Category Archives: News

Students Explore Controversial Topics In Letters to the Editor

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Photo furnished
Letter Writers from the back left: Anna Mathias, Arabella Dudley, Jerralee Goad, Drew Rogers, Ian Plank, Noah Bates.  Front left: Carley Towle, Mallory Nichols, Brea Farris, Taylor Orris, Carsyn Seeley.

•October 9, 2019•

Letters to the editor written by Cami Badman’s honors English juniors at Sullivan High School explored controversial subjects with a maturity and logic that should be envied by adults.
Badman opened the school year challenging 24 students in two classes to present well rounded arguments for controversial subjects in letters to the editor.
Throughout history letters to newspapers on important local topics have crafted public opinion into pivotal changes in society.
In a age of electronic dominance and sound bite arguments, exploring topics in depth brought some interesting and convincing results.
Students explored a wide range of topics ranging from discontinuing the penny to gun control.
“The students had to select a topic and take a stance finding evidence from reliable sources,” Badman said of the assignment. Read More

The Monarch – King of the Butterflies

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•October 2, 2019•
By Cheri Burcham
for the News Progress

Have you noticed more butterflies lately? Especially monarch butterflies? That is because it is the monarch migration season and these black and orange beauties are heading down to Mexico!
The Monarch – which is our state butterfly – is the only butterfly that I am aware of that makes this miraculous journey each year.
It ends and begins in Mexico. Monarch butterflies overwinter in areas of the central Mexican mountains where they semi-hibernate until it is warm enough to travel back north. In the spring, they start making their way north through the U.S., reaching as far as Canada.
However the butterfly that makes it all the way north is not the exact same one that left Mexico – it will be the great grandchild of that one!
As the butterfly heads north, it will stop along the way and lay eggs and then die. Those eggs are deposited only on milkweed plants and the caterpillars (larvae) that emerge will eat the milkweed until they grow large enough to pupate or develop into a chrysalis (cocoon).
They will take about 10 days inside that chrysalis to develop into a butterfly and then emerge – and continue the journey north. This continues for four generations and then what I call the “supers” emerge and that last generation will be the ones that make a 2500 mile journey back to Mexico. Those are the ones you are seeing now. Isn’t it amazing that they know exactly where to go but have never been there before? Read More

Four Sullivan Alumni Honored

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•October 2, 2019•

Rikki Ray

Rikki Ray Selected Sullivan High School Alumni Who’s Who
By Ellen Ferrera
for the News Progress

Rikki Ray, a 1990 Sullivan High School graduate, has had a lifelong affair with books so she was destined to found the One Book, One Sullivan (OBOS) program to help promote literacy and a sense of community.
Ray was selected by the SHS Alumni Association for the Who’s Who Award presented at the annual banquet Oct. 5 at Building 1225 in Sullivan.
She received her BA in Education as well as her MA from Eastern Illinois University and began her teaching career in Findlay in 1995. The following year she started teaching in Sullivan where she continues to inspire students to engage in the lively discussion of books.
She developed OBOS in 2007 when one of her students, Sarah DeLong, wondered why Sullivan didn’t have a program like the one she had seen in another school involving the entire community in reading.
Ray recalled, “It took a year of planning and to get funded from SCEF to start the program. We are most grateful for the Sullivan Rotary for sponsoring OBOS ever since our second year for the past 12 years.” Read More

Okaw Valley Elementary Launches Innovative Kindness Program

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•October 2, 2019•
OVES is launching the innovative Choose To Be Nice program this year to create a lasting culture of kindness that will influence the entire community.
With age-appropriate curriculum, practical lessons and fun activities for the entire school, the program shows students how to fundamentally improve their interactions with others.
The comprehensive program starts with a simple promise to be nice. Students and faculty, are invited to make the promise and sign a colorful banner and received a promise band to make it official. The banner is hung prominently in the school as a reminder to everyone. Read More

New Awards Mark 90 Years Of Alumni Homecoming Banquets

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•October 2, 2019•
By Ralph Kirk
for the SHS Alumni Association

