•January 20, 2016•

By Ariana Cherry
For the News Progress

Superintendent Kenny Schwengel shared some good news at the last Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond school board meeting.

The district received an unexpected $101,800 in incentive funding, although the state still owed them $240,000.

“Our current checkbook balance is $6,578,329.69,” he said. “ All funds are in the black.”

With a state budget still not in place, Illinois will no longer pay for students to take the ACT as they have in the past. For the last 15 years, the state has paid for the test. Once the state could no longer pay for the ACT, legislators passed a bill requiring the state to offer some type of college entrance exam. The Illinois Board of Education broke its longtime partnership with ACT by putting the test up for bids.

The SAT’s offered a contract $1.37 million less than ACT’’s bid. Although, the state can’t sign anything until it reviews and evaluates a protest from ACT. This puts a lot of this year’s juniors in a tough spot for college testing as well as the district as they try to help their students prepare for testing.

High school principal Buck Condill stated that they are still awaiting instruction from the state regarding funding or if they are planning on giving the SAT to their students.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.