East Central Reporter

Members of the Cumberland Community Unit School District 77 gathered for a regular meeting on Thursday, May 19.

Cumberland Community Unit School District 77 meetings are conducted regularly to discuss a variety of matters relating to the development and maintenance of all the schools within District 77. Members are tasked with discussing and deciding upon such issues.

Here are the meeting minutes as provided by the Cumberland Community Unit School District 77:

Regular Meeting

Cumberland CUSD #77

May 19, 2016

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by President Jack Ingram. Members present included Ben Bland, Steve Layton, Bob Blade, Anita Hayden, and Pam Ross. Board member Kim Starwalt was absent. Others present included Megan Walsh, Student Council Representative, High School Principal Kevin Maynard, Middle School Principal Stacy Keyser, Elementary Principal Daniel Huffman and Todd Butler, Superintendent, Weston and Morgan Waller, Tera Scales, Hannah Puckett, Brandon Miller, Shealyn Chesnut, Sherry Parker, and Janet Blade.

President Ingram welcomed the visitors. There was no public comment.

President Ingram reviewed the Consent Agenda items:

a. Approval of the April 21, 2016 regular meeting minutes.

b. Financial and budget reports

c. Invoices needing approval for payment

d. Membership in IASB

f. 2016-2017 School Fees

A motion was made by Ben Bland and seconded by Steve Layton to approve the Consent Agenda A-D and table the 2016-2017 school fees. All members present voted “Aye”.

President Ingram spoke about his reflections from the past year and the success the district has demonstrated as we approach graduation on Sunday. He attended the fine arts presentations offered by our students and teachers and was impressed by the opportunities students have been presented. He is proud of the dedication, many hours of extra time and extraordinary effort that the staff gives to this district throughout the year.

High School Board Report submitted by Kevin Maynard

Building

1. Congratulations to Lindsey Ingram and Kendra Flood on representing Cumberland High School at the WTWO “Top of the Class” luncheon on May 17 in Terre Haute.

2. Congratulations to the scholastic bowl team on their wonderful season. At the small school National tournament the team finished 33 out of the 80 schools competing.

3. Charlie Sappington has received the section 20 “Excellence in Teaching Award” from the Illinois Association Vocational Agriculture Teachers. Congratulations.

4. The student council had a wonderful time and came home with some outstanding awards at the state convention held in Springfield. Megan Walsh has been voted first vice president to the state council and Mrs. Janet Blade was named adviser of the year for the IASC. Congratulations to both Megan and Mrs. J. Blade.

5. Fine Arts Night was held on May 9th. A good job was done by both students and staff.

6. The FFA banquet was held May 12th. Congratulations to all those individuals and adults involved in that program.

7. Cumberland High School Biology 1 students took the state science assessment exam on May 12th.

8. Congratulations to all of our scholarship award winners and a big thank you to all the individuals and organizations that help fund the scholarships available to the students of Cumberland High School.

9. Congratulations to the award winners of this year’s academic awards day. Thank you to the student council for again hosting this year’s awards day.

10. Graduation practice will be at 1:00 on Friday, May 20th and Baccalaureate and Graduation will take place on Sunday, May 22nd starting at 2:00 in the high school gym.

Athletics

1. Spring sports are starting to prepare for their postseasons:

a. Girls track finished fourth at the LOVC track meet in Arcola and will be participating in Sectional at Altamont on Friday, May 13th. State track meet will be held at EIU starting on May 19th.

b. Boys track finished tied for first with Arthur at the LOVC track meet and will be participating in Sectional at Newton on Friday, May 20th. State track meet will be

held at EIU starting on May 26th.

c. Baseball Regionals start on Monday, May 16th in Broadlands. CHS will play Villa Grove/Heritage in the first round.

d. Softball Regionals start on Wednesday, May 18th in Tuscola. CHS will play Marshall in the first round.

Additional High School Board Notes

1. Congratulations to Drew Warner. Drew placed fourth in the Maurice Shepherd High School Chemistry contest at Eastern Illinois University.

2. Congratulations to Elise Hemmen. Elise qualified for the IHSA state track meet in pole vault. She finished 13th overall.

