Education and Schools

Ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Unit 5’s credit rating as part of a new grading system that is affecting hundreds of school districts across the country.

Gov. JB Pritzker took to the road Monday to urge local school districts in Illinois to carefully target the roughly $7 billion in federal funds they will soon receive in order to help students overcome the learning loss they may have suffered during the pandemic.

A commission that Gov. JB Pritzker appointed in 2019 will soon issue a report calling for a complete overhaul in the way the state handles its budget for early childhood education along with a massive increase in funding for early childhood programs.

Gov. JB Pritzker joined members of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus on Monday to sign a measure aimed at advancing equity in education in the state.

Illinois State University plans for a “more traditional campus experience” starting next fall after the coronavirus pandemic pushed most classroom instruction online since last March.

A former technology employee for the Blue Ridge Community School District in Farmer City has admitted to a computer parts fraud scheme in federal court.

A legislative panel on Wednesday allowed the Illinois State Board of Education to move forward with new rules that call on colleges and universities in the state to change the way prospective teachers and administrators are trained in order to make them more accommodating to diverse students.

The Unit 5 school voted Wednesday night to formally dismiss a teacher charged with sexually abusing his students. Those charges were later dropped.

Heartland Community College has hired an architect to design an agriculture complex on campus, but school officials say the size and scope the proposed complex will depend on available funding.

UPDATED 5:35 p.m. | Unit 5 schools will move to all-remote learning starting next Wednesday because of rising coronavirus infection numbers.

Some Unit 5 and District 87 students going back to school in-person will have a different teacher than they’ve been learning with since August.

Even with COVID-19 case numbers falling in Bloomington-Normal in recent weeks, a lot of Unit 5 school district parents don't want their kids returning to the classroom.

The district has reported parents of 22.6% of students have chosen to stay with remote learning when Unit 5 goes back to a hybrid class schedule starting Oct. 19. That's about 2,829 students roughly evenly distributed across grade levels.

Education has been deeply impacted by both the COVID-19 pandemic and rising pressure to end racism. 

Local education administrators detailed how they’re responding to the concurrent issues during a virtual Bloomington-Normal NAACP town hall Thursday night.

Unit 5 Superintendent Kristen Weikle announced Wednesday night a planned return to in-person learning, saying the district hopes to bring students back to the classroom beginning in October “assuming that the metrics are such that we’ll be able to do so.”