Central Illinois Headlines – April 16, 2024

April 16, 2024

Urbana Schools to vote on which elementary school will become fully multilingual

URBANA – Urbana School District 116 is set to vote Tuesday on which elementary school will become fully dual language.

After two years of debate, Urbana administrators and dual language teachers won approval in January to combine their bilingual programs under one roof. They say it will help overworked teachers rely on each other and create a better environment for the growing group of English learners. They want to add the French program into the building too.

Now the problem is, where? In recent months, the board has whittled down the options to Yankee Ridge or Thomas Paine. Most students at either school would have to move elsewhere. Lydia Ruud is a fourth grader at Yankee Ridge. She and several others from the school asked the board to pause and write a strategic plan before redistricting students.

“Instead of listening to students, parents and people in the community, what you’re doing is stressing out families, teachers and other staff and tearing apart friendships,” said Ruud.

Urbana hired RSP & Associates to model the options and gather feedback. The company said many asked why the board couldn’t place the dual language school at Wiley. Students have already been moved out for asbestos removal, and the district plans to renovate it into a sixth grade only school.

School board president Paul Poulosky said the renovations will already be expensive.

“It would cost more in terms of capital budget, to convert that into something large enough to support the number of students who would need the dual language program. And it would add at least a million dollars a year to our operating budget to operate six elementary schools again, which is something we just can’t afford, in my opinion,” said Poulosky.

The board is scheduled to vote Tuesday night. Changes would take effect in the fall with the new school year. – Emily Hays, IPM News

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators shut down airport highways and key bridges in major US cities

CHICAGO — Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have blocked freeways and bridges in Illinois, California, New York and the Pacific Northwest, temporarily shutting down travel into Chicago O’Hare International Airport, onto the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and on a busy West Coast interstate. In Chicago, the Monday morning protest caused headaches for some travelers who left their cars to walk to the airport. Protesters linked arms and blocked traffic on lanes of Interstate 190 around 7 a.m. in a demonstration they said was part of a global “economic blockade to free Palestine.” Similar demonstrations blocked all traffic onto the Golden Gate Bridge and on Interstate 5 in Eugene, Oregon. – Associated Press

Three Men’s Basketball Players will stay with Fighting Illini

URBANA – The Fighting Illini men’s basketball team has had three commits from the transfer portal so far

this offseason. Arizona Guard Kylan Boswell, Louisville Guard Tre White, and Mercer Forward Jake Davis

have all committed to play for the Illini in 2024. Illinois forward Dain Dainja transferred to Memphis and guard Sencire Harris entered the transfer portal yesterday. The Illini look to keep last season’s momentum going after making the Elite 8 in the NCAA Tournament. – Colin Hislope, IPM News

Pritzker appoints first-ever Prisoner Review Board director

Weeks after two high-profile resignations at the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday appointed the first-ever executive director to help lead the beleaguered agency.

To fill the newly created position, the governor tapped Jim Montgomery, who most recently served as director of administrative services with the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department in Massachusetts. His prior experience includes several stints as an assistant to Illinois lawmakers in the 1990s, and eight years as mayor of Taylorville from 1997 until 2005.

Montgomery will be responsible for overseeing administrative board operations, including bolstering domestic violence prevention training and “other important equity-based trainings for board members,” according to the governor’s office. In a news release, the governor said the creation of the director position “reduces the workload placed on the PRB chair and allows for the chair to focus more closely on leading casework.”

The board has ultimate say on Montgomery’s salary, but the governor’s office said funds are available in the current-year budget and Montgomery will earn $160,000 annually – more than the board chair’s roughly $108,000 statutory salary.

The board currently has no chair, as the office’s previous holder, Donald Shelton, resigned on March 25 along with board member LeAnn Miller.

In February, Miller led a hearing to determine whether an inmate, Crosetti Brand, should be released from Stateville Correctional Center amid allegations that he’d violated an order of protection against his ex-girlfriend, Laterria Smith, by threatening her. The board found insufficient evidence and he was released on March 12.

One day later, Brand attacked Smith, stabbing her and killing her eleven-year-old son Jayden Perkins when he tried to intervene.

Pritzker appointed Miller to the Prisoner Review Board in September 2021 and her term wasn’t due to expire until January 2027. The governor said earlier this month the resignation “was probably a proper decision on her part” and said the panel she led “didn’t take into consideration enough the domestic violence history of this particular prisoner.”

Shelton had served on the board since 2012 and was appointed as a Republican. Pritzker said Shelton “served admirably” but didn’t provide a reason for his resignation. Shelton told WTTW-TV in Chicago he resigned out of personal responsibility, but he also defended Miller and pushed back against the governor’s statements about the decision.

The PRB has a proposed head count of 59 employees in the upcoming fiscal year, up from 51 in the current year. Its proposed budget is $5.4 million. Montgomery’s appointment awaits Senate confirmation. – Jerry Nowicki & Dilpreet Raju, Capitol News Illinois

Pritzker, Preckwinkle continue push to relieve Illinoisans of medical debt

Earlier in the day, Pritzker and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle continued to push their plans to eliminate almost $1 billion of medical debt owned by Illinoisians with $10 million from the governor’s proposed budget.

Preckwinkle previously utilized federal funds from the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act to fund the Cook County Medical Debt Relief Initiative in 2022, on which the state plan is modeled.

The governor highlighted the problem of medical debt as “a uniquely American issue.”

“In Illinois, 14 percent of our population has medical debt in default,” Pritzker said. “So far, Cook County has abolished more than $348 million in medical debt for over 200,000 Cook County residents.”

The $348 million of debt relief came on an investment of about $3.75 million dollars in ARPA money due to a partnership with the nonprofit Undue Medical Debt, formerly known as RIP Medical Debt, county records show.

Undue Medical Debt buys up medical debt and frees patients from the burden of years-old medical bills they cannot afford to pay. Since it buys debt from entities such as collection agencies for cents on the dollar, it can turn $1 donated into about $100 in debt relief.

Those selected to have their medical debt wiped are determined by the nonprofit’s analysis of hospital debt records. – Jerry Nowicki & Dilpreet Raju, Capitol News Illinois

TAGS: fighting illini men's basketball, Illinois Prisoner Review Board, JB Pritzker, Jim Montgomery, medical debt

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