Illini Bluffs Elementary School

IB families, The memorial wall for Mrs. Huene will remain up this week to afford students the opportunity to contribute memorial items. All items will be given to the Huene family at the end of the week. Mrs. Jeannie Blane, retired elementary principal from Brimfield, will continue to serve as interim elementary principal for the remainder of second semester. Mrs. Huene remains close to our hearts and minds as we prepare ourselves to continue the work she began in a way that will prove worthy of honoring her memory. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any concerns that you have. Sincerely, Dr. Roger Alvey Superintendent

Happy New Year! We look forward to getting back to school on Wednesday, January 6th with in-person learning! We will still be offering a remote instruction option for those that desire to do so, just as we did first semester. If you haven’t already, please let your child’s school office know that they will be remote learning. Also, please be sure to let your child's school office know if your child(ren) are in quarantine (contact with a positive COVID19 case) or have tested positive for COVID19. We want to be sure they receive any instructional materials they might need. Finally, I wanted to remind you of the importance of self-certification prior to students returning to school. Self-certification needs to be done daily via TeacherEase. We will continue to conduct temperature screenings at the main entrances. All other COVID19 mitigation measures employed first semester will continue second semester. Please remember keep students home when they have any symptoms. We are excited to start 2021 with all of you! See everyone on Wednesday! Dr. Roger Alvey Superintendent

Angel Tree Drive Thank You The IB Christmas Hope organization and Illini Bluffs District 327 would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated in our Angel Tree Gift Card Drive for 2020. In this year in which the world has been turned upside down and lives have been negatively impacted in so many ways, kindness matters more than ever. Thank you for joining us in our effort to spread some much needed kindness and joy to our students in need this holiday season. Your generosity was overwhelming, and we were able to provide a wrapped gift, a gift card, and candy to every student on our list. Wishing you the happiest of holidays and many blessings in the New Year!

IBES is starting our community fundraiser on Monday, Nov. 23rd. Here is how families can get involved to help Operation Christmas Hope. We will launch our 3-Way race with a Hat Day for the entire school on Nov. 23rd. All students can wear a hat of their choice for the entire day by giving a donation to the community Christmas basket fund of $1. Students who want to participate can give their money to their homeroom teacher on or before Nov. 23rd. Pre-K to 2nd grade will be doing a collection drive for gelatin and pudding mixes. Collection boxes will be outside each classroom door from Nov. 23rd to Dec. 4th for students to drop off their donations. 3rd-5th grade students will have a coin collection drive and will compete by grade level to see who can raise the most money. A change for this year will be that coin collection containers will be in each 3rd-5th grade homeroom classroom rather than in one grade level bucket to keep students safe. Collection dates will be Nov. 23rd to Dec. 4th. On December 4th all the money will be counted and the grade level that collects the most will get a soda as prize for being the winner.

Hello IB community! We are still doing our annual canned food drive! There are multiple ways to donate to our team to help with the fundraiser. You can find these options on our Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/Canned-Food-Drive-Hunger-Busters-100368311892518/

It’s that time of year when IB Christmas Hope is doing their annual canned food drive. Today, Team 4 unloaded food from their recent donations and continued writing thank you letters to businesses that have donated to our team. Please help and donate food/money to IB.

2 Good 2 Lose Team has exceeded our goal! Extra food & money was donated to other teams to help them meet their goal.

Team Snoopy created a canned food drive tiktok. Here is the link: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJQSyweh/

Look at all this food the Team CARE has gathered for those in need! Thanks to all who have donated so far! To donate:tinyurl.com/teamibcare

In lieu of our annual assembly, please view our Veterans Day 2020 video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfLBReiEn5c&feature=youtu.be #ibtigerpride

Here is a link to the Illini Bluffs Virtual Veterans Day Recognition: https://youtu.be/nfLBReiEn5c Thank you for taking time this morning to pause and recognize our Veterans.  Thank you to our Veterans for their sacrifice and service.  #ibtigerpride

Veterans Day 2020 Illini Bluffs has a longstanding tradition to honor our veterans through an in-person ceremony and a luncheon. Unfortunately, COVID 19 has prevented us from doing that this year as we normally do. However, we still feel it is important to demonstrate our appreciation of the fine men and women that have afforded us the freedoms we enjoy. Our elementary and middle school students have created cards for our veterans. Some of those cards, upon request, were personalized and mailed to veterans from around the area. Hundreds of other cards were given to the American Legion to be distributed. The high school has been working on creating a video that further recognizes and appreciates our veterans. The video will go live tomorrow, Wednesday, November 11, at 10 am. We will publish the link to the video on our website and social media - please be on the lookout for it.

