Chrisman schools to ‘mask up’ or lose funding
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The Chrisman School Board met on July 14th to prepare for the upcoming school year. Office staff returns to work on July 26th with registration on July 27th and 29th from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. New teacher orientation will take place in early August.
The elementary school is currently searching for a 1 on 1 paraprofessional for the 2021-2022 school year as well as one full time bus driver. With the elementary school, Mrs. Schluter will be using the same handbook as Mr. Huber concerning the students chromebook usage. Necessary changes were also made in the elementary handbook to reflect what is suggested by the Illinois Principals Association Online Model Handbook to make sure that it’s up to date and legally compliant.
Summer school at the Chrisman High School has officially ended. “All of the students finished the courses they were assigned in the time allotted and one student was even able to graduate,” said Principal Cole Huber.
Last month, the junior high basketball and volleyball referees were given a pay increase, however at the time, junior high baseball umpires were not discussed. Previously, when the junior high had a baseball team, the pay was set at $50.00 per game. Other schools pay between $50-$60 per game. “We would like to raise this to at least $60. I did not make the cutoff to get this on the July agenda, but I would like to see this raised in August,” said Huber.
The school facility sales tax revenue numbers are in for the month of June. In that time, the district received $13,474.99, a record amount. The district has collected a grand total of $440,824.74 in sales revenue for the facilities.
The Illinois school districts have been notified by the Illinois School Board of Education that masking will not be optional at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. “The ISBE has threatened to revoke recognition status and potentially funding for those districts that have adopted policies not requiring masks for students and staff,” said Superintendent Acklin.
Mr. Huber has also put together a proposal for raising High School official pay that would put Chrisman above the average pay offered by schools in their conference at an additional cost to the district of $1,595. The board approved the raise.
The district also received a quote from Midwest Transit for an eighteen passenger bus with a wheelchair lift. The quote included a proposal for purchase, as well as a proposal for leasing. Additionally, two other quotes were sent in from Southern Bus and Mobility for ten passenger buses with wheelchair lifts.
The air conditioning unit that serves the Junior High and High School Princpal’s office and teacher’s workroom has been diagnosed as a bad coil. Ben Jenness is currently researching options to get it back up and running. Johnson Controls Fire Protection is also up for renewal at a cost of $6,031.07. Fuel and milk bids were also due at the time of the meeting.
The Georgetown-Ridge Farm administration has been in contact with Chrisman to ascertain if there is any interest in forming a High School Football Cooperative between the two school districts. Nine students expressed interest in playing football if it was available, but only four showed up to the organizational meeting. The estimated cost of participation per athlete would be close to $900.00.
