County Board Plans to Give & Take Away

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•October 9, 2019•
By Mike Brothers

Moultrie County Board is planning to do some giving and taking away at the regula October meeting Thursday.
During three different committee meetings Oct. 2 a proposed hiring freeze would take away county office personnel decisions and a reorganization of animal control will take away Jan Haegen’s part time ESDA position.
The giving came upon recommendation of County Board Chairman Dave McCabe to create a new Department of Technology services and hire a department head at a $65,000 annual salary.
The full time position would have a courthouse office to handle IT issues as well as provide Geographic Information System GIS mapping services for the supervisor of assessments.
Personnel Committee members continued giving with the recommendation of $1500 annual increases for courthouse employees.
In addition to the regular increases, Chairman McCabe recommended bringing Supervisor of Assessments Lori Barringer’s salary to $53,045 as well as allow the supervisor to give one employee a $1000 bonus. Read More

Homecoming Parade 2019

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Photos by Mike Brothers
Homecoming Parade
Enthusiastic watchers gathered around the Sullivan square and along the parade route to view class floats on Friday. First responder equipment from the county, those celebrating class reunions including the SHS classes of 1959 and 1969 and a variety of civic organizations and politicians joined in. Above the Sullivan High School band kept the tempo lively during the route. There are more homecoming photos HERE.

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

SHS Royals 2019

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Photo courtesy Marsha Kirby
SHS Royals
Sullivan High School homecoming activities were highlighted with the crowning of the Queen and King at the annual dance held. Queen Avery Still and King Luke Harlin take the floor during the coronation dance. Decades was the theme for the week with the Friday afternoon homecoming parade displaying unique float depictions ranging from the sixties through disco into the glam rock eighties.

SMS STEM Program Awarded ADM Grant

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SMS STEM Program Awarded ADM Grant
For the second straight year, the STEM program at Sullivan Middle School was awarded a $5,000 grant through ADM. The STEM curriculum is designed to be a targeted enrichment program aimed at students who qualify for the Accelerated Math curriculum. In its second year the program was fortunate to be awarded multiple grants, including this latest one from ADM. Pictured from left to right: Science teachers Nicole Garrett and Micah Heddins, Sullivan CUSD 300 School Board Member and ADM Representative Erik Stollard, Science teachers Troy Rogers and JD Graham.

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

2019 SHS Homecoming Candidates

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SHS Homecoming Candidates
King & Queen Candidates front row from left:  Ashlyn Bennett, Avery Still, Erin Wallace, Jessica Williamson. Back row from left:  Zane Gardner, Luke Harlin, Hunter Taber, Dillon Wallace.
Homecoming Attendants are Freshman Molly Dendy & Paul Bates, Sophomores Morgan Moll & Camden Dwyer, Juniors Haylee Faulkner & Kanin Elder. SHS Homecoming parade begins at 4:00 p.m,. Friday with coronation ceremonies at the Homecoming Dance Saturday, Oct. 5.

Blue Days Follow as Community Mourns Tragic Accident

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Photo by R.R. Best
The Sullivan community joined together at the elementary school on Sunday, mourning the loss of kindergartener Tyson Mendoza. Reading prayers printed on Tyson’s favorite color blue paper are Lindsay Williamson, Sarah Crist and Amanda Sanner. They were joined at the interfaith service encircling the school building, locking hands in prayer at the Sullivan Ministerial Association organized gathering.

•October 2, 2019•
By Mike Brothers

It was a blue Monday at Sullivan Schools with nearly a thousand students dressed in blue honoring five year old kindergarten student Tyson Mendoza, who died in a Friday afternoon traffic accident.
Supt. Ted Walk, in his weekly column, explained teachers, bus drivers, and support staff gave up the weekend to help prepare for the task of comforting his classmates.
On Sunday an interfaith prayer gathering at Sullivan Elementary School drew a large enough crowd to encircle the school building locking hands in prayer for his rural Windsor family and the family of the school teacher who also died in the crash.
According to the Illinois State Police Dist. 10 news release from Trooper Joseph Rush at 3:39 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27 a 2014 Ford Escape stopped at the intersection of CR800N and proceeded east into the path of a southbound Yellow Bird School bus transporting 11 Sullivan school children. 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