Unit Five School District has passed its referendum and cuts to athletic and extracurricular programs have been restored. But many are left wondering about the future of Carlock Elementary School. During budget discussions earlier this year the district had discussed closing Carlock after the 2023/24 school year.
At the last Unit 5 School Board meeting no mention was made of Carlock Elementary. According to Superintendent Kristen Weikle, “Well the board didn’t take any action on Carlock. That was something if we had to continue to make reductions down the road.”
Based on Weikle’s comment it appears that the future of Carlock continues to remain uncertain.
Regarding the passage of the referendum, Carlock Mayor Rhonda Baer said, “I think it provides some sense of relief. I don’t think it provides total relief. Unit five has not definitively said that Carlock school is off the chopping block after the passing of this tax referendum that I am aware of.” “So there is still a potential for them to decide to close the school,” she said.
Baer said the closure of the school would be devastating to Carlock because most of the families moving to Carlock are doing so because of the school.
Several web sites rating McLean County Unit 5 School District Elementary Schools rank Carlock at number seven out of 16 elementary schools in the district. Baer argues that these ratings make a strong case for keeping Carlock School open and expanding the size of the school so that it can continue to do a good job of educating students.
Baer also says the school has fantastic parental support and community support and that is also a reason to keep it open because it is hard to find in some other schools.
“We are certainly gong to make an effort to engage more with the Unit Five Board going forward. But we hope that the Unit Five Board will also reach out to us and the other rural schools like Hudson and Towanda because we understand that we have a smaller tax base and a smaller population base,” Baer said.
Baer continued, “But just as Superintendent Weikle said in a meeting that I sat in, the health of the school district adds to the success of Bloomington Normal and I would add to that the health of the school district within those small towns also adds to the health of those small towns. And if you have healthy small towns in McLean County you have a healthy McLean County and a healthy Bloomington-Normal.”