Taylorville School board met on Monday evening for their regular monthly board meeting, but spent the majority of the evening discussing the NPT cooperative between Nokomis, Pana, and Taylorville concerning Taylorville developing their own special needs curriculum. The meeting was packed with many concerned parents who spoke for over 45 minutes about their concerns over Taylorville breaking away from the NPT Cooperative.
Jessica T. Nguyen, attorney for the district, spoke about Taylorville School District during the public hearing and what the goals were for the Taylorville Special Needs Curriculum. Nguyen stressed that while there may be some teachers that change, the program will remain the same for all services provided by the district except for the Faces and CBI services.
Parents stressed that it needed to be about the children, that the district needed to put the needs of children first. Nguyen assured parents that the School District was putting children first.
The plan is for the School District to meet individually with all parents who will be impacted by these changes. If implemented, the plan will change on July 1st, 2022. The next step for this is for the Board of Trustees to determine the legality of leaving. The public hearing went from 5:45-6:55.
There were many accolades given out during the regular School Board meeting including recognizing the Madrigal Singers who have been able to get together and sing for the first time since before the pandemic. Here they are singing a song from the Nutcracker Suite.
The board also praised the FFA along with allowing them to participate in a national event in Denver after a separate school was disqualified. The board reviewed the Strategic Planning reports, the board reviewed the proposed tax levy, and previewed the Illinois District Report Cards.
Nurse Jenny Moats says they are doing what they can with the mask mandate, but are being restricted by the language in the bills from the IDPH.
The next school board meeting is set for December 13th.
