Friday, November 20, 2009 East Central Illinois

Settlement agreements on Urbana school board agenda

By: Amy F. Reiter

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Monday, February 02, 2009

URBANA – The Urbana school board will look at approving multiple settlement agreements at its study session Tuesday.

If approved, they'll follow several other settlement agreements the district has made recently.

In December, the board agreed to three settlements to parents of minor children, including at least one for $250,000 that district spokesman Mark Schultz confirmed was related to Jon White, the former Urbana teacher now convicted of 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, including eight in Champaign County.

On Dec. 16, the board approved two settlements for $250,000 each to parents of minor students. Board President Mark Netter declined to comment on the settlements then.

On Friday, he again declined to comment in advance of the board meeting on how many settlements – and for how much money – are up for approval.

Those figures will be noted at Tuesday's meeting, to be held at 7:30 p.m. at 205 N. Race St., U. The meeting follows an executive session at 6:30 p.m. to discuss personnel.

The board will also look at approving the Urbana Middle School restructuring plan, which is necessary because the middle school did not meet some state testing standards in academic areas for five of the last six years.

Don Owen, the district's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said a key component of the restructuring was a move to focusing every meeting, every action, toward a goal of improving student learning.

Owen said the district will start recruiting this spring for a new parent advisory group that will meet regularly to examine learning at the middle school.

The group will "give feedback to building and district leadership," Owen said. "We want to make sure parents have a voice."

A large part of the restructuring will focus on students with special needs, who have often failed to make state testing standards at the middle school. Under the new plan, Owen said, students will receive more individualized education and be paired with special education teachers trained in areas where the students need help.

Though it's not a strictly worded part of the plan, Owen said, school leadership will also look at helping students feel like they are a part of the larger school, not only their classroom.

"There hadn't been a building-wide assembly at Urbana Middle School for over four years," he said.

On Jan. 20, the middle school had its first all-school event in a while, with everyone gathering to watch the swearing-in of President Barack Obama.

Netter said he thinks the restructuring plan will help lead to improvements at the middle school, but he said it's a plan that will help make changes over time, not overnight.

The draft plan is available online at www.usd116.org/home/schools/improvement.html.

In other matters, the board will hear from Gayle Jeffries, assistant superintendent for human resources, as she presents a plan called "supportive supervision" for how the district's teachers will be evaluated. She is also expected to give a report on equal job opportunities and minority applications and hiring in the district.

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