By WMBD-TV

NORMAL – The “State of Public Schools” has returned as McLean County stakeholders gathered at Heartland Community College to learn about the changes and challenges in the local public school systems.

The McLean County Chamber of Commerce hosted the event. Bloomington’s District 87, McLean County’s Unit 5, Olympia CUSD 16 and the Bloomington Area Career Center were all represented on the panel.

“I’m hoping that, yes, it enlightened some people and gave them a different perspective,” said Olympia’s Superintendent Dr. Laura O’Donnell.

It’s the first State of Public Schools since COVID and since the current panelists have been in their leadership positions.

“While some of our challenges that we are seeing are very similar, I felt it was important to shed some light on some of the rural challenges and how they are different than what District 87 and Unit 5 are experiencing,” O’ Donnell said. “When your building or high school/middle school complex is in the middle of a cornfield and you’re not attached to a municipality, sewer lines, water lines all of those things are the school district’s responsibility.”

O’Donnell further explained how the school building is more than 50 years old, adding to the building upkeep challenges.

“For a long time the district was just doing the minimum amount of maintenance to keep our head above water and to keep things working,” she said. “And now we’re at a point when you have a facility that is 55 years old, they don’t make replacement parts for doors that are 55-year-old doors.”

O’Donnell said they see more of an increase in academic and mental diversity in a classroom compared to 15 years ago. She explained in previous years, students may have performed above or below one or two grade levels whereas now they can be performing at above or below three or four grade levels.

“We’re trying to meet the needs of all of these kids that are coming to us at very different levels of learning,” said O’Donnell.

As far as behavioral changes since COVID, O’Donnell said they have seen extreme behaviors at the primary level resulting in them needing more space.

“Just to spread kids out and give them smaller learning environments. So while our enrollment isn’t necessarily going up, we have different needs than we did 10 years ago because of the kids that are walking through our doors,” she said. “I don’t know that the general public, unless you’re a parent of one of those children, really understands the challenges, what it is we’re trying to do and all the limitations we have as we’re trying to do that.”

Districts are also working to make sure a need to make sure they match the diversity of students with diverse staffing.

“Students need folks that like them leading their buildings and teaching them in class,” District 87’s Superintendent Dr. David Mouser. “So, we’re making concerted efforts to make sure we are trying to recruit and retain minority staff that can come in and help serve our needs and meet the needs of our kids.”

Mouser also shared that District 87 is the second most diverse school district in Illinois and has 520 bilingual students. According to Unit 5’s Superintendent Dr. Kristen Weikle, there are approximately 53 languages spoken by students in the district.

“That doesn’t mean we have teachers who speak every language though,” she said. “As we’re seeing new jobs develop in the community it brings professionals with families who maybe their first language isn’t English. It’s a wonderful opportunity for us but it also does present a challenge to make sure can we find staffing to properly educate those students.”

Leadership also had a chance to share highlights within the past 18 months in their districts.

“We continue to enhance the opportunities that we’re providing to student,” said Weikle. “Unit 5, I think, is probably the only district around that is able to provide PE five days a week to our elementary students, art once a week, music twice a week. We were able to maintain that with the support of our community.”

O’Donnell said Olympia partnered with Carle Health and United Way to help middle and high school students with their mental health. She also said last week the district was notified Eastern Illinois Food Bank will start making regular to the high school campus.

“We are a district of 400 square miles, no grocery stores in any of our eight towns and our poverty levels continue to rise,” said O’Donnell. “So, that news from Eastern Illinois was great news for us.”

Mouser said his district’s low income rate was at 51% percent prior to COVID and now the rate is 65% with 75 students experiencing homelessness.

All three superintendents talked about community support in helping with the obstacles they face from food insecurity to chronic absenteeism. Weikle said the state defines chronic absenteeism as students 10% or more of the number of student attendance days.

“On one hand the state says ‘mental health is really important, we’re going to give each student five mental health days but we’re also going ding you as the school district,’” said Weikle.

She continued explaining how in some cases, students struggling with mental health are utilizing mental health days. But Weikle said in a lot of cases they are finding as a result of the pandemic families felt the child can learn through technology so families take vacations during the middle of the school year.

“That makes it really challenging. When you think about missing one day a week or even one day every two weeks that can equate anywhere to 20 to 40 days over the course of a school year,” she said. “Then when you think about the time a student graduates, if they were to follow that same pattern from K through 12, that’s almost equivalent to two years of school being missed. There’s no way we can make this up without the support of our families.”

Community support also looks like businesses partnering with the BACC to offer internships for students.

“If they can be in your facilities, interacting with your employees and hearing and finding out and experiencing what exactly it’s like to do “X” job,” said director Bryce Hansen. “I think really it’s a win for everyone in this room to have kids more exposed to careers and understand more accurately what a career involves.”

Hansen said BACC has added four new programs, CDL truck driving and aesthetics, barbering and cybersecurity programs. Next school year BACC will add heavy equipment, repair and operation and a foundations of teaching course.

“One of our core values at BACC is to help kids explore a career pathway and find out if it’s for them or not for them,” said Hansen.

Mouser praised Hansen for the work the BACC does with students.

“Bryce serves all of our districts. When we talk about Bloomington Area Career Center, we’ve got kids that are able to take classes and walk into a living wage immediately following his program,” said Mouser.

In 2023, District 87 approved the purchase of an old State Farm building on Oakland Avenue to expand the pre-K program and relocate the BACC.