Cerro Gordo School Board accepts art grant, names football field
By JANE HENRICKS
Staff Writer
The Cerro Gordo school board held its June meeting Wednesday, June 19, at 6:30 pm in the auditorium.
The meeting started with sn Amended Budget hearing.
The property tax money from Piatt County was received in June last year and will be expected this year in June or July at the latest. The budget will work out regardless even though the fiscal year ends June 30. The total budget remains solidly in the black.
After returning from executive session, the Board approved the hiring of Jordan Wright as volunteer high school cheerleading coach, Cody Sheets as co-ed indoor track coach, and Penny Timmerman as the bus aide and part-time cook at the elementary school.
The Board then approved the 4.5% wage increase for non-certified staff and administration with another year added to the contracts of Jodi Neaveill and Brandon Willard.
The board then accepted the resignation of Special Education teacher Mary Nixon and the retirement request of Katrina Cearlock, listing 2027-28 school year as her final year.
The board approved a long list of Consent Agenda items: The most notable were the payment of the June bills totaling $155,767.75 and the reimbursement to the imprest fund.
Superintendent Emily Wiedner announced that the Heart of Illinois Community Foundation awarded Cerro Gordo $15,000 to the Arts department. The money will buy a kiln for the art program, while the remaining funds will go to organization and improvement of the backstage storage space.
The Ag shop has been cleaned out, so Ms. Meade is working to get this area ready for the coming school year.
The classrooms of Vanessa Gower and Jennifer Thomas have had their ceilings lowered to provide better lighting options.
The Unfinished Business portion of this meeting brought the approval of the FY24 Amended School District Budget.
New Business introduced and approved an overnight trip to Missouri for the high school boys basketball team, the updated contract with the Piatt County Resource officer, and the naming of the football field.
On August 23, 2024, the football field will be named Workman-Henricks field. Former head coach Paul Workman and former assistant coach Todd Henricks had long-term success producing teams that had a total record of 165-92 and took teams to the playoffs 17 of the 25 years they coached together.
The next board meeting will be July 10. The meeting was adjourned.
