The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Joy Swearingen, Quill Correspondent
Amanda Congdon was approved as acting principal for Illini West High School by the district’s board at their meeting June 21.
Congdon was hired with a two-year contract, replacing Jim Short, who resigned last month after taking a new position.
Congdon will be acting principal for the 2023-2024 school year. She is scheduled to complete her principal’s certification next spring, and will be Illini West principal for the 2024-2025 school year. She has previously taught at Hamilton High School.
The board approved a three-year lease on six portable classroom units, at $16,000 per building per year. The agreement with JMO Modular includes substantial rehab to the buildings in the summer of 2023 and 2024. The district has just completed a five-year lease for these units, which each have two classrooms and restroom facilities.
Superintendent Jay Harnack reported that summer work is progressing. This includes an LED lighting upgrade that has been completed. Key card controlled access on building doors is nearly finished. This will improve security as students come and go to portable classrooms. Other work includes vape detector installation; cleaning, stripping and rewaxing floors; painting in the cafeteria, and landscaping and fence around the gym HVAC unit.
Four new buses should arrive in July that will be used as route buses.
“We are in the early stages of implementing a bus routing software that we will use to optimize routes to reduce ride times,” Harnack noted in his report. “We also hope to use this software to provide parents with access to bus locations at some point.”
A 2022-2023 budget amendment hearing was held at the beginning of the meeting. No comments or questions were offered from the public. The changes reflect actual grant amounts received that were estimated in the original budget, including those for the HVAC project. The amendments were approved.
The following coaching staff appointments were approved:
Zach Burling, head baseball coach; Michael Lafferty, boys track coach; Dakota Lafferty, girls track coach; Taylor Schramm, head softball coach; Stephanie Bryan, assistant volleyball coach; Melinda Boyer, volunteer volleyball coach; and Ashton Gronewold, volunteer football coach.
Revisions to the student Behavior and Discipline Code were approved. The code was reviewed by a committee which consists of administrators, board members, teachers, parents, and students. Second reading was approved for the employee, coaching and transportation handbooks for the coming school year.
Sue Brown of LaHarpe was appointed as the Illini West board representative to the La Harpe Educational Foundation.
Auto, property and liability insurance renewal was approved with Liberty Mutual Insurance. Certain school property was declared as surplus items.