Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News | Franklin County News
Newspaper covering Franklin County, Illinois
An early-season snow storm rolled through the Midwest on Wednesday night and Thursday morning forcing school closings and other delays. The Southern Illinois region was expected to receive three to six inches of snow accumulation before tapering off at mid-morning on Thursday.
Here’s a link to area closings at WSIL-TV.
SPRINGFIELD — With the election over, it’s time for state lawmakers to return to Springfield for their annual veto session, which begins Tuesday.
Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.
Illinois is definitely the Land of Lincoln. Voters in the Illinois Top 200 project have selected Abraham Lincoln as the top leader in state history, recognizing his role in ending slavery and holding America together despite the Civil War.
Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.
No football metric measures how fast teammates rush to their quarterback’s defense, but the way the Bears responded Sunday at Soldier Field to an out-of-bounds hit on Mitch Trubisky revealed something as important as any of Trubisky’s numbers.
Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.
The College Football Playoff rankings held steady at the top, with Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame and Michigan an unchanged first four from last week.
Here’s a link to the story at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Oakland’s Bob Melvin and Atlanta’s Brian Snitker were named managers of the year in the American League and National League on Tuesday, with voters from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America clinging to tradition by choosing the architects of the biggest year-over-year surprises in either league. Both the Athletics and Braves were picked to finish near the bottom of their divisions in 2018, but made the playoffs.
Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.
Illinois coach Brad Underwood walked into the locker room after an encouraging 88-80 loss to Georgetown and liked what he saw: A bunch of angry players.
Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.
On Tuesday Illinois lost out on a share of up to 50,000 new, high-paying jobs. After considering 20 finalist cities, Amazon skipped past Chicago and chose two other locations, in New York City and northern Virginia, for a major expansion. Amazon also announced plans to open an operations center with up to 5,000 jobs in Nashville, another finalist city.
Here’s a link to the story at the Chicago Tribune.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., had the best line when it comes to the latest Florida election in which contests for governor and the U.S. Senate are still undecided.
Here’s a link to the editorial at Fox News.
College organization chart, personnel moves approved
The board approved an organizational restructuring / transition of the college’s administration, staff and support staff. The action includes changes to the organization chart, promotion of staff, changes to titles and accompanying job descriptions, and respective salaries effective Jan. 1, 2019.
According to administrative rationale, the college administration and staff have absorbed several high-level positions over the last four years, especially the past two years during the budget impasse in Illinois. As the college moves to the future and extends its efforts to use institutional data for decision making, it is necessary to realign the administrative structure. The college is placing more emphasis on student success, completion / retention rates, demographics and programmatic development, rather than just credit hours generated.
CTE Success Center Coordinator position gets green light
The board granted permission to create the position, approve the accompanying job description, advertise for and ratify the appointment of a Career Technical Education Success Center Coordinator. As the college places more emphasis on student success and institutionalizes the Health Studies Student Success Center from the Title III grant, this position will help expand efforts into the rest of the CTE programs to provide specialized tutoring specific to program needs.
Palmer moves to RLC Foundation
The board appointed ReAnne Palmer as Assistant Director of the Rend Lake College Foundation, effective Nov. 16, pending concurrence of the RLC Foundation Board of Directors. Palmer currently serves as a Public Information Specialist in the college’s Marketing and Public Information Department, where she has been full-time since July 2013. Palmer holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and English Literature from Northern Illinois University, as well as Associate in Arts and Associate in Science Degrees from Rend Lake College.
Burk to join IT as Computer Tech
Andrew Burk was appointed as a computer technician effective Nov. 19. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Technology from Western Governors University, and has served as a network administrator for Clifton Salvage and most recently as a store manager for Hucks Travel Center.
Cosmetology’s Butler moving on
The board accepted with regret the resignation of Erin Butler, Cosmetology Professor, effective Jan. 4, 2019. She has been with RLC full-time since March 2005. “I am grateful to have had the opportunity of working for Rend Lake College for 14 years,” Butler said in her resignation letter.
Accreditation update
The board heard a report on the college’s reaffirmation of accreditation activities. After the visit from HLC’s peer review team, the college is awaiting official word from the Higher Learning Commission’s Institutional Actions Council.
In other business, the board …
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