Marysville school officials are gearing up for a change in the elementary report cards. During a work session of the Marysville Board of Education on Monday night, district superintendent Diane Mankins gave each board member a copy of the book “Grading for Equity” by Joe Feldman. The focus of the book is explaining the ins and outs of mastery learning. The district is committed to a mastery-learning model in kindergarten through sixth grades. Officials said elementary students have already been using a mastery-learning model, but report cards reflected a traditional grading system. A team of district administrators is currently trying…
Author: Chad Williamson
One of the biggest issues we struggle with at the Journal-Tribune is that many community members don’t see the value of the news we provide. People want news. It’s a fact. And despite some claims that social media is killing the traditional media, I would argue that digital sources are actually inflaming the public’s desire for information. Every nugget of wisdom in the world is at the fingertips of the public. But the lost piece of the equation involves how that information becomes available on the web. News gathering has value. Without reporters collecting accurate information, much of the community…
Safety and sanitation were the main topics of discussion at Tuesday night’s North Lewisburg Village Council meeting. Mechanicsburg Police Captain Scott Bodey presented his monthly report on traffic and criminal activity to the officials and mentioned a particular issue involving an alley. Mechanicsburg is contracted to provide police services for the Village of North Lewisburg. Bodey said an alley running behind the municipal building has many vehicles parked on the street, despite being very narrow. He said school buses have trouble navigating the narrow street, often being forced to back out after picking up students because the parked cars make…
Things could get a little more crowded at the North Lewisburg Municipal Building on future election nights. At Tuesday night’s North Lewisburg Village Council meeting, administrator Andy Yoder said that several voting precincts outside of the village will be voting at the municipal building beginning with a May 7 special election. He reported that residents of Rush Township, Wayne Township and the village of Woodstock will be voting at the municipal building with existing North Lewisburg voters. Mayor Cheryl Hollingsworth said the Champaign County Board of Elections is attempting to consolidate polling locations because of difficulties in recruiting workers. She…
The songs that make me cry I once read that there were only two appropriate times for grown man to cry – at the birth of his first child and at the end of the movie “Rudy.” While those are both very fine reasons to drop a tear, this is by no means an exhaustive list. The idea that crying is a reaction reserved for women is ridiculous. I cry all the time. Who cares? It’s not outright weeping, but I routinely get a good case of onion eyes. Any number of things can make me cry, both happy and…
In any year, Memorial Health receives numerous awards. So many, in fact, that it can become difficult to determine which ones are truly big deals. A recent accolade earned by the hospital’s pharmacy department, however, is “really unprecedented” according to Memorial CEO Chip Hubbs. The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) recently selected Memorial Hospital to receive the “2018 ASHP Best Practices Award.” The award honors hospitals that have shown innovative programs in their pharmacy operations. The national award is given to just six organizations annually and Memorial is the second smallest hospital in the past 20 years to receive…
A Marysville assistant wrestling coach has resigned from his position after he was revealed to have sent inappropriate text messages to a female student-athlete. Ivan Mullet resigned from his position on the Monarch staff on Jan. 31 after a meeting with Marysville High School Principal Tom Cochran and athletic director Ryan Walker. School officials indicated that the messages were not explicit or sexual in nature, no photos were exchanged and it does not appear the girl and the coach ever met outside of school-related functions. Mullet, a 1987 Marysville graduate, had worked with the program since 2014 and had been…
North Lewisburg officials are hoping to secure funding to help alleviate storm water drainage in the village. During Tuesday night’s meeting of village council, administrator Andy Yoder said preliminary engineering work is about to begin on a drainage improvement project that would benefit the south side of the municipality. Yoder explained that a busted clay storm water tile that runs parallel to Townsend Street has been located and appears to be the cause of standing water in the area after rainfall. The tile runs from Mill Street to Gregory Street before continuing on, but officials are unsure of exactly where…
A week of firsts at the Journal-Tribune I have worked at this newspaper for 28 years and last week produced two “firsts” for me in terms of the business. The severe weather that closed out the week not only canceled school for three days, but also had us scrambling at the Journal-Tribune as we tried to figure out how to handle the challenging conditions. On Wednesday and Thursday bitterly low wind chills proved to be the real danger. But then on Friday, the area got socked with more than five inches of snow, which was considerably more than predicted. We…
Members of the Memorial Health Board, Memorial Health Foundation Board and Memorial 2020 Steering Committee gathered to celebrate the achievements of the Memorial 2020 campaign. Attendees were honored for their efforts and diligence in helping the hospital conduct its most successful fundraising campaign in its history. Pictured above, from left to right, are Cara Rambosek, Memorial Health Foundation staff; Henk Berbee, Memorial Health Foundation Vice-Chair and Memorial 2020 Steering Committee; Nikki Conklin, Memorial 2020 Steering Committee Co-Chair and Memorial Health Board of Trustees Chair; Chad Hoffman, Memorial 2020 Steering Committee Co-Chair and Memorial Health Board Trustee; Jon Veith, Memorial Health…
Tomorrow’s front page With this column, I am going to do something I have never attempted on the editorial page. I’m going to promote a story we haven’t printed yet. It is a story about the issue of suicide in the area and it deserves to be read. It will appear on Saturday’s front page and readers will probably think it “feels” different than other stories we write. I don’t want to steal the thunder of the piece, but the story contains a lot of emotion and is intensely personal to us at the Journal-Tribune. Reporter Mac Cordell crafted a…
Anyone winning an election for a position in the village of North Lewisburg can expect a pay bump over current levels. North Lewisburg Village Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to increase the compensation for council members and the mayor. Because public officials cannot vote to increase the wage they currently earn, the increases will take effect after each position comes up for reelection. According to Mayor Cheryl Hollingsworth, the village contracted for a salary study through Clemans Nelson & Associates to compare compensation of village employees and officials with similar villages. Some of the municipalities compared in the study were…
The financial picture for Memorial Health continues to trend upward. Memorial’s board of trustees approved the system’s 2019 budget Thursday night with an increase in revenue of more than 5 percent. Budgets for hospital operations can be different than those of traditional businesses for a number of reasons. Adjusted fees for insurance providers, indigent patients and providing a number of charitable services a reduce a health system’s gross patient revenue. For 2019 Memorial’s gross revenue is set at $322 million dollars, but factoring in the afore mentioned reductions of just under $193 million, puts the estimated net revenue at $129…
The Village of North Lewisburg has made great financial strides in the last decade. According to administrator Andy Yoder, the village struggled “keep the lights on” during the Great Recession years from 2007-2009, but the picture looks much different now. At Tuesday night’s meeting North Lewisburg Council approved the 2019 budget, which includes nearly as much carryover money as newly generated funds. The estimated revenue for 2019 is set at $1,189,000. On top of that the village has carryover funds, which include investments in CDs, of $1,085,000. “We’ve been very frugal,” mayor Cheryl Hollingsworth said. Yoder said the strength of…
Unseasonably warm temperatures, which pushed into the 60s, led to very large crowds along the route for the Marysville Christmas Parade on Sunday. At left, with watchers lined up many rows deep along the route, this young boy found a better view of the parade from his dad’s shoulders. Additional photos from the Christmas parade can be found at www.marysvillejt.com. (Journal-Tribune photos by Chad Williamson)