District discusses school numbers, additions

South School dedication ceremony

The Illinois Valley Central District 321 school board meeting focused on the school year.

But, before the meeting, the board hosted a dedication ceremony for South Primary School.

Filling the new gym, parents, teachers and students said the Pledge of Allegiance with the new third grade students and listened to superintendent Nick Polyak thank those involved with the renovation process.

“Before the renovations, we couldn’t prepare any food in this building, so the food was made at CEC and driven over for the students at South. All of that is now history.
Unused classrooms in the past were converted to a place for library books and banks of computers for students to use. All of that is history,” Polyak said. “Having said that,
Mr. Bethel and his teachers never complained and they always provided a first-class education, but our students deserve more.”

Polyak introduced the parents to the new gymnasium, complete with bleachers and basketball hoops that can be lowered to 8 feet for the younger students.

He also mentioned the brand new kitchen, where the school prepares hot breakfasts and lunches, the new playground and equipment outside, the new library and computer lab, the main office and six new classrooms for the third-grade students.

“When I started at IVC last summer the construction fence was just being put up to start this project. It’s amazing how quickly something like this can become reality,” Polyak said.

“This community is fortunate to have a board of education that cares deeply about the students of our community. They work hard to make sure we have first-class employees, first-class facilities and a first-class curriculum.”

Polyak finished his speech and then brought up school board president Jim Hollenback, Dr. Dave Kinney, former superintendent, Mike Bethel, South School Principal and Gerald Brookhart, regional superintendent of Peoria County schools, to cut the ribbon and complete the dedication ceremony.

At the meeting, Polyak stated that the district had been awarded the Bright Star Award for 2010, being one of 81 schools in the district to receive the honor.

“What it means to be a Bright Star district is our test scores were in the top third of the state while our funding was in the bottom fourth. What that really means is they’re recognizing us for being a district where the students are getting a bang for their buck,” he said.

Polyak made photocopies of the award to hang in each of the schools.

Also at the meeting, the district’s new teachers were introduced. For South School, Julie Gleason and Bridgette Levy, special education teachers were introduced to the board.

Chillicothe Junior High and Elementary Center has two new teachers, Annette Belcher, special education teacher and Carli Jones, social worker/counselor.
Ericka Bush, eighth-grade language arts/literature teacher, Keeley Ruhland, teacher assistant and newspaper and current events teacher, and Toby Thomas, band director, are all new to Mossville Junior High.

The high school introduced two new employees: Dustin Birkel, assistant principal, and Monica Lynch, Spanish teacher.

Two teachers could not attend the meeting, including Jessica Bokelman, South School first-grade teacher and Tiffany Costello, Mossville Bright Futures teacher.

First day enrollment was also discussed at the meeting. Polyak noted the district was down 13 students from last year, but expects the numbers to climb before the next meeting when the sixth day enrollment will be presented.

“We’ll be interested to see what that looks like once we settle in since folks are still showing up to register,” Polyak said.

South School’s enrollment was at 363, CEC had 407, Mossville had 654 and Illinois Valley Central High School had 743, bringing the district total to 2,167.

Polyak also noted CEC and IVCHS have completed their new fire alarm installations, completing their life safety projects.

In other action and discussion, the board:

• approved new personnel contracts for Karen Moewe, part-time public relations director for the district; Amber Piercy, part-time English teacher at IVCHS; Jeff Roberts, part-time custodian at IVCHS; Stacy Watkins, special education aide at South School; and Steve Evans, bus driver

• approved the resignations of Verne Twedell, bus driver; Vickie Williams, crossing guard at CEC; and Kristin Maher, pom pon sponsor at CEC

• appointed the board representative, Nell German, to the Illinois Association of School Boards governing board.