Unit 40 Board Looks at Possible Design for Pickup, Drop Off at Junior High School

Effingham Unit 40 school board members Monday reviewed a proposed bus lane and parents lane to handle pickup and dropoff of students at Effingham Junior High School.

(THIS IS A PROPOSED LAYOUT OF THE NEW ROADWAY BEHIND EFFINGHAM JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL. THE SHADED AREAS INCLUDE A 74-SPACE PARKING LOT AND THE EAST-WEST ROADWAY OVER THE WEST LEG OF THE CURRENT TRACK)

Superintendent Mark Doan said district officials met with Effingham city staff to map out the plan. The bus lane would involve units entering off Henrietta at the south end of the circle drive in front of the junior high building and then continuing basically straight to the north to Richland Avenue. There would be room for several buses at a time.

Parent pickup and dropoff would take place behind the junior high building, but not the area directly behind the building since the breezeway will be closed in the next phase of the junior high renovation project. Instead, a new roadway is being suggested farther east with access off Richland to the north and Grove to the south. The area behind the building would still remain open, but with limited access to the public. The area would remain accessible to those delivering supplies and for similar uses.

To be built in conjunction with the new roadway to the east would be a 74-space parking lot off Richland Avenue. Basically, the parking lot would be in the area on the north end of the track at the junior high, while the roadway would run over the west leg of the track.

The plans are not set in stone. Doan said there is still some negotiating going on regarding sidewalks.

Also Monday, the Unit 40 board heard from Curriculum Committee member Robin Klosterman that there are 500 slots that need child care. Klosterman suggested that, since Unit 40 only offers Early Childhood Special Education, the district could look at blending the needs so the district could accommodate more kids.

The Board accepted the audit of the past year's books after the auditor from Glass and Shuffett said everything is in compliance and gave the District "pretty much a clean bill of health."

Curriculum Director Chelle Beck reviewed the findings of the State's school district report card. We will talk more about that in subsequent newscasts. 

The Board approved tax levy for the new fiscal year, and heard a presentation by Effingham Junior High School students who performed in the musical "Lion King Jr." that concluded a highly-successful run last week. The cast members on hand performed one of the songs from the musical, "I Just Can't Wait to be King". Director Donna Walls was on hand and believes that 1,800 people saw the performances of the musical.

(LINCOLN ERVIN, ELLA TUMAN AND ELLE MACKLIN PERFORM "I JUST CAN'T WAIT TO BE KING" FROM "LION KING JR" AT MONDAY'S SCHOOL BOARD MEETING)

In personnel moves, the Unit 40 board hired Denise White as a three-hour cook at the junior high school, Amy Williams as a two-hour cashier at the high school, and Lisa Orsborn as a bus aide. The Board released Ramona Blankenship as a custodian at Central School. Chris Stinebring was appointed a varsity high school boys assistant track coach, and Lacy Althoff was approved as a volunteer high school girls assistant basketball coach. The Board accepted Debbie Lappin's resignation as cafeteria monitor at South Side School and approved the retirements of Karla Reed as a teacher following the 2021-2022 school year and of Sharon Chesnut as secretary at Central School as of January. Leaves of absence were approved for Rick Schmidt, Emily Viverito and Tiffany Mumm.