelman said, adding, “Every year you do an extension, you try to absorb all your costs. We also want to see what’s best out there and making sure we’re getting the best for the taxpayers.”

Hickman added a lower student enrollment is prompting First Student to look at next year’s bus routes to try to be as efficient as possible.

Summer School Program Preview Given: District Assistant Superintendent Michelle Lamboley provided Board members an overview of the summer school program students attending can expect. The district will “offer several summer school programs this year, including programming for students in Pre-Kindergarten through 8th grade with focuses on math and literacy, along with social and emotional support embedded. She added students in high school grades will focus on credit recovery

Students in Early Learning, Elementary, junior high, and Special Education Extended Year levels will have school Monday-Thursday from June 13-July 14, with a day off for the July 4 Federal Holiday. Early Learning classes will have roughly 20 students and take place at Cedar Ridge Elementary; Elementary classes will have 360 students studying literacy and math and take place at Cedar Ridge Elementary and Oakdale Elementary; Middle school classes will have about 360 students and take place at Kingsley Junior High School; and both Normal Community West High School and Normal Community High School will be where high school classes will happen focusing on credit recovery. Special Education classes will take place at Parkside Junior High School. The district will provide transportation during the summer school period.

High school level classes will be held at those schools from June 6-30 between 8a.m.-11a.m. and 12 Noon-3p.m.

All levels will receive breakfast and packaged lunches. She said the funding for summer school is coming from Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) Grant and Individual Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) dollars. Responding to a question from Board Member Alan Kalitzky, Lamboley said ESSER funds have helped so that up to 1,000 students can take part in summer school this year.

Hitchins, Gozur, Pyle Elected Board Officers: The meeting began with election of officers for the 2022-23 school year. All officers were voted in by acclamation. Barry Hitchins will serve as Board president succeeding Amy Roser. Hitchins has been on the Board since being first elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2019. Stan Gozur will serve as Board vice president, succeeding Kelly Pyle. Gozur was elected last year and his first term ends in 2025. Pyle was elected Board Secretary succeeding Hitchins. Pyle was appointed to the Board in 2018 to fill a seat vacated by Joe Cleary, who left the Board due to an out-of-state job opportunity. She won a first term the next year, and she will be up for re-election next year.

Public Comments Centers On Student Incident At Sugar Creek Elementary: Willie Holton Halbert led off public comments saying she was concerned that a black grade school student from Sugar Creek Elementary School had addressed an NAACP meeting over Zoom, and heard the student explain he had been called “a monkey.” Holton Halbert told Board members she “was in shock there were no immediate comments to this young child from the Superintendent or the school board denouncing such derogatory behavior of one student toward another student.”

She added there “should be zero tolerance” for such behavior. She added the moment the young man spoke to the Board was a “missed opportunity by the Unit 5 School District” as a result, she said, adding Board members should have given the boy words of encouragement. She said “a missed compassionate opportunity” by the district took place as a result. She recommended Unit 5 denounce such language. She added she believes a district review of policies concerning racial slurs should be done.

Normal Community West High’s “Good News”: In the corridor outside Normal Community West High School’s cafeteria, those coming in for Unit 5 School Board meeting were able to see displays of exhibits students had submitted, some of which won during the Regional History Day Fair at Millikin University in Decatur. The school has participated in the event since 2013, thanks to Normal West History Teacher John Bierbaum. Normal West submitted 20 exhibits, six of which, assembled by nine of the school’s students, advanced to the State competition in Springfield.

The students advancing, and the title for their respective projects are: Camryn Brown and Caitlin Cleer, “LGBTQ+ Related Law Changes In Illinois”; Emily Masters, “Rod Blagjevich”; Erin Gibbons and Jayme Weaver, “Clinton Lake Drowning”; Talia Pierard, “The Smashing Pumpkins”; Lauren Cherry, “Chicago Tylenol Murders”; and NaShyla McQuirter and Hailey Hargas, The First Living Donor Liver Transplant.”

Normal West senior Addison Ganshow became the first student from the school to become a “National History Day” qualifier. In March 2020, Ganshow worked to turn her physical tri-fold display titled, “The Radium Girls: Fighting For Their Rights To Their Graves” into a virtual display. As a result, Ganshow was one of two students chosen to represent the State of Illinois at the National History Day Competition in Washington, D.C. she won that honor in her junior year, but COVID restrictions prevented her from being formally recognized at the time of her accomplishment. National History Day’s organizing body set a national theme, and guidelines for the types of projects including exhibits, documentaries, websites, performances, and papers.

