PHOTO BY JAMES HAWKER There’s a new gallery in town! 1227 is located at 1227 S. Pasfield Ave., behind The Pharmacy. Five local photographers Lou Fremgen, Tom Handy, James Hawker, Greg Laun and John Record, a group known as Next Friday, having met the last Friday of the month for the past year to discuss […]
Springfield School District 186
Posted inNews
Enos School replacement plan under fire
A Springfield nonprofit is asking the state to put the brakes on a plan to replace an elementary school building located north of downtown. Jerry Jacobson, spokesman for the nonprofit historic preservation organization Save Old Springfield, sent a letter to the Illinois State Board of Education on Monday, asking the state to reevaluate whether it’s […]
Posted inNews
District 186 wants to limit ‘Public School Choice’
With four themed magnet schools and one charter school drawing students from across the city regardless of attendance boundaries, School District 186 prides itself on offering “choice” to Springfield families who want to put their children in unique educational settings. [See “Choice schools,” April 7, 2011]. But besides the popular magnet schools Superintendent Dr. Walter […]
Posted inNews
Candidates eager to lead District 186
On April 5, voters in four of seven sub-districts will be asked to choose who they want representing them on District 186’s school board for the next two years. The 10 candidates, all of whom participated in a recent Springfield Parents for Public Schools forum, have varied backgrounds and professions but all say their past […]
Posted inNews
Schools ‘wrap’ troubled kids
In the fall of 2009, one Springfield elementary student was sent to the office for discipline 30 different times. The next semester, that number was down to 12 visits, with only three before he became temporarily homeless. The decrease was achieved through the district’s most intense behavior intervention program, a PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and […]
Posted inOpinion
Trusting to miracles
It’s back-to-school time again – the hopeful buzz of the first few weeks when the backward and the indifferent say to themselves, “This year I’m going to get it right,” followed by the chastening failures, and the gradual realization that there are some disciplines that are just too difficult to master. I am talking of […]
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Educator: Springfield needs more charter schools
Dr. Patrick Hardy, chief academic officer for Rockford Public Schools, visited Springfield last week to encourage educators and community members to consider offering more alternatives to traditional public education. During a presentation hosted by the Illinois Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research and education organization, Hardy contended that charter schools — open-enrollment public schools usually operated […]
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Redesigning high schools from the inside out
While the Springfield School District plans to renovate its three high schools, and possibly build a new one, it has already embraced a new design for secondary teaching and learning. “Small learning communities,” also called academies or pods, will be built around specific career interests in each school. Students will pick a community and remain […]
