Unit 5

Starting next fall, there’ll be no more sports or clubs for Unit 5 junior high students — no sports teams for freshmen, and no band/orchestra for fifth-graders.

As the Unit 5 school board began its meeting Tuesday — to make expected budget cuts — a crowd partially filled the Normal West auditorium. By 5:15 p.m., more than 40 people had signed up for 3-minute slots to make public comment before the board's vote.

Unit 5 has released Superintendent Kristen Weikle’s proposal for two years of budget cuts, which will be discussed at Tuesday’s school board meeting.

With so many “transplants” moving to Bloomington-Normal, WGLT wanted to gather some tips for safe winter driving. We got some help from Normal West driver's ed teacher Steve Price.

Susan Naber, a paraprofessional at Brigham Early Learning Center, was nominated by Gov. JB Pritzker for a national education award for her work setting young children with disabilities on a path to school success.

The 700 students at the Bloomington Area Career Center come from high schools around McLean County, including Unit 5 and District 87. If accepted, they choose from 17 programs such as welding, cosmetology, health careers and medical terminology, and EMT and fire science.

The Unit 5 school board spent more than three hours Wednesday digging into which stark cuts to potentially make — given the district’s $11 million deficit.

The second Unit 5 tax referendum campaign in six months will be a lot more specific on what happens if it doesn't pass than the first one was. Before the failed November referendum, school district leaders said they didn't want to get into the details of what they would do if it failed because they wanted to make a positive case for preserving the schools as they are.

The Unit 5 school board voted Wednesday to return to voters in April with a referendum asking for an increase to a key fund’s tax rate.

Unit 5 school board will meet Wednesday to decide whether to ask voters for a second time whether to raise a key property tax rate to address a growing multimillion-dollar budget deficit.