Scott County Times 75¢
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 2017
WINCHESTER, IL 62694
VOLUME NO. 150 NUMBER 15
Serving our readers for more than 149 years
75¢
Times Winchester board mulls change in grading scale your
NEWS
Winchester seeking grants. See page A5 Pre-K screening May 4 and 5. See page b4
NEWS
By JUSTIN A. COBB Scott County Times Winchester School Board members discussed a proposal to change the grading scale to better position high school seniors for college admissions and scholarship opportunities but deferred action to the new board before adjourning sine die Tuesday night. The proposed changes, which district superintendent Dave Roberts said had been recommended by the high school
“Colleges look at GPA and ACT or SAT scores. They don’t take into account the rigor of the grading scale.”
Denny Vortman
IDNR to host public meeting. See page A9
SPORTS
G-P takes two over Lady Cougars. See page B1
WEEKEND WEATHER
Principal, Winchester High School handbook committee and, in turn, the curriculum committee, would change the district’s current “modified” grading scale to a 90/80/70 scale, which has become the standard amongst high schools with whose pupils Winchester students compete for scholarship money and college acceptance, according to high school principal Denny Vortman. The cutoff for a D would be either 60 or 65 percent, depending on the board’s decision, but eligibility for extracurricular activities would remain at the 68-percent level agreed upon through the West Central Co-op with Bluffs, according to Vortman. “It comes down to we’re putting our kids at a big disadvantage,” Vortman said. “Colleges look at GPA and ACT or SAT scores. They don’t take into account the rigor of the grading scale.” The difference for an average, “85-per-
cent” student at Winchester versus schools with a 90/80/70 scale can be upwards of $20,000, according to high school guidance counselor Celeste Lashmett, who said representatives of all state schools with whom she had spoken told her they do not account for differences in grading scale when considering a student’s GPA. “Our students are at a disadvantage for that money simply based on the grading scale,” Lashmett said. The current grading scale, through which the minimum score for an A is 94 percent, also complicates grading of courses taken for dual credit through Lincoln Land Community College (LLCC), according to Vortman, who said he had recently encountered a situation in which a student’s final grade would have been an A at LLCC but would have been a B+ at WHS. “If the current grading scale is best for our school, so be it, but other schools are taking advantage of it, and we’re not,” Vortman said. “The rigor and expectations will still be set in the classroom, not by the grading scale.” Board member Ron Coultas expressed concern the proposed change could lessen the incentive for a student earning between 90 and 94 to improve further, but board member Jeff Hurrelbrink disagreed, saying “an A student or overachiever is always going to be an A student.” Accompanying the proposed change in the grading scale were proposed changes in the allocation of grade points from mere integers to fractional points based on pluses or minuses, according to Vortman, but there was no firm consensus as to which proposal would work best, with some board members expressing concern over whether a full four points should be awarded throughout the entire A range or just at the high end. “I’m not sure we shouldn’t leave this to the new board,” Hurrelbrink said. Board president Steve Moore agreed, saying, “I’m not ready to vote on it.”
Justin A. Cobb/Scott County Times
Newly elected board members, from left, Jody Clanton, Trista Freeman, and Phyllis McGuire, along with re-elected incumbent Steve Moore, not shown, swore the oath of office Tuesday evening after being elected to Winchester School Board in the April 4 consolidated election.
Winchester seats new board members By JUSTIN A. COBB Scott County Times Winchester School Board seated three newly elected members and reseated one incumbent at a reorganizational meeting taking place shortly after the old board adjourned sine die Tuesday evening. New members Jody Clanton, Trista Freeman, and Phyllis McGuire and re-elected incumbent Steve Moore, who begins his eighth term, joined fellow board members Ron Coultas, Joe Little, and Steve Weder upon swearing the oath of office.
Federal bill could help secure disaster funding
FRIDAY, APRIL 14
78 61
High Low
SATURDAY, APRIL 15
81 62
High Low
SUNDAY, APRIL 16
71 48
By ROBERT LYONS Scott County Times Spring flooding is a common occurrence in the area, but it rarely constitutes a disaster declaration, at least not according to the federal government. Two U.S. Representatives from Illinois are trying to change that, and usher in a new method for federal disaster determination. In order for Illinois to have a federal disaster declaration, which is required to receive public assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), more than $18 million in damage must occur. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-13th District, (See, BILL, A2)
High Low
Scott County Times Church . . . . . . . . A4 Locals . . . . . . . . . . A3 Marketplace . . . B2-3 News . . . . . . . A5, B4 Timely Matters . . . A4 © 2017
Scott County Times Obituaries listed in this issue: None. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The newly organized board voted to retain Moore, Coultas, Weder, and Little as board president, first and second vice president, and secretary, respectively, and reaffirmed district policy and handbooks, the board meeting schedule, and depositories, as well as Miller, Hall & Triggs of Peoria as the district’s legal counsel and district bookkeeper Angie Slagle as the board treasurer. Moore thanked outgoing members Wayne Brown, Jeff Hurrelbrink, and Norine Jefferson for their service on the board before adjourning the old board sine die.