3. Congratulations to the players and coaches of this year’s baseball team. The season ended on Monday, May 16th with a loss to Heritage/Villa Grove in the first round of the IHSA Regional.

4. The softball team has advanced to play in the Regional Championship game on Saturday, May 21st at 11:00 in Tuscola vs. Tuscola. Good luck to players and coaches.

Middle School Board Report submitted by Stacy Keyser

Congratulations to the following athletes who attended the IESA state track meet in Peoria on Friday, May 13 and Saturday, May 14:

8th grade girls: Destiny Williams (mile)

7th grade girls: Katelyn Yaw (pole vault)

8th grade boys: Cameron Jones (discus), Micheal Flier (hurdles), Ethan Baker (high jump), Blake Sutherland (800 and 1600), 4 x 100 relay team of Micheal Flier, Blayne Donsbach,

Cameron Jones and Nick Dill

7th grade boys: Wyatt Brant (pole vault and high jump), Memphis Waggoner (high jump), Rayce Zike (800), 4 x 100 relay team of Memphis Waggoner, Wyatt Brant, Ross Hemmen, and Galen Martinez

Also, congratulations to the 7th grade boys team who placed 2nd as a team at Sectionals!

2. Thank you to Coach Watkins, Coach Edwards, Coach Edwards, Coach Walk, Coach Tipton, and Mariellen Taylor for all the wonderful organizing and facilitating you did as we hosted the IESA Sectional Track Meet again! Based on our outstanding hosting, I was contacted by the IESA and presented awards to the top place athletes from 9-11 a.m. on Saturday morning. It’s always great to show off our facilities and it’s a double blessing to have great people in place to give all of these athletes a wonderful opportunity to succeed!

3. Congratulations to Ms. Willenborg, Mr. Ozier, and all of the band and choir students on such a wonderful spring concert! Your hard work, dedication, and rehearsal time definitely showed in your performance!

4. 5th and 8th grade students completed the Illinois Science Assessment on Tuesday, May 10. Thank you to Mrs. Plummer, Mr. Wheeler, Mr. Butler, and the teachers for assisting with this requirement. Thanks to the students for trying their best once again on these required assessments!

5. Thank you to the Cumberland County Extension office/4H Coordinator, Katie Turkal and various volunteers, for partnering with our 5th grade students in exposing them to many topics (water safety, poison control, etc.) in mini-lessons throughout the past few weeks.

6. We will be offering a 5th grade orientation on Thursday, August 18 at 6 p.m. to allow students and parents to get used to being a part of the middle school.

7. Eighth grade recognition and academic awards night will be held on Monday, May 23 at 6:30 p.m. in the new gym.

8. Thank you to all staff, students, and parents for making this year a very successful one! Our Raider family is blessed to have everyone involved in helping our students and school be successful! We will be working very hard over the summer to continue that success and prepare for another wonderful 2016-17 school year!

Additional information about middle school flex classes for the 2016-17 school year:

As a result of our school improvement team meetings, we determined that we could be offering more to our students during our flex period. With that in mind, the following options will be available to reach all levels and interests of students throughout the middle school next year.

Choir: This is a large group of students and will continue to be an option for our students to share their musical talents.

Band: 7th/8th grade students will be afforded the opportunity to have a lesson with Mr. Ozier once per week to continue to develop their musical talents. (This is new.)

RtI services: There will be two staff members who will be available during both 5th/6th and 7th/8th grade flex periods to assist with homework/classroom struggles and continue to work on deficiency areas (fluency, skills, comprehension, etc.) as a carry-over from the elementary RtI services offered.

Special education resource class: Students enrolled in special education services will be afforded the opportunity to work with their special education case manager in a “resource” setting during this time on an “as needed” basis. This would allow them to participate in enrichment opportunities, choir, or band unless they are struggling with an

assignment or need assistance in another class.

Enrichment opportunities: Students will be allowed to choose from the following lists of courses offered by our general education staff on a rotational basis.

