As the school day drew to a close May 25, 6-year-old Adrianna Brown interacted with her fellow kindergarten classmates like it was any other school day.
However, it was anything but a normal day for Adrianna and her mother, Kathy Brown.
That Wednesday marked the first time Adrianna had been to Shute School since she began treatment for leukemia at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., eight weeks earlier.
East Peoria Community High School seniors Lacee Givans and Arica Grove are getting a jump on college from the comfort of their high school classrooms.
Givans, 17, and Grove, 18, are taking advantage of one of the high schools newest dual-credit courses, in which students earn college credit in conjunction with Illinois Central College. They are taking Human Growth and Development — known as Child 120 at ICC.
A committee made up of East Peoria Community High School teachers and staff presented their plan to help the school evaluate teachers in the future at Monday’s District 309 School Board meeting.
“In the State of Illinois there’s a lot of education reform going on ... and one of the things taking place this year is to reform the way we do teacher evaluations,” said Superintendent Chuck Nagel. “The biggest piece of that is how teacher evaluation ties into student achievement.”
East Peoria’s City Council will maintain a familiar look after the results from Tuesday’s consolidated election.
Daniel Decker, Gary Densberger and Tim Jeffers, the three incumbent city commissioners seeking reelection, were chosen to serve another term. Newcomer Chad Joos was elected to serve as the city’s fourth commissioner. The fourth current city councilman, Jim Weber, did not seek reelection.
“(The new council) will continue to do good things for the city that they have been doing for the past four years,” East Peoria Mayor Dave Mingus said on Tuesday night.
East Peoria Community High School students may soon have the opportunity to swap printed books, magazines and newspapers for their electronic counterparts.
Charles Atteberry, the library specialist at EPCHS, is hoping to make eReaders available to students as soon as the start of the 2011-12 school year.
In today’s society, schools may not seem to be as safe as they once were, but local district officials are working to help put parents and students at ease.
Both District 86 and District 309 have crisis management plans intact to ensure that the school’s staff and students know what to do in an emergency situation.
The East Peoria Community High School District 309 School Board approved two new courses for the 2010-11 school year.
After Christmas break, students will be able to take Enriched English 7-8 and Biology Concepts.
In a letter submitted to the board by Mary Lewis, lead teacher of the school’s English department, she asked that the board reinstate the Enriched English class at the senior level. The class was abolished when Composition 110 and Composition 111 — one of the school’s dual credit courses — began to be offered.
Seventh-grader Jessy Butler carefully read the instructions to the brownie recipe — two eggs, one-half cup oil, one-fourth cup water and one package of brownie mix.
One by one, he put them into a large mixing bowl and began to stir.
“My favorite part is when I get to cook,” said Butler, while concentrating on the task at hand.
East Peoria District 309 School Board approved a tentative tax levy at its monthly meeting Monday night.
Superintendent Chuck Nagel estimated the district’s Equalized Assessed Valuation to be $47,000,000, a 6.1 percent increase from last year. The total extension increase would be 8.27 percent from what the district received this school year.
Forget Count Dracula.
East Peoria Community High School Class of 2013 wants your blood.
Among friends and family, the top 10 students for the 2008-09 school year were announced during the public recognition portion of District 309’s monthly school board meeting.
A 163-year-old East Peoria school celebrated 50 years at its current location with an open house Saturday.
Glendale School aluma Patti Robins Staley, said there were about 40 students in her graduating class of 1963. Now a bookkeeper in District 86, she returned to the school Saturday for the celebration.
For the next eight weeks, a younger generation of children will grace the halls of East Peoria Community High School as a group of high school students try their hand at teaching.
On Tuesday, the school’s vocational child care class began welcoming children ages 3 to 5 to attend a free preschool at its Children’s Learning Center.
The East Peoria Community High School’s Vocational Childcare class would like to welcome parents from the community to join the Children’s Learning Center.
For the fourth year in a row, East Peoria Community High School has failed to meeting Adequate Yearly Progress in 2010.
While preliminary numbers were announced at last month’s District 309 school board meeting, principal Paul Whittington provided official numbers during Monday night’s meeting.
Whether it was hauling tires, large pieces of Styrofoam and even boots, 39 East Peoria Community High School freshmen were on a mission to clean up land along the Illinois River.
Participating in the 10th annual Illinois River Sweep, these students took time away from their weekend and gathered together at Spindler Marina at 8 a.m. Saturday morning.
With each pile of bricks knocked to the ground, more than 40 years of memories were evoked by past students of Richland Grade School.
“That was my fourth-grade classroom,” said Zoe Bassham-Ellison, 52, of Low Point, while pointing into the direction of the demolition in front of her.
As incoming freshmen entered the halls of East Peoria Community High School last week, they were welcomed by a new program aimed at easing the transition into high school, and a mural to represent it all.
“I think it brightens up the hallway and makes it kind of unique for them,” said EPCHS art teacher Kristen Berry of the mural that she said is about 200 feet long.
As Alex Roberts begins her senior year at East Peoria Community High School, she is already looking forward to Christmas break.
Above, students at East Peoria Community High School walk down the hallway last week in the new addition at the school.
“It’s going great,” said principal Paul Whittington of the students’ transition to the renovated area.