Submitted photo
Pop
a top for the library
Winchester High School juniors, from left, Sean Cowhick, Sara Piechowski, Maddie Lashmett, and, right, Reagan Hearold recently presented head librarian Darlene Smith, second from right, at Winchester Public Library with soda can tabs they collected. Seabn had learned of the library’s participation in the collection for the Ronald McDonald House and with the help of Sara, Maddie, and Reagan and the WHS Leadership Group organized a schoolwide effort.
Bluffs schools to require doctor’s notes By JUSTIN A. COBB Scott County Times “It’s responsible people paying for irresponsible people’s actions,” Bluffs School Board vice president DeWayne Hart said at the April 5 school board meeting during a discussion of a new handbook policy concerning absences. Under the new rule, which the board approved, students will have to provide a note from a physician to excuse any illness-related absence beyond three days each quarter, according to principal Joe Kuhlmann. Students will be allowed three excused absences without a doctor’s note each quarter, but for any day absence thereafter, the student will have to provide a note from a physician within five days of returning to school or else the absence will be considered unexcused, according to Kuhlmann. “But what if a kid’s ill for three days and gets a doctor’s note and then comes down with a fever and they don’t need to go to the doctor, do they still have to get a doctor’s excuse for that?” Hart asked. He noted a family may not be able to afford to pay for a medically-unnecessary doctor visit, and a busy physician
may not want to see the patient if the patient’s condition does not warrant medical intervention. District superintendent Kevin Blankenship said the rule was being put in place due to increased scrutiny statewide over truancy. “The state says anytime they miss school without a valid cause (constitutes truancy),” Blankenship said. In other business, the board: n Accepted the bid of QFB Energy of Quincy to provide electricity to the district for the next 12 months at 4.516 cents per kilowatt-hour, the lower of two bids. The other bid was from Illinois Electric Cooperative asking 5.644 cents per kwh, according to Blankenship. n Learned the district to date had still received no transportation funding from the state, resulting in unprecedented deficit spending in the transportation fund. n Voted to continue the district’s membership in the Sangamon Area Purchasing Cooperative (SAPCO), through which the district procures food items. n Learned cafeteria services posted a loss of $621.92 for the month of (See, BLUFFS, A2)
School board reseats four By JUSTIN A. COBB Scott County Times Bluffs School Board seated four incumbent members to the board for new four year terms when it met April 5. Roger Barnett, Terry Kunkel, Shelly Tweedy, and Gary Westermeyer were re-elected after running unopposed for their respective seats in the April 4 consolidated election. Two minutes into the meeting, after disposing of any remaining old business, the board adjourned sine die and conducted a brief reorganization, during which Westermeyer was appointed president pro-tem and he, Barnett, and Kunkel were seated as new members. Tweedy was absent and will be seated at the next board meeting. Since the membership of the board was unchanged, board members voted (See, BOARD, A2)
Commissioners approve small internal fund transfers
By JUSTIN A. COBB Scott County Times Scott County Board of Commissioners approved several small internal fund transfers when they met Monday afternoon, board of commissioners chair Robert Schafer said by phone the following afternoon. “We did transfer some money because there were some line items in the election and a couple others that were a little short,” Schafer said. “They were small amounts. I think one was $4.25, and another was for $97, but they were all line-item transfers within the same part of the budget.” The fund transfers were the only actions taken by commissioners besides approval of previous meeting minutes and payment of bills, according to Schafer. “We didn’t take any action yesterday (on the information sharing agreement with Illinois Department of Revenue proposed last week) because the state’s attorney’s still researching that deal with the Department of Revenue, the intergovernmental agreement, so we didn’t have that to do yesterday,” Schafer said. In other business, Scott County Nursing Center had 32 residents as of Monday, according to Schafer. The meeting lasted about 30 minutes, Schafer said.