Students who ride the bus to EIASE programs and Humboldt will run a regular day schedule. The highway roads are driveable to transport these students on time.
10am late start schedule for TCHS.
0 hr 9:10am-9:53am
1st 10:00am-10:30am
2nd 10:34am-11:04am
3rd 11:08am-11:38am
4th 11:42am-12:12pm
Lunch 12:16pm-12:59pm
5th 1:03pm-1:33pm
6th 1:37pm-2:07pm
7th 2:11pm-2:41:pm
8th 2:45pm-3:15pm
Zero Hour is at 9:10
Schedules are in the handbook. NW is page 56, EP is page 61, and TCHS is page. 73
Tuscola CUSD 301 will have a late start on Tuesday, January 23. School will begin at 10:00 am.
The Tuscola CUSD 301 School Board Meeting has been rescheduled to Wednesday, January 24, 2024.
Mother Nature has decided Tuscola CUSD 301 students must attend school longer in May. No School on January 22, 2024. Extracurricular activities will be decided by noon.
TCHS had several student-athletes compete this morning in the Special Olympics Region I Basketball Individual Skills Competition in Mahomet.
Congrats to Luke Reed and Mikayla Helmuth on their gold medal performances! Additionally, congrats to Owen Brewer on his 4th place finish. Thank you to Coach Suzanne Rominger and Coach Bill Lyons for their efforts in helping our athletes improve their skills!
Congrats to our Varsity Girls Basketball Team for winning their opening game in the CIC Tournament this evening vs. Meridian.
Tonight's win was Coach Tim Kohlbecker's 400th career victory. Coach is in his 20th season leading our Girls Basketball Team. The victories pale in comparison to the thousands of life lessons he's taught our student-athletes along the way. We're thankful for all that Coach has done for TCHS!
Tuscola CUSD 301 will cancel school on Tuesday, January 16, 2024.
Extracurricular activities will be decided by noon tomorrow.
Today was the TCHS Staff Annual Chili Cook-Off. Congrats to this year's winner Chef Bill Lyons!
Basketball Scheduling Updates:
Tonight's Girls Basketball Game is Varsity only and will begin at 6pm in Cerro Gordo.
Tonight's Boys Basketball Game at Unity has a JV start time of 5:30pm. The varsity game will tip earlier than normal.
Congrats to our Warriorette Dance Team for bringing home the 1st place trophy in Hip Hop at the Charleston Competition on Saturday, 1/6. These girls and their coaches continue to make us proud!
Congrats to Raeanna Boyer on being named the January Rotary Student of the Month!
With spring sports around the corner, it's a good time for a reminder regarding sports physicals!
It's a good night to be a Warrior!! Congrats to our student-athletes for winning the Monticello Holiday Hoopla Championships for the 2nd year in a row!
A big thank you to our fans for filling the stands to support our kids!
Warrior fans, we need you tomorrow night in Monticello. Both our Girls and Boys Basketball Teams have advanced to tomorrow's Holiday Hoopla championship games vs. Clinton. The girls tip at 6pm with the boys to follow.
Please come support our basketball teams and cheerleaders!
Our HS Girls Basketball Team has been busy all week helping to bring joy to many this Holiday season. They deserve our support this evening in the last home sporting event of 2023. The JV tips at 6pm with the Varsity to follow against a really good Salt Fork team. We hope to see you there.
As a reminder, our entrance points for home events have slightly changed due to construction.
Board response to TESPA 12/18/23
Thank you to the Tuscola Education Support Professional Association (TESPA) members who attended the meeting tonight. In order for fair negotiations to continue, the Board of Education and Superintendent are willing to continue the negotiation process and are still willing to negotiate privately. Our last email asking for dates to meet with the TESPA committee proves this commitment.
