Volume XX, Issue 6 March, 2012

Passing Notes

August | September | October | November | December/January | February | March |
April | May

End of the Year Calendar
Each year every public school district is required to create and file with the State a calendar which shall include a minimum of 180 days and shall include five emergency days. Usually, some or all of those emergency days are utilized because of bad weather. With amendatory action by the Board of Education, the final calendar may be adjusted to accommodate any unused days. While it is too early to amend the calendar to compensate for those days, a possible scenario can be provided.

The current calendar lists Wednesday, May 30 as the last day of school. If no emergency days are necessary, it would be possible to move the end of the school year back to May 22. That would mean that exam days would be on the 17 and 18, a Teacher Workshop day would occur on the 21, and report card day would then be on Tuesday, May 22. Obviously, at this point, this is conjecture and nothing is set in stone. We also remember the ice storm that hit Central Illinois on March 24, 1978 … closing area schools for an entire week.

No Attendance on March 19
As listed on your calendars for this year, please note that Monday, March 19 is a non-attendance day. We will have just completed ISAT testing, and we will be starting the final quarter of the school year. We waived the Casimir Pulaski Day (March 5) and decided to postpone the day until after testing was completed. Please make sure your calendar includes this random non-attendance day for students.

The New Superintendent
Dr. Kyle VonSchnase, the new superintendent  beginning July 1, 2012, grew up in Chicago (first 9 years) and then moved to Galena (6 years) and then to the Geneva area for the next several years before moving to Central Illinois.

Legislator Information
Please visit our website at www.cam.k12.il.us and click on the link to find your legislator contact information. Help us lobby your government officials to fully fund education and to restore promised funding for the current fiscal year. Specifically, the State Aid and Transportation payments should be made to districts throughout the State as promised. For our district, this loss for this school year will be in excess of $150,000.

Consolidation Talks?
A recent story in the Taylorville paper and subsequently reported on WTIM speculated on a future consolidation between Pana and Central A & M. You can be assured that there has not been any discussion regarding a merger with the two districts. I was contacted on Tuesday (the same day an article appeared in the paper) that our Board would be receiving a letter from Pana requesting an informal get-together with representatives from the two respective boards. The purpose of the meeting would be to explore possibilities for a possible consolidation somewhere in the future. The Pana Board has already had similar discussions with the Nokomis Board. Obviously, this has not been a topic of conversation with the Central A& M Board, and a letter has not yet been delivered. It has, however, made for some interesting conversations in the area coffee shops this week.

Foundation
Did you know that you can make a tax-deductable gift to a Foundation to benefit students in the Central A & M Schools? An educational foundation has recently been formed with the mission – “..to acquire and distribute resources to Central A & M Community Unit District #21 to enhance, enrich and encourage learning opportunities for its students, staff and community.”

Experience Pride and Excellence at Central A & M.
Randy Grigg, Superintendent

Raiders Digest © 2009-2010

Elementary News | Middle School News | High School News | CAMP News | District News

Breakfast Menus | Lunch Menus | Activities Calendar