The Commercial-News, Danville, IL

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June 13, 2008

Catlin schools to create new parking lot

District to launch new intervention program

BY MARILYN BOUSLOG

CATLIN — Catlin Grade School Principal Dennis Buesking discussed summer plans to create a new parking lot at the grade school.

Buesking told the school board Thursday night that the alley on Mill Street will be open one-way south.

“This will allow space for 10 or more diagonal additional parking spaces. It will also help with drainage improvement,” he said.

During the summer, work will be done to remove tree stumps, and to start grading for the lot.

In other business, the school board:

-- Heard from Superintendent Guy Banicki about a new program called Response to Intervention to be put into action next school year.

“RTI is a process designed to help schools focus on high-quality interventions that are matched to student needs and monitored on a frequent basis,” he said.

“RTI systems are divided into a three-tier intervention,” he said.

Tier 1-Core Curriculum will involve 80 to 90 percent of the students; Tier 2-Small Group Interventions will entail 5 to 10 percent of the students; and Tier 3-Intense Intervention will be encompass 1 to 5 percent of the students.

“Students will be tested by computers and will be accessed three times a year. Six teachers will be trained during the year for this program,” he said.

“This will also be part of our staff development for the year.

“I believe we are ahead of the game for the goal for this year,” he said.

“We will be hearing a lot about RTI.”

-- Approved a motion to waive the Lincoln’s birthday holiday.

-- Heard from Buesking that there are going to be changes in the student handbook.

Some changes were made in the attendance policy. On the ninth absence, there will be a conference scheduled with parents. Buesking said attendance is crucial, especially for the state testing.

A change in the dress code will forbid wearing trench coats.

-- Also heard that the junior high received the 2008 Division K Sportsmanship Award. This honor was selected by 15 peer schools, and is given for outstanding behavior and the highest standards of sportsmanship to their coaches, players and fans.

-- Catlin High School Principal Kevin Thomas also had some changes in the student handbook.

“Some changes were made to satisfy state regulation. One being, incoming freshman will be asked to pass four years of English. This is the first year this has happened,” he said.

There also was discussion about installing more surveillance cameras in the high school.

Thomas said, “We have had good success with the cameras we have and would like to get two more.”

-- Banicki stated that Vermilion Vocational Educational Delivery System is waiting on federal funding.

“A budget overview of the 2008-09 grants and funding to the schools has increased by a total of $10,000 for Fiscal Year 2009” said Board of Control member Kay Smoots.

-- Learned that Vermilion Association for Special Education also was waiting on state allocations.

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