Of Ganshow’s efforts in putting her three-sided display together, Normal West High History Teacher Kathy Unsbee told Board members of Addison’s preparation to get ready for its exhibiting competition in Washington, “She made an extraordinary to take her project and transform it from cardboard to digital. She competed at the Regional competition, went on to the State competition, received a superior ranking there, and she was one of two students for the entire State of Illinois with an individual exhibit chosen to chosen to represent the State of Illinois at National History Day.”

“Good News” From Normal Community West High And Normal Community High: Usually, Unit 5’s two high schools can be found in fierce competition on a football or baseball field, or in track and field. But at Wednesday’s meeting, the two schools were honored for teaming up, along with students from Normal’s third high school, University High School, in a civic engagement experience called “Youth On A Mission,” organized by Normal Town Council Member Chemberly Cummings. The program began with a weekend retreat in October where students got to know about how the Town works and learn about each other, and also learn about the adults overseeing the event including Cummings, Normal West Teacher Tracy Freeman, and Paige Malloy, a public engagement officer with APEX Clean Energy who majored in Political Science while attending Illinois State University.

Titles of projects the students worked on during their experience included “Sustainability (Electric Vehicle Initiative). The students will also have been introduced to Normal Town Council members at the governing body’s May 2 meeting. Students who took part in this experience (and the schools they attend) are: Shloka Ravinuthala (NCHS); Reilly Owens, Rory Connell, Cecelia Cornejo, Symone Davis, and Kathryn (Katie) Munson (Normal Community West); Cana Brooks, Richa Shukla, and Ben Davison (University High).

NORMAL – At the last of three sessions to discuss how Normal-based Unit 5 School District will contend with a mounting deficit in Unit 5’s Education Fund, District Superintendent Dr. Kristen Weikle explained, after touting the benefits the district offers its students in many facets, the district’s “limited budget is catching up with us.”

Among the culprits causing the problem for the district, she said were the slide in the real estate market starting in 2009, a significant drop in funding to the district by the State over the past decade, and increased social and emotional student needs.

Residents interested in discovering how Normal-based Unit 5 District was going to tackle its latest deficit issue were able to hear from Dr. Weikle, joined by Ed Sullivan, a government relations consultant with EOSullivan Consulting, during a Zoom meeting April 26. School Board approved a $70,000 contract with Sullivan’s Libertyville-based consulting firm, to get public opinion and aid in finding out whether a referendum would be advisable. At any one point in the 90-minute session, between 134-200 residents plugged in on the meeting. Board members have made no decision yet concerning a referendum.

These meetings were just the first phase to help his group help Unit 5 learn more about constituent concerns. He said when the project enters its second phase after his group has analyzed what it has learned, there will be another series of in-person meetings and a pair of phone surveys, one in the project’s second and third phases, to learn more from district families.

Dr. Weikle said Unit 5 uses Education Fund money to pay teachers, administrators, support staff, school counselors, teaching assistants, and administrative assistants employed by the district. “The fund we have the greatest concern about is the Education fund,” she explained, adding the district has the smallest Education Fund of all the school districts in McLean County, adding, “That’s significant.”

Continuing declines in Earned Assessed Valuation of property and a housing sales decline a decade ago contributed to a fall in monies coming into the district, Dr. Weikle explained. She said, in addition to Federal and State fund sourcing, approximately 58 percent of money earned by the district comes from taxpayers. Declines in EAV, she explained, “have a drastic impact on the money received” on school districts.

Dr. Weikle said Unit 5 continues to struggle in part due to its education tax rate which hasn’t budged much since the early 1980s. It’s currently at $2.72 per $100 of equalized assessed valuation which is just a dime higher than what it was in 1983.

Add to that, Dr. Weikle said, the State began prorating money given to school districts rather than the anticipated quartet of payments during the school year many districts like Unit 5 had come to rely upon.

