Volume 143 No. 21
Friday, April 28, 2017
Single Copy Cost 50¢
Mautino and the state board of elections Hearing was held to determine if campaign figures needed to be amended By Terri Simon
tsimon@tonicanews.com
CHICAGO/SPRINGFIELD — Just a little more than a month after former Illinois State Rep. Frank Mautino (D-Spring Valley) took off his legislative hat and put on the one that named him Illinois Auditor General in January 2016, controversy has surrounded Mautino and his campaign financial reports. Primarily, the issue in question is: Did Mautino appropriately spend campaign contributions and were those contributions reported in a correct manner? In a hearing in Chicago on April 20, the crux of the
meeting was to speak to the Illinois State Board of Elections’ Phil Krasny, the hearing examiner, to determine if figures Mautino’s campaign committee submitted needed to be amended. The hearing had no bearing on how and why the money was spent, rather how it was publicly disclosed with the board of elections. Also present at the meeting was attorney Jeff Schwab of the Liberty Justice Center, who represented David Cooke of Streator, who filed the complaint against Mautino in 2016, and Sergio Acosta, an attorney who represents Mautino’s campaign committee. Mautino was not present at the hearing. The figures in question focus primarily on dollars
Mautino spent, primarily from his campaign committee dubbed Committee for Frank J. Mautino. Specifically in question are also campaign donations Mautino allegedly received and spent during his transition from Illinois Representative to Illinois Auditor General. Mautino, who became a state representative in 1991, was sworn in as the Illinois Auditor General early in December 2015, but he didn’t take his seat until Jan. 1, 2016. A spokesperson for Mautino said the longtime Illinois representative closed his campaign committee at the end of December 2015.
Mautino Page 2
Skipping through school
The sound of music in Tonica
Tonica sets up procedure to allow students to skip grades
School lunch prices on the rise
By Zachary J. Pratt
TONICA — Students might soon hear the sound of music ringing through the halls of Tonica Grade School once more. The Tonica School District is entering into an intergovernmental agreement with Deer Park to share a music teacher. “We’ll be the holder of the contract,” Tonica Principal Chuck Schneider said. The schedule has not been finalized, as Schneider noted a need yet to look at what a schedule could look like for the two districts. The individual districts would not be held to what the other wants to do, allowing some flexibility in determining a curriculum for each individual school. “Each district can do their own thing,” Schneider said. For Tonica’s part, Schneider expressed an interest in bringing back kindergarten through fifth-grade general music and choir, along with band. “It would be good to get some arts back into the curriculum,” Tonica Interim Superintendent James Whitmore said. “I think it’s worth a try. It could be good for the kids,” Whitmore said. “We’ll be looking at around $21,000,” Schneider said of Tonica’s share of the cost. While some might find the cost to appear high, the district used to pay more, as retiring board President Jeremy Hillyer noted. “This price is a considerable savings from what we used to pay,” Hillyer said.
By Zachary J. Pratt news@tonicanews.com
news@tonicanews.com
TONICA — Tonica Grade School is moving forward with its plans to set up a procedure for advancing students through grades. After being contacted by a family about the possibility of moving a student forward, the school has looked into setting up a process to allow such advancement. The district has now approved setting up such a procedure. This procedure would not be used to advance every student who might ask. There will be certain areas the district will have to examine first before a student is allowed to advance to another grade level.. “They really need to be around the top of their grade level,” Tonica Principal Chuck Schneider said. Furthermore, the district would need to look at where the child would place in the grade to which he or she is to be promoted. Another area the school would look into is the students’ IQ test level, which Schneider said the school would have access to through a psychologist. The process would only allow a student to jump over a narrow band of grades. “We wouldn’t want to skip someone over junior high,” Schneider said. Setting up this process now could put the district ahead of legal requirements, as Schneider noted a proposed Senate bill which would make such a procedure required. Schneider expects this to begin in the next school year.
Vol. 143 No. 21 One Section - 8 Pages
Tonica News photo/Dave Cook
Jumping into ... spring! There’s nothing that says spring like a good old track meet, where youthful competitors do their best in a host of sporting activities, hoping to win their respective events. The Lostant track team recently competed at the LaSalle-Lincoln track meet which was held on April 20.
Smile! Spring is just around round the corner Plumbing • Heating • Electrical
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