The co-directors of the Bethel Lutheran Preschool have been friends for almost 40 years.
They’ve been co-directors for 15 years and teachers for much longer than that.
Paula Ewald and Jackie Patton are both retiring this year.
Patton spent this year focusing on directing, while Ewald still taught the 4-year-olds.
“It’s bittersweet leaving. It’s exciting to close one chapter of a book and open another,” Ewald said of retiring. “It seemed like the right time.”
Families have relied on the yellow school bus for transportation to and from school for decades, but according to an article written by the executive director of the Illinois Association of School Administrators, all of that could be in jeopardy.
“The yellow school bus may become an endangered species in Illinois considering the 42 percent cut to state funding for public schools transportation in the past three years and the ominous clouds forming over the state’s education budget for next year,” Brent Clark wrote. “No one can argue with the emphasis on maintaining funding for the classroom, but the ability to safely transport children to school remains a basic fundamental of educating students.”
Morton District 709 Superintendent Dr. Roger Kilpatrick said while cuts have definitely had an impact on the district, he does not see the yellow school bus leaving the district anytime soon.
“I don’t think buses are an endangered species at this point in time,” he said.
With Mitt Romney closing in on the number of delegates needed to secure the Republican presidential nomination, talk is turning to who he will select as his running mate. And while dozens of names have been thrown around as possibilities, the discussion always seems to end up at these five names.
Click here for a look at them, as well as for a link to our new Election 2012 website:
With Mitt Romney closing in on the number of delegates needed to secure the Republican presidential nomination, talk is turning to who he will select as his running mate. And while dozens of names have been thrown around as possibilities, the discussion always seems to end up at these five names. Click on the headline for a look at them, as well as for a link to our new Election 2012 website.
You don’t often hear a coach shower his rival opponent with praise, and when you do, you sometimes wonder if it is genuine or if the coach is just trying to sound gracious.
Metamora High School boys tennis coach Kelly Willard sounded sincere when he complimented Morton coach Joal Stanfield’s team after the Redbirds edged the Potters to win their sixth straight Mid-Illini Conference title Friday at Dunlap High School.
Click inside to watch weekend videos on why Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson resigned, how J.P. Morgan lost $2 billion, the finale of "Desperate Housewives" and more.
Only in Print
- Around Town PAGE A2
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- Police News PAGE B13
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Approving the budget is one thing — planning the budget is another.
Village Treasurer Wendy Ferrill has been hard at work for months putting together the village of Morton’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget.
According to Ferrill, planning for the budget begins in October.
“We give all the superintendents and department heads all of their expenses for the last year. They use that to figure out how much they’ll carry over and what the next year’s balance may be,” she said. “They know what expenses they have coming out and they compile all that information themselves first.”
