NORMAL – As part of the meeting of Normal-based Unit 5 School Board on Sept. 26, held at district headquarters, a public hearing was held prior to Board members approving the proposed budget of $141.6 million for the district for the 2012-2013 school year.

At the public hearing, no members of the general public spoke, but District Business Manager Erik Bush informed Board members of some details of the budget prior to their taking a vote. Bush explained the State of Illinois has cut its funding to the district by 4 percent. He said that cut translates into Unit 5 not receiving roughly $1.6 million it should have received based on Illinois’ General State Aid formula.

With the Mackinaw Valley Special Education Association being dissolved this year, Bush said, expenses related to Mackinaw Valley will be absorbed by the district during fiscal year 2013. Taking in monies used to run Mackinaw Valley Education Association will increase the amount of money in Unit 5’s Education Fund. The amount Unit 5 will receive is roughly 6 percent, increasing the amount of money in that fund from $88.6 million to $94.2 million. After Mackinaw Valley Education Association is completely disbanded, its members, including El Paso Gridley School District will become responsible for funding special education needs.

Bush said classroom sizes have increased, with the district adding 500 students to classrooms over a period of the last two school years. Those 500 students, Bush said, account for a 3.8 percent growth in student population. But, while student numbers have increased, he explained, hiring for the classroom has been limited during the same time period – to 2 percent – due to limited resources.

Normal West High School’s “Good News”: Normal West senior Justin Hetherington was honored for his actions on Tuesday, August 28 during his 6th period class. A student unexpectedly passed out in instructor Jason Klokkenga’s class and began going into a seizure. Hetherington had recently taken a class at the Area Career Center at Bloomington High School. Hetherington instructed other students to move desks out of the way as he was helping the student during her seizure.

As the nurse and other school personnel arrived to help, Klokkenga took his students from the class, but Hetherington asked to stay behind and help the nurse until other paramedics were on the scene.

Hetherington’s service to the school was not only noticed by School Principal Dave Johnson and Klokkenga, but by Officer Mike Chiesi, Normal West’s School Resource Officer and the paramedics that responded to the call.

Johnson also announced that Klokkenga has been selected to receive the 2012 Fred Drake Alumni Award by the Illinois State University History Department and History-Social Sciences Education program. Each year, the ISU History Department recognizes a History or Social Sciences Teacher who is an outstanding alumnus of the program. Klokkenga started teaching at Normal Community West High School in the 1999-2000 school year, and played a role in starting the FMP program at Normal West and continues to build its strength through his role as an advisory director.

Normal Community High School’s “Good News”: Normal Community High School Principal David Bollman recognized Carley Williams, an NCHS sophomore for her recent achievement, as in April, Carley competed with other area youths at ISU in the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics, known as ACT-SO. NAACP Bloomington-Normal Branch hosts students from Bloomington and Normal who compete in the local competition, which is cosponsored by State Farm Insurance, YWCA, and ISU.

In the local competition, Williams won a gold medal for her original essay, which qualified her for the national competition held on July 6 in Houston, Texas. At the national level, Williams won a bronze medal. As a medalist, she won an iPad, laptop computer, and check for $1,000.

As part of a second “good news” item from NCHS, Bollman recognized the school’s Student Council and their president, senior Cayla Cardamore, as well as one of their faculty sponsors, Addie Ince.

In July, State Farm offered to coordinate an “Intercity Food Fight” to benefit the food pantry of the Western Avenue Community Center. Bins were placed in five local grocery stores were decorated by Student Council members from both NCHS and Bloomington High School in a competition to see which school could raise the most donations. The schools promoted the event through radio interviews, community groups, and using other means throughout each school. Food was collected throughout the week and weighed outside Ironmen stadium at NCHS on the night of the annual football game between our two schools.

The drive restocked the food pantry with over 7,000 pounds of food at a time when donations are scarce, Bollman explained. Of the 7,000 pounds of food, 4,959 pounds of it was raised by NCHS, giving the Ironmen the victory in the friendly competition, while BHS raised 2,674 pounds of food.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2012 at 10:52 pm and is filed under The Normalite, Unit 5. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.