Photo by Crystal Reed
Mackenzie Wright, a student at Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond High School, holds a few of her candles from her business Moonlit Sky Candles during the Illini Prairie CEO Trade Show held last Wednesday.

•May 19, 2021•
by Crystal Reed
NP Writer

The Illini Prairie CEO class showcased their businesses during a trade show last Wednesday at Arcola High School. This year’s class had 13 students from the school communities of ALAH, Tuscola, Arcola and Sullivan that participated in this year’s course.
“CEO” stands for Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities. It is a year-long, experientially learning based course, designed to utilize partnership in the community to provide an overview of business processes and development.
Throughout the program year students have visited local businesses, heard from guest speakers, participated in operating a class business, written a business plan and from concept to reality built their own legal, functioning entity.
Mackenzie Wright, 16, a student at Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond is one of the students showcasing their business during the trade show. Her business is called Moonlit Sky Candles.
She makes and sells organic soy wax candles and wax melts. “I’ve always been really creative, and when it came to picking a business to do, I thought that I’ve never done candles before,” she said. Read More

•May 12, 2021•
by Crystal Reed
NP Writer

The Sullivan City Council approved a 75-cent per hour raise for full-time, non-union employees of the city with the exception of five employees at the water plant who are currently seeking union representation. Their pay rate cannot be changed at this time.
The council also approved funding in the amount of $75,000 for the Sullivan Chamber and Economic Development. According to City Administrator Dan Flannell, this is the city’s annual support payment to SCED which is used in conjunction with county funding for operations. This is the same amount provided in the previous fiscal year. Read More

Planning for all students to return to in-person learning

•May 5, 2021•
by Ariana Cherry
NP Writer

"I am pretty proud of where we are. We are in good shape. I feel pretty confident we will continue to move in that direction,” noted Superintendent Shannon Cheek when he presented COVID-19 updates to the board during his superintendent’s report. At the time of the meeting, there were 16 students who were in quarantine and only one student in quarantine due to a positive test. No staff was in quarantine. Since August 19, the district has had only 75 positive cases among students and 21 positive cases among staff.
The district is planning on a full return with pre-COVID schedules for the next school year. This means that all of the buildings are looking at a full school day with everyone returning to in-person learning. There will be guidelines that the district may have to follow, and if there are students with health conditions who have a note from their doctor that requires them to have remote learning, then the district will make plans for that. Read More

•April 28, 2021•
The Illini Prairie CEO Board of Directors will be hosting the Illini Prairie Trade Show on Wednesday, May 12 from 5 – 7 pm in the Arcola High School Gym located in Arcola. At this event, this year’s class of high school students that were part of the Illini Prairie CEO class will be displaying and presenting on the businesses they have developed as part of this course.
“CEO” stands for Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities. It is a year-long, experientially learning based course, designed to utilize partnerships in our community to provide an overview of business processes and development. Read More