
Urbana school administrators figuring out how to utilize AI in classrooms
Students are already using AI. Urbana District 116 wants to teach them to use it responsibly with tools that respect student data privacy.

Students are already using AI. Urbana District 116 wants to teach them to use it responsibly with tools that respect student data privacy.

URBANA – About 16 % of the 300,000 English learners in Illinois are taking public school classes to become bilingual in both their first language and English. Few of those schools are fully multilingual. One is in Champaign and after years of debate, Yankee Ridge Multilingual Elementary School opened in Urbana earlier this month. IPM

Since the fall of 2023 a state law requires all Illinois school districts to provide vegan lunches if requested by a student in advance. Urbana School District 116 goes one step further and offers vegan lunches every day.

News from around Central Illinois

The Urbana District 116 school board voted 4-to-3 on Tuesday to open the sixth grade center in the former Wiley Elementary.

URBANA – Due to forecasted high temperatures on Friday, August 25, some central Illinois schools will be closed. The National Weather Service in Lincoln has issued an Extreme Heat Warning. Combined heat and humidity will make it feel like 110-115 degrees. Here are the August 25 school closures or advisories: Danville School District 118 All

Renovations at Thomas Paine elementary school and Urbana High School were celebrated.

In a survey of about one-thousand students, about half said they had been the victim of hurtful comments. Over half thought bullying was a problem at school.

URBANA – An alumnus, grandmother, and former school bus driver for Urbana School District 116 is its newest school board member. The district recently appointed Lola Jones to fill a vacant board seat. She was sworn in on June 6 and has since attended her first meeting. Her term expires in two years. Jones was

With Urbana School District 116 administrative headquarters moving elsewhere, the district wants to sell the property to the city, which would then tear it down and seek a commercial developer for the site.

Born in Mexico, Citlaly Stanton moved to Illinois in 2014. Once here, she got married and is now raising two children.

URBANA – The iRead and iCount programs provide tutoring for kindergarten and first-grade students who are having difficulties with their math and reading skills. The Champaign Unit 4 School District and Urbana School District 116 are benefiting from the programs. iRead and iCount volunteers spend one hour a week working with students over a two-month

For Briesha Jackson, the day is an intergenerational commitment.

El consejo escolar de Urbana ha decidido no combinar sus dos programas bilingües de español en una sola escuela: Leal Elementary. El cambio hubiera movido a unos 170 estudiantes de las clases monolingües de inglés de la escuela primaria Leal a la escuela primaria Dr. Preston L. Williams Jr. y a otras escuelas cercanas. Aproximadamente

The Urbana school board has decided not to merge its two Spanish, dual language programs into one school – Leal Elementary. The change would have moved about 170 students in Leal Elementary School’s monolingual English classes to Dr. Preston L. Williams Jr. Elementary School and other nearby schools. About 160 dual language students from DPW