URBANA — Felix Ayanbode has statistics at his fingertips for why his daughter should learn multiple languages. His first grader, Faith, is learning to be bilingual in French and English at Urbana District 116’s first multilingual school, Yankee Ridge Elementary. “When you know another language, you are able to have a peek into another culture.
The Urbana District 116 Board of Education voted 4-3 on Tuesday to convert Yankee Ridge Elementary School into a fully multilingual school.
The Urbana school board plans to hire an outside company on Tuesday to redistrict its schools.
URBANA – The Urbana school board will reconsider in January how to establish a fully dual-language elementary school for Spanish and English. This comes after renewed pressure from dual language teachers and families. The district currently has two schools with partial-building, dual-language programs. “White privileged families and community members can and do fight for justice
URBANA – Urbana District 116 is the latest area school district to raise pay for its substitute teachers. The Urbana school board approved the increase Tuesday night. Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Angi Franklin told the school board that the raise would be the first one for District 116 substitute teachers in more than four
CHAMPAIGN – During a typical school year, Laura Dees says families in need rely on food drives held at school buildings in the Champaign Unit 4 School District. Dees, director of food services for Unit 4, says that wasn’t a possibility this year because schools are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But Dees
CHAMPAIGN – Champaign Unit 4 elementary school students will have the option to return to some in-person instruction at the end of this month. Unit 4 officials unveiled plans this week to bring students back into classrooms for shortened school days. The first day of in-person instruction is scheduled for Oct. 27. Parents can still
URBANA – Most Urbana District 116 students will continue to learn remotely — at least until January when the third quarter of the school year is scheduled to begin. The district initially recommended elementary school students move toward a hybrid schedule, which included in-person instruction in the morning hours four days per week, and remote
Twenty-one Champaign Unit 4 students were arrested during the 2013-14 school year — 19 of them were Black — according to documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request. During the 2015-16 school year, 17 students were arrested — of which 15 were Black. But the federal government thinks there were no arrests. That’s
Sierra is in a bind. She and her husband have two children — ages three and nine years old — and they live in Urbana. Sierra’s 9-year-old son is attending school remotely this fall, because the local school district has deemed it unsafe to reopen for in-person instruction. While she and her husband placed their
The Illinois State Board of Education is leaving it up to districts to decide how to reopen schools this fall. Some have chosen to continue remote learning, while others are bringing students back into classrooms amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. ISBE has strongly recommended that schools provide as much in-person instruction as possible. But state
CHAMPAIGN – The Champaign Unit 4 School District is changing their reopening plans for this fall. At a meeting this week, the district’s Board of Education asked school administrators to target special education, emergent bilingual learners and other vulnerable students for in-person instruction — with everyone else beginning the school year virtually. The district released
URBANA – Police in Urbana say a former substitute teacher is accused of abusing several 10-year-old students at an elementary school. In a press release on Tuesday, police identified the suspect as 36-year-old Clarence Walker of Champaign. He is scheduled to be arraigned on charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse on Wednesday. As of late
The Champaign and Urbana school districts are distributing Chromebooks to students who need the devices. Champaign schools have so far distributed about 1,000 Chromebooks to district families, according to Unit 4 spokesperson, John Lyday. Courtney Harmon, an Urbana District 116 parent, picked up a Chromebook for her six-year-old son last week. Her son attends Yankee
Betsy Crosswhite says it felt like a punch in the gut when her son’s school closed to limit the spread of the coronavirus. That’s when she realized she would need to become her son Shane’s teacher and therapist. Crosswhite and her family live in Wilmette. She and her husband have three kids, including Shane, 15,