CHAMPAIGN — Champaign Unit 4 teachers have voted to authorize a strike rather than accept a recent contract offered by the district. If negotiations falter over the next month and teachers do strike, families may suddenly need to find childcare. One place families can turn for help is the Child Care Resource Service. Based on…
CHAMPAIGN — Governor J.B. Pritzker visited the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus on Wednesday to promote an increase in student financial aid in his proposed budget for fiscal year 2023. Pritzker highlighted his plan to send a total of $601 million to the state’s Monetary Award Program to help low-income college students with tuition and…
CHAMPAIGN — Two weeks after Champaign teachers voted to allow a potential strike, one parent is experiencing déjà vu. Amy Dunn was in sixth grade in 1986 when negotiations broke down between Homer teachers and their school board. Teachers went on a strike that lasted eight months – possibly the longest teachers’ strike in U.S….
DANVILLE – A clinic for addiction and mental health treatment could open in Danville High School by the end of March. Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation has agreed to run the clinic. Danville School District 118 is renovating the school’s basement as the clinic’s future home. Deanna Witzel is a McDonald’s owner and operator. She also…
URBANA — During snowstorms, the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District calls on both employees and volunteers to “plow” the sidewalks. Cynthia Hoyle chairs the C-U Safe Routes to School Project. The project coordinates volunteer “snow angels,” who commit to clearing snow from stretches of sidewalk near them. “Because you can’t get compliance by fining people. You…
CHAMPAIGN — Champaign teachers are willing to strike to protest Unit 4’s latest contract offer. That contract would extend the elementary school day by 50 minutes, starting in the fall of 2023. On Wednesday, about 700 Unit 4 teachers gathered at Jefferson Middle School in Champaign. 91 percent voted to authorize their union to strike….
CHAMPAIGN – More than 350 Champaign teachers rallied on Monday over contract negotiations, and they will vote on Wednesday about authorizing a strike. At issue — whether Unit 4 should extend the elementary school day. Contract negotiations between the Unit 4 School District and the Champaign Federation of Teachers have stalled in recent weeks. The…
CHAMPAIGN – Cooks and custodians at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana say the univeristy rejected their proposal this week for stricter safety measures amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Dena Gary is a head cook at the University of Illinois and the president of the Champaign-Urbana chapter of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73. She and other…
CHAMPAIGN — Catalytic converters keep disappearing from Champaign-Urbana cars. The University of Illinois Police Department has already reported seven catalytic converter thefts in 2022. Why someone would steal them, though, is a bit of a mystery for local law enforcement. The metals in the devices are precious, for sure. Palladium, for example, fluctuated in value last…
URBANA — The University of Illinois is expecting a surge of COVID-19 cases as students return to Champaign-Urbana for the spring semester. The goal now is to prevent those who have caught COVID from spreading the virus further, according to epidemiology assistant professor Rebecca Smith. “We really encourage people to be cautious over the next…
URBANA, Jan. 11 — Urbana Middle School will stay with remote instruction for the rest of this week. Absences among staff at Urbana Middle School pushed the school to go virtual this week. District 116 Superintendent Jennifer Ivory-Tatum says she doesn’t expect other Urbana schools to go virtual. “Even before Thanksgiving, we have been doing…
Students and staff at Urbana public schools only need to isolate for five days after testing positive for COVID-19. District 116 made the change on Monday, after federal, state and local public health agencies all greenlighted the new quarantine guidance. District 116 Superintendent Jennifer Ivory-Tatum said students and staff who are still sick with a…
CHAMPAIGN — The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has halved the number of days of isolation recommended for those sick with COVID-19. Illinois school districts have not made that change – yet. The difference has caused enough confusion among parents that the Champaign Unit 4 School District superintendent had to email out a…
URBANA – As COVID-19 hospitalizations reach a pandemic high, Carle Health has decided to delay non-emergency procedures. This time, Carle is not rationing supplies — but staff energy. “As opposed to last year this time, we have most supplies needed but limited availability of our already stretched-thin staff to respond to the growing exposures and…
URBANA — In 2021, more than 1,300 people died in car crashes in Illinois. That’s the highest number since 2005. The roadside assistance group AAA is encouraging drivers to adopt safer behaviors in the new year. “When we call a crash an accident, it implies that these tragedies are beyond human influence, and that is…