Among the questions sent in during the session which lasted just over 90 minutes, Dr. Weikle fielded a question whether the district has considered going to a year-long school format. She said she would need to consult district administrators who have been here longer than the two years she has to get further information regarding that. She added if Unit 5 were to consider it, the district would have to begin by getting community feedback and for it to be “well planned and phased in.” She said she is unaware as “to whether it has been explored yet” during her tenure with the district.

The Zoom session was the third Unit 5 held in the course of a week to update parents on the situation the district faces as it exits the current school year and braces going into the new school year. Sullivan’s organization has a survey on Unit 5’s website for district residents to complete and will begin work on the second phase of its work with a presentation of what the survey shows at the Board’s May 11 meeting.

“We’re trying to get as many avenues of communication open to the public,” Sullivan adding the district “wants to have the ability to communicate to them what their thoughts are.”

Dr. Weikle said the State also continue issuing mandates to follow while expecting those be followed with little to no additional resources to do so. In the last seven years, she added, Unit 5 which is considered a large school district by the State for educating over 13,000 students, has reduced its expenses by $5 million. “Unit 5 has spent the second lowest dollar amount compared to other districts,” she said, in comparing similar districts.

While the district isn’t spending much money, Dr. Weikle said, Unit 5 students are benefitting because the money the district is spending “is going toward students and impacting them directly.” School districts she named with comparable student populations to Unit 5 include Bloomington District #87 and Peoria School District 150.

NORMAL – Chad Pregracke’s introduction to conservation began in his teen years.

He said, as a result, he now thinks of the Mississippi River as a “corridor to wildlife.” But as he describes it, getting 10 feet down in those waters, he said, “is like being in a cave.” Beyond that depth, it was “pretty terrifying.” But he was quick to add, there were “10s of thousands of catfish beginning to school up, and they are so loud, they sound like bullfrogs.”

Once he got to the bottom of the river, he said, he gathered as much shellfish as possible before tugging on the basket’s rope to let the crew on the boat to send down another basket to get filled. This process would continue for nearly 40 minutes before air tanks began to empty. To him, being down close to the River floor gathering the shellfish “was a totally unique experience.”

Being at the Mississippi River floor changed his perspective at that time, Pregracke said, adding he came to know the river as a “living life force.” For six summers, he went back to collect shellfish. He said his experience of seeing how muddy and trashed the river had become during those summers “compelled me to want to clean it up.”

He said he called every State agency who acronyms he could think of to see if he could get help, even calling the Governor’s Office, but could not generate any interest.

East Moline native Pregracke is now founder and president of a non-profit which is trying to carry out the mission he considered back then called Living Lands & Waters, a river cleanup organization. Since his company was founded in 1998 when he was 23-years-old, it has collected more than 7 million pounds of trash annually along America’s waterways, including the Mississippi. This is, by no means, a one-man affair. Along the way going up and down the Mississippi, Pregracke has been able to enlist the help of 70,000 volunteers over the years to get the job accomplished. He showed those in attendance a video of himself and others getting the job done.

He addressed roughly 100 guests at Illinois State University’s Earth Day Breakfast April 22 at the Aaron Leitch Stadium Club on the upper level of the east side of Hancock Stadium. The breakfast was sponsored by five units and offices or departments at ISU – ISU Alternative Breaks group, the Center For Civic Engagement, Office of Sustainability, ISU’s Department of Geography, Geology, and The Environment, and ISU’s Student Sustainability Committee.

For nearly 25 years, he has enlisted over 120,000 volunteers to assist his crew to help remove 11 million pounds of garbage from the nation’s rivers. In addition to the clean-up efforts on America’s waterways, his company has planted over 1.6 million trees and continues planting an additional 150,000 trees annually.

Pregracke added 62 percent of goods used in the United States travel up and down the mighty river. As a result, he said, 11,000 ships came through the Port of New Orleans to aid in getting materials from one place to another. Financially, he said, that means $400 billion worth of goods travel through the river annually.

He said his relationship with the Mississippi River began as a youngster where he fished and played along the river as a youngster. When he got to be a teen, an older brother got him a job gathering shellfish for a commercial fisherman.

