Junior High Academic Awards - Junior High Academic Awards will be in the junior high gym on Thursday, May 17 at 8:30 AM. 8th grade students will also be presented with promotion certificates at this time. There will be no breakfast this year due to the congestion of activities with the early dates for summer vacation and the tarps being used in the other gym on the same morning for high school graduation practice. Family and friends are invited to attend. Attire is informal. Come celebrate our junior high student achievements with us!

Solar Grant - Last week, our grade school was notified that we will receive a grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation (ICECF) for the installation of solar panels. We should get these installed in the coming months. With the grant, we will also get software to monitor the electricity generated. It is anticipated the panels will provide the electricity to run the junior high computer lab. The website for the foundation is www.IllinoisSolarSchools.org.

HIgh School Yearbooks On Sale Now - Click link to get information on how to order yearbooks either in person or via internet!

Watch D.O.G.S. - The Watch D.O.G.S. program is up and running with many dads signed up. If you missed the kick off, call the grade school office if you still want to participate.

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A Note From the Superintendent's Desk - A Note From The Superintendent’s Desk

It seems like some of our State Legislatures do not have enough difficult issues to deal with in Springfield such as the BUDGET CRISIS in our State. For the second year in a row, a bill on forced consolidation of schools is being brought forward.

Senator Jeffrey Schoenberg from Evanston is proposing a bill that will cause state forced consolidation of school districts. The Senate Bill is number SB3494. Consolidations recommended by the State Board of Education would become binding on the school districts indicated in the ISBE recommendation unless the legislators fail to vote no on the recommendations within a 90 day window after ISBE hearings are concluded. The Bill requires ISBE to inform the House and Senate which districts should be consolidated by January 1, 2014. ISBE would have 90 days to hold hearings on the consolidation recommendations and the legislature would have 90 days after the last hearing to vote on the recommendation or it will become law.

We still will be watching the activity of Lt. Governor Simon’s Classrooms First Commission as the coming months pass. This commission is supposed to provide their final report this summer. It appears that an element of the Senate feel that they must take action to require consolidation before the Classroom First Commission makes its report this summer. Maybe they are worried that the results of the Commission will not advocate forced consolidation.

It is time to call or write our local State Representative Wayne Rosenthal and State Senator William McCann asking them to vote NO on this bill. The bill works against the voice of the people in deciding a major school decision. It is the right of the people of Illinois to make decisions regarding school district reorganization. Rural school districts and small districts across the state will be the victims of SB3494, if it passes.


Patrick Murphy
Mt. Olive Superintendent

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