Several members of the public appeared during Thursday’s regular meeting of the Prairie Central Board of Education in Fairbury to voice concerns over the girls basketball program at various levels.
Kiley Donley was the first to speak. She has worked for the district eight years serving as a paraprofessional and now a teacher. Donley noted she has 33 students she loves as her own and is the one who will fight for them, making sure they are getting everything they need.
“It makes me question how coaches and admin don’t have the same mentality,” she said.
Donley feels something needs to change from the top in the girls basketball program. She noted the seventh-grade girls suited up Oct. 10 with only five players due to illness, a game which they had to forfeit.
“They show up every day and work hard, but for what?”
Donley believes it is the school’s job to make sure all students succeed but the district falls short when it comes to girls basketball. She reminded the board last year similar concerns were voiced but nothing has changed.
“Our girls deserve better and I will be their voice until something changes,” added Donley.
Dustin Price was the next to speak. He offered a suggestion to handling the situation.
“Why don’t you just put it to a vote with the parents or the team?”
Price said he has had several meetings reporting problems going on with his kids at school but they are not getting reported.
“What my daughter is going through has been going on for over a year,” stated Price. “At what point is somebody going to step-up and do something?”
Tiffany Tipton expressed concerns with the PC girls basketball program from fifth grade up to the high school level. She said the younger girls are not prepared for competition.
“There’s something missing,” noted Tipton. “We have lost several interested girls in their time playing in fifth grade.”
While Tipton feels there is nothing wrong with tough coaching, she said yelling at girls isn’t encouraging them. Tipton wants girls to be able to play up since this is allowed with wrestling and track.
“Why is it PC can’t fill a basketball team?” Tipton asked.
School board member Brad Duncan then asked the administration if anything would be done with this.
Superintendent Paula Crane said there is a possibility the sixth-grade team could come up once they get through their season which ends sooner.
“There is nothing on the agenda further about this,” advised Board President John Wilken.
Casey Hammond said he came to the board about this same issue before and has not received a response from anyone.
“Give me a call,” replied Superintendent Crane. “We can talk it through.”
Crane reminded the group she could not talk about discipline of kids or employees and personnel issues in open session since it is confidential information.
Jared Donley noted this is the same situation as last year when multiple parents came to the board making complaints and dealing with forfeits. He alleged his daughter went to the Prairie Central girls basketball camp when the coach told others not to speak to his daughter.
“The coaches drive divisions between girls then they basically battle. There’s no team building or team bonding,” observed Donley.
A younger student at the upper elementary level said she scores half or all of the points but her coach changed the team out of nowhere.
“We want a coach that makes us better at what we want to do,” she said.
Also at Thursday’s regular meeting, Brian Quam gave an update on web filtering software.
“Schools are an easy target for ransomware and cyber attacks,” explained Quam, the director of curriculum, instruction and technology.
Quam discussed a program known as Linewize which has a piece teachers can utilize in the classroom as they will have control over student Chromebooks.
“There’s a blocked layer and a locked layer,” said Quam. “Teachers can set rules for their classroom.”
Certified staff can only see what students are doing on their Chromebooks during school hours. This was rolled out to the entire staff this fall and is working well for the most part. An administrator monitor dashboard is available at the junior high and high school levels.
Superintendent Crane gave a referendum update as Election Day is around the corner. She explained the front page of the district website includes information.
“It has a whole page of information about specific topics related to the referendum.”
School board member Ben Stoller told Crane they are doing a “phenomenal” job of getting the word out.
The board was reminded of immunization requirements as immunizations are due in October for kids to be able to attend a public school in Illinois.
District Financial Officer Cheryl Hoffman provided an insurance renewal update. The company has proposed a 12.5 percent increase even though they’ve had several increases in the 20s or 30s. Dental came in at a six percent increase and there is no increase for vision insurance.
“There’s always some kind of increase. I’ve never seen it stagnant,” said Hoffman.
Crane received permission from the board to purchase a transit van for the maintenance department at a price not it exceed $40,000. Commonly used tools and supplies could be placed in the van.
“I think that would help the maintenance department out a lot,” noted Crane.
Board members are expected to take action on several proposed course changes at the high school. This includes Math and English for the world of work including personal finance, consumer math and working on cover letters. This could fulfill a consumer education requirement. They also want to add American Sign Language as a course to fulfill foreign language requirements.
Following an executive session, the board:
Approved the following individuals for employment.
-Celeste Koch, PCP East paraprofessional, effective Oct. 18, 2024.
-Shelby Johnson, PCE paraprofessional, effective Oct. 18, 2024.
Approved the following resignations:
-Valerie Buell, PCE café worker, effective Sept. 30, 2024.
-Cindy Ifft, high school girls golf coach, effective end of FY 25.
-Jacie Martin, PCE paraprofessional, effective Oct. 4, 2024.
-Ashly Mueller, junior high custodian, effective Oct. 15, 2024.