However, since TESPA has decided to utilize the media to negotiate the contract, we would like some facts to come to light from the school district’s perception. The article in The County Chronicle stated we rescinded the district contribution. When negotiating with the Teachers Association last year about insurance, it was stated that the board and superintendent understood that switching insurances in December and not preparing for a higher deductible could be hard for some employees. The board decided to contribute what all employees were paying for their own insurance in 2021-2022 through Egyptian Trust to each member's insurance. It was also stated that this would be a one-year benefit, and then it would be bargained. The Board and Superintendent did not rescind the insurance benefit; we are simply bargaining.
TESPA fails to state to the public that the Teacher’s Association(TEA) agreed to have their premium paid for at 100% by the board for the next two years. The board and TEA voted on and signed this MOU in November. This is the same benefit we offered TESPA. This year, our insurance increased by 12%, costing our district $94,548. If it increases by 52% next year, as one area school’s insurance did, the board, not the employee, has to pick up the entire increase of the premium. Before this contract, the board never picked up the entire premium in the contract with TEA.
The insurance company we were with, Egyptian Trust, was a company that was not able to pay its bills. The Board of Education had to pay an extra payment or put that payment back on our employees while a member of the Egyptian Trust. The board and superintendent did not feel staying with a sinking ship was beneficial. The board also had to pay an additional payment to get off the sinking ship. We had a few months to get stable insurance. We found insurance through the Illinois Educators Risk Management Program. This allowed the district to look for lower premiums. As a district, we were looking at something cost-efficient so that our employees would not have to pay much toward or any toward their premiums.
TESPA states we can afford to pay the premium and more for TESPA members. We want to remind everyone that there are not only TESPA members but also TEA members and employees who are not part of a union. The administration and every employee, Union or non-union, receive the same benefits when comes to health insurance. If we were to pay the 95 employees who take the insurance above the 100% premium, that would cost the taxpayers of Tuscola an additional $84,736 for 12 months. This would be on top of the insurance increase of $94,548. If you continue to do this year after year, you eventually can’t afford to pay 100% of the premium for employees. Especially when Matt Seaton, the Illinois State Board of Education’s chief financial officer, states to school districts, “As we think about our budget for the next several years, I think we’re going to be thinking in terms of a conservative budget.” I am the only board member who was on the board when we had four days of cash on hand. I do not want to see us return to four days of cash on hand.
As far as bonuses are concerned, because the paraprofessionals formed TESPA, all compensation, including bonuses, are mandatory subjects of bargaining – the board couldn’t unilaterally give a bonus to TESPA without bargaining. During the negotiations, TESPA did not introduce any language that mentioned anything about a bonus structure. The Superintendent reminded the TESPA members that a bonus would not be given because it was not part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. TESPA then reached out and wanted to bargain. Tuscola CUSD # 301 does not feel that opening a contract up, once agreed upon, is in the best interest of the district or its taxpayers. This is a precedent that was evident in 2019 when the TEA wanted to open the contract up to bargain a retirement incentive. The Board and Superintendent declined to open the contract up until the next negotiations.
The Board of Education and its Administration appreciate TESPA and its members. We wanted to make sure all facts were in the open for the public, and hopefully, The County Chronicle would publish since they did not call and ask for the District’s perspective before writing today’s article. We look forward to continuing our insurance talks with TESPA.
As a reminder for all fans attending tonight's Girls Basketball game, we will have some slight changes to our entrance points to the gym.
Tuscola High School is excited for our final stage of renovations that will begin next week. This work will cause a few changes to all home events beginning on Monday, December 18th. If parking in the southwest parking lot, please enter through the doors near the library as the south gym entrance will not be accessible. There will also be no entrance point at the doors on the northwest side of the gym from the staff parking lot. Entrances from the north student parking lot and the front circle drive remain unchanged. The concession stand will be located in our new cafeteria space.
Please note these changes go into effect starting on Monday, December 18th for our Girls Basketball Game vs. Okaw Valley. Tomorrow's home boys basketball game will still utilize our old entrance points.
