Urbana District 116 holding Family Forum online tonight

URBANA -- The Urbana School District will host a virtual Family Forum tonight via Zoom from 6-7:30pm.

Topic for tonight's discussions, after a welcome back statement and annual review, will focus on the district's goal and the upcoming Equity Audit in October.

The upcoming Equity Audit will help identify areas of strengths and weakness within the district concerning diversity, inclusion, and deficiencies in available educational opportunities for students. Focus groups comprised of families and district staff members will be meet October 17-21.

To join tonight's zoom meeting, the first of this academic calendar year, go to https://usd116org.zoom.us/j/92586421834 on Zoom. The meeting ID is 925 8642 1834.

For more information contact the school district at https://usd116.org/admin/.

8 Urbana students win writing award

URBANA -- Fifty-two K-8 students from the Urbana school district will be recognized on April 20 as the top entries in this year's Young Authors Awards contest. Each student will receive a certificate of achievement and a copy of the Young Authors book. The book contains each of this year's winning entries.

The top eight authors for the 44th Annual Young Author Awards include:

Haanya Abbasi, Urbana Middle School
Paio Sotomayor, Dr. Preston Williams School
Julian Rogers, Dr. Martin L. King Jr. School
Miles Rehfeldt, Wiley School
Arihant Sinha, Yankee Ridge
Rafael Lleras Buetti, Leal School
Clara Naveja, Leal School
Avery Ogolsky, Thomas Paine

Also recognized for submitting winning entries from Thomas Paine included Marie Knight-Broughton, Justin Lewis, Daniel McHenry and, Addy McHenry.

In addition to Leal's two overall winners, five other students earned recognition for their entries. Joshua Vazquez Benitez, Ivan Erickson, Diken Guevara, Maxime Guironnet, and Willa Sola will also be honored at the celebration in late April.

Other winners from Urbana Middle School included Karina Berceanu, Trinidad Cuahuey, Seth Fiscus, Alice Hauser, Muhammad Iftikhar, Harmony Lehman, Simone Marshall, Gwendolyn McLean, Austin Ogolsky, Kavinder Patel, Colton Ruud, Grace Tshimankinda, Ruby Waarala-Dugger, Christian Weiss, Nico Wiemelt, Rachel Wiley, and Andrea Williams.

Young authors recognized for their essays from Dr. Preston Williams included Gemma Douglas, Hayden Intravaia, Lucy Martin, Esmeralda Orozco, Jade Pineda Walker, Izzy Roegman, and Veronica Vargas.

Winners from Dr. Martin L. King were Pranisha Chaturvedi, Nylah McReynolds, China Endo Song, and Longhan (Alice) Xu.

Five other students from Yankee Ridge also submitted a winning entry. They include Janny Knutson, Benny Lerman, Gracelyn Lusk, Lydia Ruud, and Brianne Thurman.

Coraline Hauser and Isabel Tanner-Lane from Wiley school also earned recognition for their submissions.

The celebration program will also include a presentation from an author, who will be announced at a later date.

Urbana Kindergarten Connection to be held on April 5

URBANA -- This year's Kindergarten Connection will be held at Lincoln Square Mall from 11am - 5:30p on April 5. Families with children who will be 5 years old on or before Sept. 1, 2022, can register their students for the upcoming 2022-23 academic year.

The future kindergartner does not need to accompany the parents to the event unless they speak a language other than English or a language other than English is spoken at home with the family. The child will need to undergo an English language screening.

Parents should bring a government-issued photo ID, the child's official birth certificate. and phone numbers for emergency contacts. Parents or guardians will need to provide a signed mortgage or lease as proof of residency. If a copy of the lease is not immediately available, two other forms of proof such as a driver's license, utility bill, voter registration, or a change of address notification from the post office can be submitted in place of a lease/mortgage contract.