The very first Sullivan Homecoming banquet was held November 2, 1928 in the school gym, alumni were served chicken pie and the Sullivan football team played Arcola. Neither side scored a single point!
Alumni awards were given to Dr. Butler, Bo Wood, Tiny Hill, and C. B. Shuman.
Many Sullivan SAA banquet alumni and SAA award winners have gone on to remarkable careers that helped improve the area and the world. One of the main halls at Sullivan High School is lined with their “footprints” or plaques marking their passage through Sullivan and detailing some of their accomplishments in the area and world.
Dedicated volunteers such as SAA founder Maxine Davis willingly put hundreds of hours of their volunteer time in planning and executing the banquets each year. Ninety years of banquets is certainly a remarkable accomplishment, and SAA decided it should do something special to mark that success. Read More

Sullivan School District Enrollment is On the Rise

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•September 25, 2019•
By Ariana Cherry
for the News Progress

Sullivan High School Student Council representatives presented homecoming plans to the Unit #300 board of education Sept. 9.
The theme for homecoming is Decades with Oct. 4 parade day and Oct 5 dance and coronation.
Superintendent Ted Walk reported total enrollment for the entire school district is up five percent. This year, the smallest classes are the sophomores and juniors and largest classes are the first and third grades.
“The school year is off and going well,” he said.
The Sullivan School Board held a budget hearing to discuss the FY 20 Tentative Budget. Superintendent Walk stated that the 2020 budget was very similar to the current budget. It was a balanced budget and there were small changes. He noted that the Title funds had increased slightly and allocated in different areas. After the hearing was closed, members voted and unanimously for the FY 20 budget. Read More

Oh Brother: The Right Person at the Right Time Made the Difference

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•September 25, 2019•
By Mike Brothers

There are miracles and there are miraculous events.
What happened to Kaye Webb of Sullivan last week may be a little of both.
Most everyone around knows Kaye for her talents with genealogy through her work with the Moultrie County Historical and Genealogical Society.
Kaye is also one of the select readers of the Moultrie County News Progress who picks their newspaper at the office as soon as it comes off the press on Wednesday.
Circulation guru at the News Progress, Carolyn Collier has a constant stream of fresh newspaper visitors on Wednesday afternoon from about 1:00 p.m. when the paper comes off the press until closing time. Read More

ALAH Board Approves Budget, Discusses Apptegy Advantages

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•September 25, 2019•
By Ariana Cherry
for the News Progress

Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond school board members learned more about, Apptegy during a regular meeting where the annual budget was approved.
A live meeting with one of its techs, Casey, via Google, revealed information about how the app could benefit the district.
The Apptegy tech demonstrated a live working app that the Arcola School District had in place.
Presently, Apptegy has 100,000 districts in the U.S using the app and an estimate of 128 school districts in Illinois. The main purpose of the app is to promote stories and events that are happening in the school district. Apptegy is designed to make it simple for parents and students to navigate all in one place, creating a much more streamlined appearance.
It will be free to download for anyone who has a smart phone or tablet device. Board members noted that there were already high school staff that are interested in integrating some students in with the app to start helping out with it and promoting events and various organizations. Read More

Annual Senior Expo In Sullivan Draws Over 300 Visitors

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Photo by Ellen Ferrera
Senior Services Exec Dir Kathi Garvey(l), Assistant Vonnie Lee and Counselor Kim Adamson at Senior Expo.

•September 18, 2019•
By Ellen Ferrera
for the News Progress

Every last table in the Sullivan American Legion Hall was commandeered for seating and most of the vendors ran out of promotional items as over 300 senior citizens converged for the annual Senior Expo sponsored by the Mid-Illinois Senior Services September 13.
Griffin’s Catering prepared the free lunch of BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, cole slaw and chocolate cake. The lunch was provided, as it has been for several years, by State Senator Chapin Rose and State Representative Brad Halbrook.
Some 20 members of the SHS Student Council volunteered to serve the meals so the seniors would not have to stand in a long lunch line.
Thirty vendors ringed the hall and offered an array of free promotional items such as umbrellas, hats, pill cases, note pads, key chains, plastic shopping bags and coin purses. The vendors also had drawings for many door prizes which are always favorites of the attendees. Read More

County Board To Take Up Issue Of Recreational Marijuana In Moultrie County

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•September 18, 2019•
High Tax for Getting High

By Ellen Ferrera
for the News Progress

At the regular board meeting on September 12 chairman Dave McCabe reminded the Moultrie County Board that they will need to take up the issue of legalized recreational marijuana in Moultrie County.
The new Illinois law, Cannabis Regulation Tax Act (CRTA), takes effect January, 2020. The comprehensive 610-page bill sets forth rules and regulations by which counties and municipalities will tax and regulate the sale of recreational marijuana. Read More