By JOHN A. BALLENTINE
For The Prairie News
WYOMING – Stark County special education teacher Leslie Rennick has been selected as the 2025 Northwest Illinois Teacher of the Year by the Illinois State Board of Education.
Rennick, who is one of 13 finalists for Illinois Teacher of the Year, was recognized on Monday by the Stark County School Board with a Pride and Excellence award for the ISBE honor she received on Feb. 14. She teaches in Stark County Elementary School.
“I am very excited and very proud to represent Stark County,” Rennick stated. “I’ll be representing Stark County/Northwest Region at the Teacher of the Year reception March 8.”
In other business, Superintendent Brett Elliott said the district still owes a little over $500,000 for the new gym and will determine what fund or funds will be used to pay off the remaining debt.
Elliott also said the school district has met with the teachers and their union representatives and are waiting to sign off on tentative numbers for a new contract.
Junior-Senior High School Principal Megan McGann reported that students at the high school will take a practice ACT test on March 5 and all students in grades 9-11 will complete the ACT/Pre-ACT testing on April 2.
McGann told the board that Bradford students will decide in the next few weeks what high school they will attend after their grade school promotion.
Elliott said spring break is April 14-21with schools resuming April 22.
He stated that the school district had to make a $50,000 payment for the new electric school bus and associated grant.
The board approved the 2025-26 school calendar and also awarded three-year bus leases for fiscal year 2026. The lease with Midwest Bus Sales is for one activity bus and also Midwest Transit Equipment for five 65-passenger buses.
A three-phase replacement of windows in the elementary school was approved, with Taylor Glass of Peoria selected for the $34,500 contract. The first phase will start this spring.
The board voted 4-1 in favor of replacing the scoreboard in the Wyoming Athletic Complex with a cost not to exceed $34,000. Elliott said there are electrical wiring issues with the underground wires at the gym. The new scoreboards would be wireless, hence eliminating the wiring issues.
President Ann Orwig cast the lone dissenting vote on the scoreboards, saying, “I’m not against the scoreboards, but I don’t feel that it is the right time for the expenditure.”
The board also heard that Stark County senior Lauren Best will be interviewed for a special by WEEK-TV (25). Best has been nominated for a National Federation of State High School Associations Heart of the Arts Award.
Best and other students took over the school’s band/choir program after longtime director Angie Roark retired and her replacement quit three weeks into the 2023 school year. The school district had difficulty replacing that teacher due to teacher shortages.
After closed session, the board announced the retirement of clerical worker Vicki Nowlan and approved the following personnel items:
• Maternity leave for Grace McClure.
• Hiring Erin Hardigan as musical art director
• Hiring Kelsey Berchtold as high school softball assistant coach.
• Hiring Cassandra Williams as assistant cook.
• The resignation of Andrew Collins as 6th and 7th grade science teacher, assistant junior high football coach and 8th grade basketball coach.
• The resignation of Kara Dauck as a Pre-K instructor.
2-27-25
2-28-25
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