“Students honored, board hears state budget concerns” |
| Students honored, board hears state budget concerns Posted: 18 Feb 2011 12:08 PM PST Eldorado school board opened its Thursday meeting by praising achievements of students before hearing some a serious critique of Governor Pat Quinn's budget proposal from Superintendent Gary Siebert. The board began by honoring six of 13 Eldorado Middle School cheerleaders who recently competed in the America's Best National Championship in San Jose, Calif., and won first place in the Advanced Middle School category. The board gave approval to the team to attend finals in Indianapolis, Ind., April 16 and 17. The board also recognized six high school students for achievement in the Worldwide Youth Science and Engineering Academic Challenge at Southeastern Illinois College Feb. 3. Carly Lowery and Logan Boulds tied for third place in math, Kaleb Irwin place second in math, Christine Dubble placed second in computer science, Cody Johnston placed first in engineering graphics and Haley Kurtek placed first in physics. The board then congratulated Tnea Turner who will be receiving a $5,000 Horatio Alger scholarship. State budget He said the governor wants the legislature to borrow over $8 billion to pay off debt. Siebert said since the state is paying 10 percent interest on money it owes to pharmacies and nursing homes he believes the state would save money by approving the borrowing of the $8 million. "If that doesn't happen the school districts are going to continue to loan money to the state," Siebert said. He believes paying bills late could endanger businesses and agencies. "It will cost the state less money to buy bonds now than pay everybody a year late. I'm sure some businesses won't survive that long and maybe school districts won't survive that long," Siebert said. The budget also proposes cutting money from transportation -- a proposal Siebert said makes no sense for the downstate region -- closing Regional Offices of Education and encouragement for school consolidation. "Consolidation will not save the amount of money people are telling him it's going to save," Siebert said. "Quinn wants to raise state aid to help students, but it will not help anybody if they are not getting to school (due to cuts in transportation)." Siebert said the governor proposes to provide more money to alternative schools that are run by the Regional Office of Education, even as he proposes to eliminate the ROE. College prep classes "I sent 10 letters to seniors who will not graduate. Two of them might make it," Lane said. Lane proposed and the board approved an agreement with Southeastern Illinois College for high school students to attend the college's Early College Program to improve math and reading scores. The students would still be required to take a year of algebra and geometry at the high school, but would receive both high school and college credit for classes taken in the Early College Program. The classes would be during the summer. Students accepted into the program will receive a tuition scholarship, but fees, textbooks and other expenses are to be paid by the student. Students must have completed their freshman year of high school to be eligible. During the meeting, the board:
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