Before the session ended, Pregracke told the gathering his deciding to do this “wasn’t part of some grand plan,” and that he doesn’t have all the answers for helping keep the Mississippi River clean. “Really, what I was trying to do was not just pick up garbage, but make change, get people to appreciate the river for what it is and what it can be,” he said, adding the movement for making a change to keep the river clean is sort of like the barge he and his crew uses. “The barge is heavy and it’s slow. It doesn’t take off fast. It’s very slow to get going, but then it builds momentum and then it’s hard to stop.” He said the time he has spent doing this “has been an amazing 25 years as of this year.”

But Pregracke added, “We’ve still got a lot of work to do.” His last comments were to the college students in attendance at the breakfast, as he advised them, “Never underestimate yourself. The ultimate thing to make a big difference is hard work. It will take you far. It really will.”

NORMAL – As with the bulk of sports contests between Normal-based Unit 5’s rival high schools, the second of two baseball games between them took time – time for both sides to size each other up, time for each side to get into a rhythm to get runners into position, and time for either side to bring runs across the plate.

In what was the second game between the two sides in three days, Normal West pitcher Jesse Courtney’s hit aided left fielder Nicholas Haslett in crossing the plate for what turned out to be the only and winning run in the 10 inning contest, 1-0. West’s win even the series between the two teams following NCHS’ 3-2 victory two days before in 9 innings of play.

Haslett was the only player to reach third base during the struggle having singled, and got to second base courtesy of a sacrifice bunt from first baseman Clint Goodman. Leadoff man and designated hitter Eli Hensley followed and was got to first base and then second base courtesy of a walk to Mason Buzicky, loading the bases.

Normal West reliever Bryce Reatherford gained the victory. Ethan Eberle stepped in as the reliever for the last two innings, setting down NCHS batters in the final two innings and was the game’s losing pitcher. Both NCHS and Normal West ended the contest with identical 7-9 records.

Normal West head Chris Hawkins noted afterward that inside the span of three days, including the nine inning game NCHS won two days earlier, the two team demonstrated “some really good pitching and some nice defensive plays” in three days. “I just think the pitchers were pitching better than the hitters were hitting,” Hawkins added in summing up how the contest went during the period of both games.

Hawkins praised Courtney’s performance on the mound, adding it has been two weeks since he took the field having spent the period going through concussion protocol. He suffered a concussion three weeks ago in a game against Bloomington High School where he ran into a fence. Hawkins said once Courtney recovered, he has been throwing pitches, “marinating,” his coach joked, in preparation for his next turn in the rotation.

“Their pitchers were really good today, and their pitchers were really good on Tuesday,” assessed NCHS head coach Ryan Short said afterward. “Jesse Courtney threw a whale of a ballgame and Chase Wiese was right there with him. That was one of the best high school games you are going to see around.”

“Guys aren’t throwing 90 miles per hour, but they’re all over the strike zone and letting their defense help them and both pitching staffs have been great for both teams this week,” Short summed up.

High School Baseball Supporter Mike Brown Remembered Prior To Game: Prior to the start of the game, a moment of silence was held in observance of the first anniversary of the death of Mike Brown. An assistant at Normal West and Illinois Wesleyan, Brown also played a role in helping youth, high school and college baseball players in the Twin Cities.

NORMAL – New housing in Uptown is what developers brought in a proposal to Normal Town Council members at the governing body’s regular session in Council Chambers on the fourth floor of Uptown Station Monday night. Representatives from Eagle View Partners, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based firm, addressed Council members with a proposed concept for a now unused area of Uptown. Local developers The Farnsworth Group are partnering with Eagle View Partners on the project.

Representatives from Eagle View Partners signed a memorandum of understanding Monday night with Council members to develop the Trail East and Trail West structure in uptown Normal.

As envisioned by the developers, the new construction would bring roughly 198,400 sq. ft. of space with mixed-uses, and would include commercial office space, retail and restaurant space, and residential units. Eagle View proposes constructing two buildings five to six stories tall, one on each side of Constitution Blvd. between West College Avenue and Uptown Circle.

By a 6-1 count, Council members passed a resolution approving a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Eagle View Partners for the development of Trail East and West in Uptown Normal. Council Member Stan Nord cast the lone objecting vote. ouncil member Stan Nord was critical of the project’s early details throughout the night. Among the objections Nord brought up were related to the fact that the nearby 1 Uptown Circle has had restaurant space since it was created but no tenant for it. But Council Member Kevin McCarthy countered Nord’s claim, explaining when 1 Uptown Circle was being developed, no clause requiring a restaurant be part of it existed. clause for 1 Uptown Circle.

