The Illinois Valley Central District 321 board of education meeting June 22 highlighted recent achievements and improvements throughout the district.
IVC High School baseball coach Jerry Rashid and many of the varsity baseball players were recognized for their Class 2A third-place finish.
With a final record of 33-6 and carrying titles such as conference, Regional, Sectional and Super-Sectional champions, Rashid was nothing but thankful for the recognition.
“It’s a great honor to be here, we had a great season. By wins and losses alone it certainly stands for itself,” Rashid said. “They are fine young men and really represent our school in the highest level possible. We were very proud to be wearing IVC Ghost shirts in Joliet.”
Rashid explained that many times other high schools have requested to play at IVC’s facilities, and the high-quality program is something to boast about.
“They always like us to get to the State finals because we bring more people than anyone, and that’s a great tribute to the people of Chillicothe as well,” he said.
The baseball team graduated seven players this year, which leaves 10 returning and quite a few openings for new talent.
Superintendent Nick Polyak discussed South School construction progress, giving many hope it will be done as soon as the rain lets up.
“One of the things we’re looking at is now what we found is the rain keeps delaying the outside work, but one of the nice things is the rain is showing some of the places that are not water tight.
It’s actually helping us troubleshoot at this point, so that’s a silver lining,” Polyak said.
The school is waiting on the completion of the parking lot, installation of kitchen equipment and floor tiles and details the project architect is putting together.
Many life safety projects have begun as well. The replacement windows in the Mossville Junior High gym started last week as well as the front doors to the high school. At Chillicothe Elementary Center the fire alarms were replaced.
Greg Johnson of the finance committee gave a report of the state funding and projected expenses for the 2010-11 school year.
“We’ve planned our budget revenues and projected expenses as best we can given what we know today,” Johnson said.
“As you look at it from a year over year perspective, 2009-10 to the 2010-11 year you’re going to see about $650,000 year over year expense reduction and really, I think, the big driving force is revenues from the state and what’s going to happen there. Overall, it looks like $1.2 million revenue shortfall this year over last year.”
