Wednesday’s (March 12th) Danville District 118 School Board meeting included an announcement from Director of Curriculum MaryEllen Bunton that Danville High School has been asked to consider being a “demonstration school” for the AVID program; which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. Bunton says that at this point, it would make DHS AVID’s first demonstration school in Illinois. Although getting there would take a couple years of work, Bunton says it was great to be asked by AVID; and it shows what the program is doing for individual DHS students.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: They’ll start with a self-assessment study. Basically, what it would mean, is that we would work towards being an exemplar school; and other schools would come and see what we are doing to support our students, and the instruction that’s going on in the classroom, and just the environment in that building.
The District 118 Board honored DHS students who recently medaled in WYSE (Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering) competition at DACC, and were on their way to competition at Eastern Illinois University on Thursday, March 13th. Pictured (L to R) are teacher and faculty advisor Betsy Daily, Gabi Huerta (medaled in Biology), Madeline Williford (medaled in Biology), Revan Bailey (medaled in Computer Science and Engineering Design), and DHS principal Jacob Bretz.
With the current school year coming down the stretch, it has also been announced that now that construction and remodeling work is done, the Northeast Elementary magnet school will be going back to its balanced schedule. That means the students will be back in school around mid-July, and go back to having various extended breaks throughout the school year. Bunton says this has always been a major reason many choose Northeast, so families will be glad to have the balanced schedule back.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: And so are the teachers, the students; everybody’s ready to get back to that normal rhythm.
The District 118 Board honored faculty and students from Construction Trades classes, including students headed for SkillsUSA competition in Peoria in April. Pictured are DHS principal Jacob Bretz, Construction Trades Director Adam Boyd, Welding Instructor Joe Wernert, and then (fourth from left through second from right) students Matthew Sherman, Seth Jameson, Revan Bailey, Jeryn Jumps, and SkillsUSA chapter president Austin Brown.
The 118 Board voted to approve the insurance committee’s recommendation to bring on OneDigital as the district’s insurance broker for $150,000 annually. Danville Education Association president Alan Rivers says this was a great choice by the committee that’s half DEA members and half administration; and a great step towards the next employee insurance deal. And he’s very glad the money to pay the broker is now coming completely from the board, and not from the insurance fund.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: Yes, it’s very good. This really worked out best for everybody.
Also, Director of Early Education Chris Rice announced that a Summer Traveling Library, resembling the bookmobiles a lot of us grew up with, will be starting this summer, with scheduled stops set to be announced in the future. They plan to have books for all student reading levels, and the vehicle will be one of the district’s home interventionist vans.
