Teutopolis School Board to Consider Changing Guidelines for Electing Board Members

Teutopolis school board members may seek voter approval to change the guidelines for electing people to the Board.

Teutopolis Superintendent Matt Sturgeon said the current requirement is that no more than three members can live in the same township. Sturgeon, though, said there is an option to seek voter approval for at-large board member elections. In other words, the leading vote-getters would be elected to however many seats are available, regardless of where in the school district they reside.

The question could be placed on the April 2021 election ballot. The Board plans to consider the matter further at their January meeting.

Board members heard from Sturgeon about winter weather, and whether snow days will be desired anymore if school officials have time to send materials home before the weather event occurs. Remote learning devices could allow classes to continue from home. Sturgeon said a short notice weather event, or even a one-day event, might not be worth the trouble, but advance warning of a storm that could shut things down for multiple days might lead to the remote learning option. No decision was reached at Monday's meeting.

Sturgeon reported that work on the high school building is in the home stretch, with the building being turned over by the contractor to the District. 

Junior high school principal Pat Drees reported that the Illinois Elementary School Association has established a Go Fund Me account on the IESA website that has generated more than $20,000 as the Association is dealing with financial problems due to a lack of events that are a source of revenue.

High school principal Greg Beck reported that THS student Elizabeth Weidner has written grant proposals for growing towers. The requests have yielded grants of $5,000 from Siemer Milling Company, and of $1,000 from both Teutopolis State Bank and from the Bill and Jackie Jordan Anderson Fund.

The Board also approved a student teacher for Spring 2021; approved an intergovernmental agreement on a grant request for the Effingham Regional Career Academy that could mean $5 million to $7 million in funds for the academy building; approved an early graduation request, approved resignations; agreed to seek bids on a 29-passenger bus with an alternate bid to include seat belts in the bus; passed the fiscal year that includes an increase in land values in the district totaling $880,000 that could mean a slight decrease in the district tax rate; and decided against seeking bids on property/casualty insurance coverage.

The Board also accepted resignations from Brooke Hoene as head cross country coach, as well as from basketball coaches Grant Keller, Leighton Lark and Chris Ungrund.