Joe Deacon / WCBU
A state grant of almost $860,000 will allow Peoria Public Schools District 150 to help students and families from communities adversely impacted by the war on drugs.
The funding comes from the “Restore, Reinvest, Renew” program, commonly called R3, which gets 25% of the tax revenue from Illinois’ legalization of adult-use cannabis. School officials touted the grant during a news conference Tuesday at Trewyn K-8 School on the city’s south side.
“What an opportunity for individuals who are in dire need, and can benefit from some support and guidance for success and actually becoming contributing members of society,” said PPS Superintendent Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat. “We are here in one of the most distressed communities in the state and in the nation, 61605 (ZIP code) at Trewyn Primary School, and this community, like many other communities are, impacted by the horrors of violence, have bolstered by concentration of disinvestments identified by ra
AP Photo/Julio Cortez
With the advent of remote learning options during the COVID-19 pandemic, school snow days could start to disappear.
When a cold snap brought snow and below-freezing temperatures to central Illinois last week, Peoria Public Schools District 150 pivoted to at-home instruction four times.
Peoria County Regional Superintendent of Schools Beth Crider said that is just one example of school districts’ growing ability to switch to a virtual alternative on short notice when inclement weather dictates – and that could make the traditional snow day increasingly rare.
“I do believe that when we get past the pandemic, there are a lot of things that are going to stay, and there’s a lot of things that we’re not going to do any more. Snow days is one of those things that might become a thing of the past,” said Crider.
PEORIA – Regular COVID-19 testing is about to become a thing for high school students in Peoria Public Schools.
The district has formulated a plan for its high schools similar to the one Bradley University implemented last fall. In an effort to monitor positivity rates and isolate infected kids quickly, regular testing in the high schools will begin after students return to in-person classes Jan. 19.
“A lot of information that we are receiving is that the students in the high school age range, 14 to 18 years of age, can be COVID-positive and not necessarily exhibit symptoms,” said Josh Collins, the head of the Peoria Public Schools District s Return to School planning committee. “So what we are hoping to accomplish with the periodic test is to monitor that, so that if we have an asymptomatic, COVID-positive student, we would catch that quickly, and have that student follow the isolation process for being COVID-positive to help mitigate the spread amongst peers or staff.