Unit 4 Q&A

Question: There have to be grants out there to provide funding. Are we, as a district, applying for as many grants as possible? 

Answer: We are applying for all the grants we can find that fit our current educational program. When we apply for grants, they very rarely allow us to use money to pay for things we are already doing. They do allow us to make improvements and upgrades we would like to make, but do not have the fund balances to do so. If you are aware of grants you feel we should be looking into, please forward that information along to Mr. Kurz at the District office, or one of the building principals.

As an example, here are some of the grants we have received or applied for in the last few months: 

• Maintenance Grant: We applied for a $50,000 matching grant from the state of Illinois. This money is for maintenance work on our existing parking lot at the Unity campus. We are currently taking bids on a wide range of options and will determine the best way to proceed. We have received this grant. As long as we do the project and spend at least $50,000 of our own money we will be able to put $50,000 of the grant money toward that project. We will be making a decision on specifics at our May 7 Board meeting. 
• Maintenance Grant: We also submitted a $50,000 matching grant for drainage work at the Unity building. There are some substantial issues that need to be addressed with water runoff, pooling, and drainage. We have received this grant. This will most likely be a project we take on during the summer of 2015. Like the other maintenance grant, the state would match each dollar we spend up to $50,000. Without these improvements we will see an increase in maintenance issues caused by drainage problems. 
• America’s Farmers Grow Rural Education from Monsanto: We have written a $10,000 grant to provide additional technology at Greenfield Elementary. We will find out around the start of the 2014-2015 school year if we have received this grant. Because this is an annual process, we are already working on our next application where we will apply for the $25,000 grant. Status is pending.
• Meemic Foundation: We wrote a $1,000 grant for Mendon Elementary. Status is pending.
• Illinois Press Foundation: We wrote a $1,250 grant for Unity High School. Status is pending. 

Unit 4 Q&A

The Unit 4 Board of Education held a District Community Night on Wednesday, April 9th. There was a strong showing of staff, parents, and community members that provided of worthwhile feedback. Since that evening, the Board has been reviewing the feedback and will continue to do so. The Board plans on hosting another similar event this fall. 

This Q&A is the first in a series of articles to keep the lines of communication open and ongoing. The goals of this series of posts are a) to answer questions community members have about how we are serving students throughout the district; and b) to update community members on what we are doing in relationship to the feedback received. 

Question: We are not getting the money we are supposed to from the state. Could we save money by having 4 longer days of school each week? Would this cut down on transportation costs? 

Answer: This has been a great solution for districts in other states. Unfortunately, we do not have that option in the State of Illinois. The State of Illinois requires schools to attend a certain number of days (as opposed to counting instructional hours as many other states do). We could increase the amount of time we are at school each day, however we would still be required to attend the same total number of days. This would mean we would need to run buses the same number of days, but the school year would run longer. On our behalf, Senator John Sullivan’s office has been in contact with the Illinois State Board of Education regarding any waivers or exceptions to this rule. ISBE would consider waivers, but we would be required to provide meals to students who qualify for free and reduced lunches. To create some type of feeding program that would meet their requirements would take away any savings this option would present. 

Free Screenings for 3-5 Year Olds

Unit 4 is offering Early Childhood Education screenings for students currently living in the Unit 4 school district. This is a free service offered to all children who are 3-5 years old. Parents are urged to take part in this service. 

The screening process will include educational, motor, speech, and language screenings. The screening will also include sharing results with parents. 

Screenings will be Tuesday, May 13, 2014 from 8:00a.m. to 3:30p.m. They will take place at St. Edward’s Church in Mendon. Please call 217.936.2512 to schedule your appointment. 

Successful Community Night

69 parents, community members, and staff turned out Wednesday, April 9th for a district-wide Community Night in the UHS gym. This special meeting of the Board of Education provided opportunities to gather feedback and have discussions about what is going well and where we can improve serving students well throughout our district. The most frequent feedback was that the event was a success - and is something that the Board should certainly hold again. 

Community members heard an overview of the Unit 4 Scorecard. This will be used to document progress toward current goals. Click here to view the Unit 4 Scorecard. The Board will take the feedback received from the evening and will use that to guide future discussions on revising and amending Board goals for 2015. 

End of Year Schedule

Since we cancelled school an additional day for the state basketball tournament, we will need to extend the school year one additional day. Here is the final day of school:

• Final Day for Students: Wednesday, June 4, 2014
• Final Day for Staff: Thursday, June 5, 2014

The Board of Education also approved the 2014-15 school calendar. We will be putting that out in a user friendly format very soon. Here are a couple important dates to know: 

• First Day for Staff: Monday, August 18, 2014
• First Day for Students: Tuesday, August 19, 2014
• UHS Graduation: Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 2pm

Spring Break Schedule

Please don’t forget these schedule changes for the upcoming spring break: 

• Wednesday, March 19th: 11:30 Dismissal
• Thursday, March 20th: NO SCHOOL
• Friday, March 21st: NO SCHOOL

Music With a Mission

Don’t forget about the concert coming up on April 19th. Colt Ford, Trailer Choir, and Jared Blake will be performing at the Adams County Fairgrounds. They will share profits with CUSD 4 if we help with selling tickets. If interested, you can follow this link to purchase tickets: 

http://www.tempotickets.com/tempotickets/site/pages/event.php?e=3133&c=182 

Welcome to Unit #4!

We hope you find our website is a useful tool for learning more about our district and the daily events that occur in our schools.

• For more detailed information about each school, click on the Schools link on the navigation bar above and select from the list of schools provided.

• For more general information about the operation of the district, click on the District link above and select a topic from the dropdown menu.

• The Calendar link above indicates important dates concerning school attendance, school board meetings, etc.

PowerSchool for Parents iPod app

Now Available!

Two new apps are now available in the Apple iTunes® App Store: PowerSchool for Parents and PowerSchool for Students.

These new apps will allow parents and students to access all the same information they would normally access from a browser, but with the ease and convenience of an app installed on their Apple mobile device.

Facebook and Twitter integration, automatic login, a family overview, simplified “one-thumb” browsing, and other features make accessing PowerSchool on the go faster and easier than ever before. 

The apps are FREE and available for download from the iTunes store. Version 1.0 of the apps will be supported on any Apple iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad running iOS version 4.0 or higher.

Click here to download the PowerSchool Parent app. Click here to download the PowerSchool Student app.