Education and Family

A Peoria man's been arrested and charged in the Saturday murder of a 14 year old football player.

School district officials in Urbana have decided to lift a requirement for prospective student tutors or supervised volunteers to undergo fingerprint background checks. The Urbana school board voted unanimously to update its volunteer background screening policy to mirror rules in Champaign and other nearby school districts. Only volunteers who have unsupervised contact with students and all new employees will be subject to fingerprint background checks. The district has paid $50 per fingerprint background check for every volunteer since 2008.

Lincoln College in Normal is losing several certificate and bachelors programs as the institution reorganizes with more programs moving to the Lincoln campus. It's part of what President David Gerlach calls a $7.6 million reinvestment campaign for the 150 year old school.

Lincoln College will stop offering Esthetics, Cosmetology, teacher training, and massage therapy certifications in Normal. Degree programs in Criminal Justice, Business, and Sports Management will move from Normal to Lincoln. Four jobs will also move and the college has eliminated 13 jobs.

EIU President David Glassman says layoffs and furloughs have helped the school cut its budget deficit from $13 million to $1 million. Glassman said during his state of the university address that the cost-cutting isn't over but any additional layoffs would be small. EIU doesn't have a state appropriation because GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic leaders in the Illinois Legislature haven't settled on a state budget for the current fiscal year.

Southern Illinois University officials have detailed $13.5 million in budget cuts, saying they will affect student-worker positions, research resources and on-campus events. The cuts affect a large cross-section of university departments. SIU spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith says the cuts were unavoidable because of a state budget stalemate and a funding reduction for the school because of lower enrollment this year.  

Officials in Elgin say about 2,900 students were evacuated after higher-than-normal levels of Legionella bacteria were found in cooling towers at three schools. School District U-46 spokeswoman Mary Fergus says the levels were found during annual air quality testing of the schools' cooling towers. She says no students were ill. Students were dismissed home or taken to Bartlett High school or Elgin High School to be picked up by parents.

Trustees of a suburban Chicago college have voted to void the contract of its embattled president about a month after beginning the process of firing him. College of DuPage trustees voted 4-3 Thursday night to void Robert Breuder's contract. He's on paid administrative leave and is set to retire in March. Board of Trustees attorney Timothy Elliott says the board contends that it now doesn't have to give Breuder a severance deal worth $763,000 after voiding his contract. The severance deal ends his tenure three years early, and law enforcement is investigating the deal and other issues.

Preliminary results from new statewide tests based on the Common Core educational standards show that the vast majority of Illinois high school students fell short of grade-level expectations. Only three in 10 of the high schoolers who took the online version of the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exam in the spring met or exceeded expectations in English language arts and literacy. Less than one in five high schoolers met or exceeded expectations on the exam's math portion.

Faculty members at the University of Illinois campus in Champaign-Urbana aren't happy with a policy instituting background checks that starts early next month. The Senate of the Urbana-Champaign Campus, a group of about 200 faculty members, will vote next week on a resolution that would delay that start date. The resolution says the policy doesn't meet American Association of University Professors standards and isn't mentioned in all job postings. The board of trustees approved the policy last week.

Illinois Wesleyan University is getting set to name its next President. The school in Bloomington has announced a news conference Monday to unveil the selection to replace Richard Wilson. The search has been ongoing since Wilson announced in December of last year that he would retire when a successor was named.

The number of students enrolled at Northern Illinois University has dipped slightly, but retention rates are improving. The university reported an enrollment of 20,130 students, a decrease of about 2.3 percent from last year. NIU President Doug Baker says: "We are not where we want to be, but there are encouraging signs of progress." The one-year retention rate for last year's freshmen increased 1 percentage point, to 72 percent. Baker says the university also has been recruiting higher-achieving students.