5th/6th grade: Beginning Sewing, Charity Projects, Public Speaking, Child Development, Science of Food, Movie Effects (behind the scenes), Digital Citizenship, STEM Challenges, Math in the making, pen pal/skype/Santa letters, movie critics, mini-musical, internet safety, Art with math, trivia, typing skills, claymation, google cardboard, Learning to Code, Drones or Rockets, Gardening/Eco, Makers, Genius Hour, and Science Labs

7th/8th grade: Science Labs, Sole Hope, Lead to Serve, Etiquette, Manners and a Good Meal, Improv, Current Events, Santa Letters, Creative Writing, Chess, School Improvement, Tolerance/Diversity, Multiculturalism, Board Game Logic, Debate, Beginning Guitar, Constructive Criticism, Typing Skills, Musical Comparison/Contrast, Public Speaking, Listening Skills, Show Me the Money, Google Technology, Random Trivia, and Building with Direction

Students will be signing up for their “choices” at the end of this school year to plan for next year. Courses will last approximately four and a half weeks. The courses will start and stop at the quarter or mid-term points of the school year. The “grading component” of the enrichment courses will require the students to complete one activity (written, presentation, or other culminating activity) at the end of the course to prove mastery of the subject at hand. The teachers are very excited about the possibilities with these curricular choices and I feel all of our students will benefit from this educational opportunity!

Additional Middle School Notes

Middle School Track State Participants and Finishers:

Rayce Zike: 26th in 800

Wyatt Brant: high jump participant and 6th in pole vault

Memphis Waggoner: 6th in high jump

4 x 100 relay team of Memphis Waggoner, Wyatt Brant, Ross Hemmen and Galen Martinez: 4th

7th grade boys finished 17th as a team overall!

Ethan Baker: 22nd in high jump

Blake Sutherland: 53rd in 800 and 28th in 1600

Cameron Jones: 25th in discus

Micheal Flier: 47th in hurdles

4 x 100 relay team of Micheal Flier, Blayne Donsbach, Cameron Jones and Nick Dill: 21st

Katelyn Yaw: 9th in pole vault

Destiny Williams: participant and finished in 1600

Elementary School Board Report submitted by Daniel Huffman

On April 26th, the Preschool classes had their Spring Sing. They did a great job. Miss Willenborg, the preschool teachers and aides did a nice job preparing them.

The 1st grade classes presented a wonderful musical/play called Character Matters on April 29th. The students and teachers did a great job. Both performances were well attended.

The STAR Reading and STAR Math Spring Benchmark assessments were given to the students during the first two weeks of May. The results are currently being analyzed. We will use the results to see how much growth the students made during the school year, and to plan

accordingly for next year.

The Preschool classes took field trips to Ballard Nature Center and the Effingham library. On May 2nd the morning classes attended and on May 3rd the afternoon classes got to go.

May 2nd - May 6th was National Teacher Appreciation week. The Cumberland PTO brought pies for the staff to enjoy on Tuesday, and Stacy and I hosted a Taco Bar on Friday. Thank you to Bob and Alene Blade for helping us host the event, and to Carl’s Pizza for giving us a deal on the supplies. We are very appreciative of our hard working and dedicated teachers/staff.

On Tuesday, May 10th, the Kindergarten classes presented The Farmer’s Hat play/musical to the students and faculty in the afternoon. That evening they presented the program for the parents/guardians and family. It was a fantastic performance. A great deal of hard work went into preparing.

School Nurses Day was May 11th. We are very appreciative of our school nurse, Whitney Edwards. She works diligently to help our students stay healthy.

On May 19th the 2nd grade classes will be attending a health fair at our school.

The 3rd grade classes will go to the Ballard Nature Center on Friday, May 13th. The Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District funded half the entry fee for attending. The class also will have Joe’s Pizza for lunch and spend time at the Altamont Park.

The Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District employees delivered Pine Trees to the third grade students on April 26th. The students enjoyed the presentation and had lots of questions about planting trees. Thank you to Randy Hurt and Judy Meislahn for continuing the tradition of delivering trees to celebrate Arbor Day.

On May 17th, the first grade classes will take their annual field trip to Decatur. They will visit the Decatur Scovill Zoo and the Children’s Museum.