Education and Family

Central Illinois educators and administrators are getting creative as already limited funding for rent and utility assistance dwindles and student need for housing support services soars.

University High School senior London Wollenweber of Bloomington is a political junkie. London's political hero is the late President Jimmy Carter. And he and his mother just drove down to Plains, Georgia, to pay their respects to the late president.

Six Unit 5 schools have earned the highest rating on the Illinois State Report Card this year — the largest number of "exemplary" schools for the district since the current system began in 2017.

Every so often on WGLT, we feature community servants and unsung heroes working to make Bloomington-Normal a better place to live. It's a series we call More of That, Please! In this edition, we focus on a man from rural Normal who has been lighting up children’s lives for close to six decades.

Representatives of the state's Department of Early Childhood's transition committee spoke with parents and educators about the ways the department can be the most effective when it launches in 2026.

The Unit 5 school board wants the administration to consider a ban on cell phones in district schools.

The nonprofit For A Better Tomorrow will host its first STEAM Olympics in partnership with Illinois Wesleyan University.

District 87 school board president Elizabeth Fox Anvick wears many hats: She’s a tech professional, a wife, a mother – and one of Bloomington-Normal’s most visible LGBTQ+ advocates.

Gov. JB Pritzker noted the program previously served about 4% of the state’s early childhood population through various community organizations before the state enabled an expansion by giving $1.6 million to the program.

Lab Schools director Anthony Jones says said one way to boost diversity is better communication with potential students during the application period early in the year.