News Progress

•October 28, 2015•

By Mike Brothers

Future goals are a step closer to being for Sullivan schools following a special October 21 planning meeting.

This special meeting of the Unit School District No 300 board invited participation from attending members of the public, teachers and administration in an effort to best determine the future course of education in the district.

“Overall the comments were not as negative,” Supt. Brad Tuttle began. “We have made progress on original goals, and we’ll be looking at new goals.”

Tuttle explained the planning session information will be put together by Illinois Association of School Boards Field Service Director Larry Dirks, who is helping guide the district.

The group was asked to evaluate the school district’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats as ground work toward establishing goals.

Dirks explained the role of the school board was to use the members connection to the community to learn how the schools may best serve community needs.

“This is how you can teach the values of your community in the schools,” parent Monte Johnson, commented on how that information translates to the schools.

Dirks agreed pointing out the school board members then translate that into policy.

Policy manual delegates authority to the superintendent to implement it. Read More

SS Numbers Track Those Who Owe

•October 21, 2015•

By Mike Brothers

For years the city of Sullivan’s collections for unpaid utilities were an iffy process; so the city council is trying Local Debt Recovery through the Illinois Comptroller’s office.

The intergovernmental agreement was approved unanimously by city council at the Monday, October 12 meeting.

“As a municipality we can send past utility bills, ordinance violations and even past due parking tickets to Local Debt Recovery, and they take care of collections,” city treasurer Sarah Golden said of the new program.

In the past the city and collection agencies had difficulty locating people after they left Sullivan with no forwarding address. This made the ability to collect past utility bills limited to those folks who wanted to live in Sullivan again.

Golden explained that the returning customer would have to pay the past due utility bill to get service again. With 20 or more utility shut offs per month it didn’t take long for a back log to exist in collections.

A collection agency also charged the city 33% of the due bill, reducing the amount again. Golden said Local Debt Recovery charges a fee, but it is to the person who owes the delinquent bill. Read More

•October 21, 2015•

By Ariana Cherry
Reporting from Arthur

Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond superintendent Kenny Schwengel reported that the checkbook balance is $5,166,153.63. “Everything looks good at this point,” he noted. Although he did state that the district still had not received any reorganization incentive funding yet. “It has been prorated at 76% which is about a $250,000 cut,” Schwengel stated. The superintendent also informed the board that there are about 13 other districts still waiting on funding also.

Other matters that were discussed or voted upon:

- The new driveway at Lovington Elementary School has been completed. A sidewalk will be put in soon in order that students don’t have to cross the circle drive. Within the first year, a traffic pattern will be established.

-Superintendent Schwengel noted that the district is still researching the possibilities of creating a vocational/career center. “We are exploring nearby options and funding. It is in the early stages,” he said.

- Lovington principal Brandon Stone said his enrollment went up another six students this month which puts it at 238. “This is the highest it has been since I’ve been here in the past four years.”   Read More