A development agreement will be presented to Council members for approval this summer.

Mark Kittrell, CEO and co-founder of Eagle View Partners, told Council members Normal would be the third community his company has worked in on such a project. Nord asked Kittrell if the project could be done without receiving “taxpayer incentives.” Kittrell responded, “No.” Kittrell added that because markets go up and down, he was unable to give Nord an exact percentage as to how much money from taxpayers will be needed.

Kittrell based rents for the proposed project on properties in Iowa Eagle View Partners have done before, with studio apartments per month ranging between $900-$1,200; single bedroom units would cost $1,500 monthly, and two bedroom units would range between $1,500-$2,500 per month. Kittrell said the management company would have a salary requirement for renters to meet to be able to occupy, comparing that to what a lender would expect of a prospective borrower.

Proclamation Makes April 22 Is “Rick Bleichner Day” In Normal: Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McCarthy read a proclamation prior to Monday’s Normal Town Council regular session getting started. Bleichner, who has been on NPD force since 1991, and served as its chief since being appointed to the position in 2011, will retire Friday. Roughly 40 people in attendance at the meeting gave Bleichner a standing ovation. A retirement ceremony for him is slated for his last day on the job Friday.

Proclamation Making May “Gold Star Families Month” Presented: McCarthy also presented a framed proclamation to a local family who are designated a “Gold Star Family.” “Gold Star” families have seen a loved one go off to combat, often in foreign lands or seen their loved one deployed to military service and their relative was killed. The local family which was presented the proclamation before Monday’s meeting were Jerome and Frances Maddox, Normal. Their son, U. S. Army Sgt. Anthony R. Maddox was based in Afghanistan when he was killed there in 2013. His father said Anthony played basketball at Chiddix Junior High School and football at Normal Community High School. Jerome Maddox said a stretch of Interstate 55 in Towanda between mile markers 167-171 which is dedicated to Anthony Maddox.

Amendments To Town Codes Related To Solar, Wind, Approved: Council members unanimously passed one of a pair of amendments to ordinances — one concerning solar energy, the other regarding wind energy. The solar energy matter will allow the Town to establish guidelines residences and businesses can use to utilize renewable energy. Town staff explained in a report to Council members the impact of continued use of renewable energy will increase as more financial incentives for people using renewable energy become available.

By a 6-1 count, with Council Member Stan Nord casting the lone dissenting vote on the second of the items, in part due to an objection to large turbines on certain properties. Council members approved an ordinance amending Town Zoning Code concerning the Town’s Wind Energy Code. The ordinance has two parts: For small wind energy facilities which are less than 120 feet in height; and large wind energy facilities which are between 120 feet and 510 feet in height.

One Appointment To One Board, A Reappointment To Another Board OK’d: Council members unanimously approved an appointment to one board while approving a reappointment to another Board. First, Council members unanimously approved reappointing Alan Sender to the board of the Central Illinois Regional Airport to a term which will expire April 30, 2027. Sender has been on the Board serving a term which expires on April 30 this year. In addition, Council members approved appointing Assistant City Manager Eric Hanson to the Town’s Police Pension Board for a first term. Hanson will be filling a vacancy created by the resignation of Andrew Bender. Mayoral appointments serve on the Board for two years or until their successor is appointed and qualified per State Pension Code.

Omnibus Agenda Items Approved: Omnibus agenda items approved by the Council included:

• Approval of the minutes of the regular Council meeting of April 4, 2022.

• Report to receive and file Town of Normal expenditures for payment as of April 13, 2022.

• A resolution authorizing execution of a conditional right of entry – Dan Kelley.

• A resolution to accept bids and award a contract to J.G. Stewart Contractors, Inc. for the 2021 miscellaneous sidewalk improvements – 50/50 sidewalk & ADA ramps project in the amount of $657,925.40.

• A resolution to accept bids and award a contract to Bloomington-based Stark Excavating, Inc. for the Camelback Bridge repairs (2022-057-7821) project in the amount of $311,043.80.

• A resolution authorizing the filing of the Town of Normal’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) annual action plan for program year 2022-2023.

• An ordinance reserving volume cap in connection with private activity bond issues and related matters.