Katy O’Grady-Pyne

kpyne@theclintonjournal.com

CLINTON — Clinton school superintendent Curt Nettles took time during Tuesday night’s board meeting to praise his staff in the handling of a trio of tragedies that have had an impact the school district in 2018.

“I would like to commend our administration and staff for their perseverance under very difficult situations these past few months,” said Nettles, referring to the deaths of three students in the district since March.

“Never in our careers did we think we’d have to deal with some of the things we’ve dealt with the past seven months and I just want to commend everybody for pulling together and getting everybody through this--and still getting everybody through this.”

Nettles also explained the district’s recent audit report for FY 2018. The district received a score of 3.9/4.0. The lack of a perfect score, Nettles said, is because the district has some debt, but, “It’s good debt. It’s manageable. It’s not a real burden to us.”

The audit report also reviewed cash on hand and it was determined the district could fund itself for one year with its reserves if it received no money from the state of Illinois. 

“That’s good,” said Nettles, and board members approved the report.

In other business, the board:

• Recognized Clinton Junior High School student Dawson Graves for his performance at the state cross county meet last weekend where he had his best performance of the season with a time of 12:34.

• Learned the CEO program is moving forward and continues to seek investors and partners so the program can get underway in the fall of 2019.

• Learned about the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) from the state of Illinois.

• Heard about the creation of a district dashboard that would tell the district’s story “the way we would like it to be told,” said Nettles, “as opposed to the snapshot the state board releases every year.” This dashboard would be available as a link on the district’s website and social media platforms. Nettles hopes to have the dashboard completed by mid-November.

• Learned the week of October 21 is Illinois Principal’s Week.