ABOVE: Danville District 118 Superintendent John Hart and School Board President Darlene Halloran
Superintendent John Hart has confirmed that Danville District 118 plans to apply for an Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) grant to help fill the adult education gap within this region, following Danville Area Community College’s recent loss of state and federal grand funding for their adult ed program.
Hart has told CIMG that it did not take long for area residents to approach him about the adult ed issue after DACC’s announcement that an ICCB report of an on-site review of their program had led to the funding cancellations, effectively stopping DACC’s capability for adult education as of September 30th.
Superintendent Hart says the application for the grant District 118 is applying for needs to be in by September 15, and they should find out rather soon afterwards if it’s successful.
(1st Picture) DACC Board of Trustees (2nd Picture) District 118 School Board
Hart says that when it comes to Graduate Equivalent Degree (GED) preparatory classes, they would likely have two groups of students.
AUDIO: We’d probably be looking at a high school program for like ages 16 to 20 maybe, throughout the day in the afternoon. And then we would invite adults from the county in for an adult program in the evening. So again, this is just the initial planning stage.
Hart also pointed out that GEDs are not all that simple to earn.
AUDIO: People see the GED as an easy way to a graduation, to a completion. It is a completion, however it is no longer the easy way. It’s pretty rigorous. The curriculum’s definitely more challenging, and you need students who are willing to put in the time and the effort to be successful.
When it comes to continuing education for adults looking to learn something new, Hart says the grant 118 is applying for covers some of that.
AUDIO: There is a requirement of the grant to have some sort of certificate program attached. So, you could look at Phlebotomy, a welding certificate, you could do something with EL (English Learner) population with CNA (Certified Nursing Certificate). So we would have to attach something to the program, which I don’t think would be difficult for us to do.
Hart says he can certainly can see District 118 staffers taking some of the instructor positions, and that he has been approached by staffers who have interest. He says GED prep instructors are required to have a bachelor’s degree, but not a teaching license.
Director of Vermilion County Works Chuck Jones has told CIMG that he’s glad to see the urgency of the ICCB is setting a September 15th deadline for this grant application. Jones says it’s important to get adult education classes started back in up this area as soon as possible; with the goal of giving students of all ages a chance to grow, achieve, and get back into the workforce.
