TON-05-29-2015

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1 Front

Volume 141 No. 25

Friday, May 29, 2015

Single Copy Cost 50¢

Revisiting the Tonica break-in

Suarez: ‘Kids safety is the paramount concern’ By Zita Henneberry news@tonicanews.com

TONICA — The Tonica thief left empty-handed from the Tonica preschool. The Tonica preschool was discovered

to have been broken into around 7:50 a.m. Friday May 15. “Thankfully they didn’t take anything; they did damage a file cabinet in the office though,” said Superintendent John Suarez. The morning of the break-in, Suarez said his head of maintenance arrived at the building around 5:30 a.m. and had not noticed anything. When a preschool

teacher brought the broken window to Suarez’s attention, the police were contacted immediately, and the break-in site was left alone. Suarez informed the board the police arrived promptly in about 20 minutes. “I stand firm in having school (in session); the school was not damaged, and there was no reason to do that,” said Suarez. “I felt confident that the building

Schools struggle with continued state cuts

By Ken Schroeder news@tonicanews.com

By Zita Henneberry news@tonicanews.com

Lostant Page 3 Vol. 141 No. 25 One Section - 8 Pages

Tonica News photo/Zita Henneberry

Lostant’s got talent Sydney Samek was one of the nine performers at the Tuesday, May 19, Lostant talent show where she dazzled the crowd with her tumbling and hula hooping skills. In the grass in front of the Lostant school, Samek gave a brief demonstration of her performance as she flipped around in front handsprings and more.

Wenona VetCare

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Tonica Page 2

Chrome into the classes at LaSalle-Peru

Malahy: ‘It just keeps getting bleaker and bleaker and bleaker’

LOSTANT — Lostant may be lost with the continued loss of funding. “It just keeps getting bleaker and bleaker and bleaker as the state comes up with more creative ways not to fund public education,” said Lostant Superintendent Sandra Malahy. A cap on funding proposed by the state’s general state aid program would result in a significant loss of funding for the school, she explained. “They figured about half the districts will gain and half the districts will lose in the entire state, and we will be on the losing end,” Malahy said. Currently, out of the $140,942.42 promised to the school, the state can only fund $122,860.95. That’s if all the payments come in, she said, and it’s still a shortage of more than $18,000. If the cap were put in place, even more money would be lost, she said. “I will not know for another month if it’s going to all come in or not,” said Malahy. “With less funding and dwindling resources, we have to look at how that may affect us in the future.” Malahy explored with board members the unique position of Lostant as a unit school district with a deactivated high school. The cost of sending the high school students to other schools is more than $620,000. This money is going out to other schools, she said, and Lostant is not benefiting from it. “This is what is killing us,” said Malahy. The board explored the various options for the future of Lostant Grade School in the event of closures or consolidations. Malahy asked to start exploring the options with the state now to work toward keeping the doors open in the future.

was secure because I went in one direction, (and) my maintenance guy went the other direction.” Suarez said especially with about 85 percent of the Tonica students being bused to school, canceling school would have caused more trouble and have been a nightmare for both families and the

815-853-4567

LASALLE — LaSalle-Peru High School is taking another step into the world of technology. The school board has deemed the 1:1 pilot program a success and will move into full implementation for the 2015-16 school year. The program will put a new Chromebook laptop into the hands of each L-P student for work at school or at home. “We’re letting them take it home from day one, 24/7, until the end of the school year,” Superintendent Steve Wrobleski said. “Each one will have a barcode and we’ll document it and it will be theirs. It’ll be turned in at the end of the year, but the idea is, that Chromebook is theirs for all four years. The schools that we’ve talked to that have rolled this program out say students take care of them. It’s new and it’s nice, and they will be using them throughout the school career.” Chromebooks are built around Google’s Chrome operating system. Since most of the work done on a Chromebook actually stays in the cloud, it uses fewer processors and has smaller storage capabilities, making it smaller and cheaper. The Chrome system uses Google as its main source for browsing and Internet access, allowing students easier access to work done on a Chromebook from other computers. For students who are used to using a different format laptop, there’s a learning curve involved. Tonica’s Tanner Kennedy is adjusting, but prefers his Dell laptop. “They’re not what I’m used to. They’re new technology for me,” Kennedy said. “It’s hard to find where stuff is at for me. It’s kinda slowed me down because I’m not used to it.” Most instructors report students have embraced the new technology, as have the teachers. “I love it because it’s instant feedback. They submit it right away and then I can automatically grade it and return it,” English teacher Andrea Henry said. “There’s no forgetting to hand it in, and they can work on it at home. It makes everything easier.”

Chromebooks Page 2

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