Bus cameras in store for Eldorado
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Eldorado school administrators will soon have a new tool for handling the problem of bus mischief.
The board approved during Thursday night's meeting the purchase of 12 cameras that should prove or disprove reports of bullying and other bus misbehavior.
The cost will be $11,430 for 247 Security Model 512 A cameras and two hard drives for each camera.
The board has discussed the issue in the past, but Superintendent Gary Siebert said an incident in the past 10 days that is being investigated by the Illinois State Police serves as a motivator to get the cameras installed as soon as possible.
Siebert said the Illinois State Board of Education has confirmed to him the state will reimburse 80-percent of the cost to the district as it does with school bus purchases.
Eldorado Elementary School Principal Steve Nelson said he is spending much of his time taking reports of incidents and investigating them only to find many are cases of one person's word against another.
"Discipline problems haven't slowed down much, have they, Steve?" Siebert said.
"Not for me. Every day," Nelson said.
Algebra Project
Dr. Gregory Budzban and Eldorado junior Megan Mayberry gave presentations regarding the Algebra Project. In the 2009 to 2010 school year a class of about 40 freshmen signed up for the program of intense algebra explained using real-world activities. The program through Southern Illinois University is intended to empower the youngsters and create community leaders.
That class is now in its junior year and Budzban proposed the class organize study sessions for the school to prepare for state testing. He hopes after school and Saturday study sessions can involve parents and community leaders and offered to speak to Eldorado churches to gain support.
The juniors this year studied polynomials. He challenged them to solve a problem involving a garden plot offering a $500 reward that would go toward actually creating the garden plot on school grounds. They solved the problem and Budzban asked the board to think about where a suitable location would be. The money will fund the materials needed and a plaque.
In the spring he wants to embark on a trigonometry project involving surveying if anyone knows of a local project needing surveyed.
Budzban repeated his call to get more of the class involved in the Algebra Project's summer institute that will be at SIU next summer. Normally 10 to 12 of the class of about 40 attend the two-week institute that includes Mansfield High School in Ohio students, national speakers and trips to Holiday World and a baseball game.
"It's really an incredible opportunity, but I've had a very hard time getting students in Eldorado to buy into the program," Budzban said.
Mayberry showed a video and told the board about her experiences the first year she attended the institute at SIU. She said the association with students from Mansfield High School, the bulk of whom are African American, taught students from both schools the reality of their own racial biases.
"When I first got there I was scared. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't even know they were from Ohio," Mayberry said.
She described a scene of about 20 black students crowded on the other side of a locked door trying to get into the room where the Eldorado students were. Once the Mansfield kids were in the room, they sat on one side of the classroom and the Eldorado kids sat on the other side. No one from one side of the room talked to anyone on the other side. Teachers took note and called for a meeting that night with the intent of getting the students from the two school to interact.
Both schools attended the meeting and sat, waiting on an instructor to tell them what to do. They waited, but no instructor came. Eventually, something happened.
"We started talking," Mayberry said.
Students from each school realized they were not much different and formed lasting friendships.
"We became really good friends over two weeks," she said.
She said one of her friends in the program entered the institute "completely racist."
"He changed completely," she said.
The institute last year was in Mansfield, Ohio. Mayberry went and was overwhelmed.
"They remembered me. I was so loved," she said.
The experience inspired her to pursue the creation of the student exchange program. While international exchange programs have been happening for years, there are no programs she or Budzban are aware of between high schools within this country.
Middle school ag
Dean Dittmar, field advisor Facilitating Coordination in Agriculture Education District 5 -- a state funded program to bring agriculture education to public schools -- spoke to the board about starting an agriculture class in the middle school.
He said five schools in his district that encompasses all of Southern Illinois have ag in the middle school. High School ag teacher Bill Kittinger indicated earlier exposure to ag could lead to students taking more advanced vocational electives in high school he would like to see offered such as welding and metal fabrication class and an agriculture communications class.
Board member Larry Parks said he would like to see the program offered for next school year. The board tabled the issue.
Siebert said the school district and City of Eldorado will enter into a non-governmental agreement pledging no harm will be done to school district property tax revenues if the city creates a tax increment fund district. The TIF district would set aside an amount of property taxes from businesses for infrastructure to promote new businesses.
"If any of you happen to see the mayor or those on the city council you might tell them 'Thank you,' because it's something that may have been pretty detrimental," Siebert said.
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DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>
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