Illini Bluffs High School students are working hard to collect food for IB Christmas Hope, a local nonprofit that provides Christmas food baskets to IB families in need. If you or someone you know is in need this holiday season, visit the IB Christmas Hope website (ibchristmashope.com) by November 21st to sign up to receive a basket. If you would like to donate to the Illini Bluffs High School Canned Food Drive, contact the high school office. #ibtigerpride

Illini Bluffs High School students are working hard to collect food for IB Christmas Hope, a local nonprofit that provides Christmas food baskets to IB families in need. If you or someone you know is in need this holiday season, visit the IB Christmas Hope website by November 21st to sign up to receive a basket. If you would like to donate to the Illini Bluffs High School Canned Food Drive, contact the high school office.

IBES teacher Tracy Herrmann and IBHS sophomore Autumn Gray, are currently featured on the US Department of Education’s Back to School Success Stories website. Check it out https://oese.ed.gov/tracy-herrman/ and https://oese.ed.gov/autumn-gray/ #ibtigerpride

The IBES PTO hosted a reward party with Kona Ice to end the fall fundraiser. We had an great turnout for golf & the dinner & many families & business agreed to sponsor a hole, the dinner or the event. We look to have a profit around $13,000. Thanks to all who participated.

Dear Illini Bluffs Families, I wanted to share with you some exciting news, to once again thank you for your efforts as parents, and to encourage you to remain vigilant in your efforts to keep our children safe. It has been nearly 9 weeks since we commenced school. I am not sure any of us thought it would go as well as it has. It has been a true team effort at both home and school. Last week, I received a call from the United States Department of Education in Washington, D.C. They indicated that they wanted to do a “virtual showcase” of our district in regards to our reopening/return to school plan. Essentially, they wanted to learn from our employees and students and what it took to safely reopen our schools. They plan on using lessons learned to educate other schools that are currently engaged in remote learning but plan on opening soon, for in-person instruction. Frank Brogan, the Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education, spent time with a group of students, employees, and parents. He learned about our return to school mitigation strategies, and he conducted a question and answer session. Here is a link to a video that we shared with the Department of Education on our mitigation plan. https://youtu.be/ldKe0dmZYkA Although we have been incredibly fortunate to have made it 9 weeks with in-person instruction with few problems, it could all turn upside down in a very short amount of time. We cannot allow ourselves to become complacent both at home and at school. Flu season is approaching, and dealing with the symptoms of the common flu, which are very similar to symptoms of COVID, are going to make things very difficult and frustrating to deal with. We recently provided flu shots to any employee that desired to get them. I would encourage you to get flu shots for yourselves, and I would encourage you to do the same with your children. Doing so may create an opportunity for your children to remain at school by avoiding catching the flu and showing symptoms at school. We need to continue our practices of social distancing, good hand hygiene, and wearing face coverings. None of us can predict the future, but we need to continue to do everything we can to afford us an opportunity to remain in session, in-person, as long as possible. Thank you for your continued support!

IBHS held an official Community Hour Kickoff last Friday (9/18). Check out this video to learn more about how our students are actively engaging in building and strengthening their communities: https://youtu.be/n08De6FZbNU #ibtigerpride #globalgoals

Lunch Program Update: Dear Illini Bluffs Families, Previously, we communicated with you regarding a program being sponsored by the USDA in which free lunches are being provided through December 31, 2020 or whenever the money for the program runs out. Now that the program is up and running, and we have a better understanding of what meal preparation we are capable of, we have made some changes. Namely, we are now offering a hot entree to every student. Previously, the entree was a cold item. This change seems to have sparked interest by more students by making the meals more appealing. Here are some other advantages to the program: Why you should take advantage of the free school meals being offered.... *It extends your food budget and saves you time on meal prepping *It's comforting and familiar to your kids to have meals at school or at home *It's confidential and not just for low income families *No forms to fill out *You're helping the district's food service program **The USDA is covering the cost of school meals through December 31st, 2020 or until the money for the program runs out. It is for all students 18 years of age and younger. We recognize that some families might not want the free meal, and we are providing you the opportunity to opt out of the program. If you want to opt out of the program, please contact Trudy Heitzman, cafeteria manager, via email at theitzman@ib327.com or by calling 309 389-5025 ext. 7.

The district is planning to plant 20 more trees later this fall. Please consider making a donation to adopt a tree!