Members of the Community Unit School District 7 Board of Education voted unanimously Monday night to collaborate with the City of Gillespie in filing an application for a Safe Routes to School grant.

If awarded, the grant will help subsidize infrastructure improvements to improve safety for students who bike or walk to school. In addition to building safer routes to school, the grant is aimed at encouraging students to walk or bike to school for physical fitness. The grant program is administered by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

A total of $12 million has been appropriated for the grant program to fund up to $250,000 for infrastructure projects or $100,000 for non-infrastructure projects. The application period opens Aug. 1 and continues through Oct. 2.

Supt. Shane Owsley told the board that projects underwritten by the grant must “start from the schoolhouse door.” With that in mind, the priority would likely be extending a sidewalk along Illinois Route 16 to Benld Elementary School and the district’s soccer fields.

The Safe Routes to Schools grant program is offered every other year, meaning the next grant cycle will be in 2027. Applicants can opt to seek funding for multi-phase projects, meaning this year’s application could be drafted for Phase I of a larger plan to be continued in subsequent years.

“In fact, they like those kinds of applications,” Owsley said. Subsequent projects have to be within a two-mile radius of the school. Owsley said the city hopes to dovetail the Safe Routes to School project with the ongoing Streetscapes Project to improve safety for students downtown, in the area of the city library and other locations we students gather to walk or bicycle to school.

PARENT-FUNDED SPORTS POLICY

The board placed on first reading a proposed policy to govern school-funded sports. The document apparently is an attempt to formally codify previous verbal agreements for parents to self-fund various athletic programs.

The tentatively proposed policy requires parents to fund 100 percent of a parent-funded sport program, including coaches’ stipends, uniforms, travel expenses, officiating expenses and tournament entry fees. For the board to approve a new parent-funded program, applicants must be able to show they can financially support the program for a minimum of two years, submit a petition of interest demonstrating enough students are interested to field a team, and must provide a signed declaration that the team will abide by all school district rules and policies, including policies regarding equal access and non-discrimination.

Applications to establish a new parent-funded program must be filed by July 1 prior to the school year. Likewise, applications to renew existing parent-funded programs must be submitted by July 1 and must include the same supporting documents as a new applicant.

The policy asserts that parent groups will have no authority over the selection of coaches or other aspects of managing the team. Coaches will be considered employees of the school district and be paid salaries pursuant to the current collective bargaining contract.

On an annual basis, the school district will review existing parent-funded sports and determine whether or not the district is financially able to transition them to district-funded programs.

The policy will be presented again in August for final approval.

PERSONNEL

Following a one-hour executive session the board voted unanimously to hire Karen Robertson, Staunton, as a district speech and language pathologist. Robertson, coming to CUSD 7 from the Staunton School District, will step into a vacancy created by the resignation of Kaylee Collins in May. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication sciences and disorders, and a Master of Science degree in speech-language pathology, both from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville.

Board members also voted to hire Foli Seferi as a district paraprofessional, pending documentation of certification and a routine background check.

The board accepted the resignation of Anthony Kravanya an assistant Gillespie High School Mens Basketball coach, and posted the position as vacant.

With the start of the 2025-26 school year less than a month away, the board took action to fill several coaching positions.

• Jill Kelly was hired as the Gillespie Middle School cheerleading coach, pending documentation of certification and a routine background check.
• Billy Gill was hired as an assistant volunteer high school football coach, pending documentation of certification and a routine background check.
• Liz Thackery was hired head coach for the parent-funded middle school cross-country team.
• Jake Kellebrew was hired as head coach for the parent-funded high school golf program.
• Michael Otten was hired as an assistant coach for the parent-funded high school golf program.

OTHER ACTION

In other action, the board:

• Approved a prevailing wage resolution obligating the district to hire contractors who pay their employees the prevailing wage as determined by the Department of Labor. The resolution previously was mandated by state law but has become voluntary in the last two years.
• Approved the district’s Consolidated District Plan, a document the district is required to file with the State Board of Education to maintain eligibility for federal Title program funds.
• Heard a report from Supt. Owsley noting that Ryan and Kelly Fisher had donated $2,000 to the district to pay for school lunches for students who cannot afford them.