Rameen: Coming up on City Spotlight, we continue the start of season nine, and we're in Mattoon talking all things education in Mattoon.

First we talk with Tim Condron, Superintendent of Mattoon Schools, and Dr. Christy Hild, assistant superintendent of Mattoon Schools about the new school year and the many physical changes in the school district, which include renovated athletic fields and the LIFT building.

And we'll close with the segment with Lakeland College President, Dr. Josh Bullock.

We're staying in Coles County for the start of season nine.

We're talking all things education in Mattoon, next on City Spotlight.

[music plays] City Spotlight is supported by Consolidated Communications.

CCI is honored to salute the cities and their leaders in the area, as well as providing TV, Internet, and phone service for the local homes and businesses.

We live where we work, and are proud to support the communities we serve.

More information available at consolidated.com.

Hello and welcome to another edition of City Spotlight.

As you can see we are outside for this episode as we continue the start of season nine.

We've stayed in Coles County from Charleston to Mattoon, so we're on the west side of Coles County.

And if you can't tell where we are, we've got plenty of signage here, we're at Mattoon High School, and we're going to talk about a whole bunch of new physical changes in Mattoon High School, outside things, inside things.

And we welcome back to the program to help us out today Superintendent of Mattoon Schools, Tim Condron.

Tim?

Tim: Thanks.

Always good to see you.

Rameen: Yes, yes.

Good to see your old friend.

And Dr. Christy Hild, assistant superintendent.

Christy, looks like you have your track shoes on.

Looks like you're ready to run this track.

Christy: Ready to go.

Rameen: All right.

You've been off and running with all these new facilities, and we're going to talk about that in just a second here.

But you guys are about two weeks in as we tape here on September 1st.

Beautiful sunny day here.

Mattoon Schools have been in session for about two weeks.

Talk about the excitement of new school year, Tim.

Tim: Yeah, it's been a great start.

I think it's been one of our best starts in the last couple years.

Students, staff, and families are just excited about getting back to that experience of education that I think we all appreciate and why we went into the career.

So it's been an exciting start.

I think we're at day nine now.

We started with students on August 17th, started with staff on the 15th, had a great guest speaker come and get us all pumped up for the school year.

And it's been a great start.

Rameen: Thank you.

Christy, your thoughts on the start of a new school?

Christy: It's funny to hear nine days, right?

Because when you walk through the schools, it feels like students and teachers just established the sense of community and routine so quickly.

Rameen: So it feels like you're a month or two in?

Christy: Yes.

Yeah.

High school students are engaged in really deep content already.

And so it's nice to see how quickly we're able to get some traction with our kids.

Rameen: This summer had to feel a lot better.

All these projects that we're going to talk about here in a second, getting them done, and maybe get your impressions of a summer where you had less of Covid to worry about.

Tim: Yes.

We're, I think, just being gracious for the opportunities that we've been afforded from receiving a grant from the state of Illinois, a two million dollar grant, to help with these wonderful facilities that our kids and our community get to experience, to just the opportunity to be able to construct something with LIFT and the idea that had started over 30 years ago with some conversations around how can we bring some innovation and vocational opportunities for students in the area.

So I think Christy and I just feel very fortunate to be a part of some of that.

And just the support that we've received from folks in the community, to industry, to our students, and to our families.

So I think over this past summer, being able to focus on these great opportunities that kids can have has really has brought us back to our passion in being able to assist our communities and assist our students.

Rameen: Anything you'd like to add, Christy?

Christy: You know, I would just add that I think the opportunities in the development of all of this great stuff you're seeing now also gave our community hope in a time where other places were really truly just fixated on Covid.

I mean, it was enough to really take all of your time and attention, but so thankful that we had the opportunity to continue building during a time when it felt kind of just like crisis management.

But our people were able to stay focused on our purpose.

And now we're really seeing the fruits of that labor with kids in classes at LIFT.

Our opening night last Friday night was amazing.

So really thankful.

Rameen: All right.

Nice TV segue there.

Sometimes our guests, they know where we're going.

Let's talk about these new things.

And as you can tell, we're at Mattoon High School on the new football field, got the video board on.

Thank you very much Tim and Christy for having that on.

And wow, we're going to talk about all these athletic fields, but we're going to start here because we're taping here and we're taping here on a Thursday.

Six days ago, new high school football season, you guys had a home game, opened up this new venue.

Wow.

What a tremendous night for the community.

Tim: We did.

It was a great turnout.

And I think there was just a lot of excitement to cheer on our student athletes, to be out here and support them.

Obviously from our football team, but also from our band, from our dancers, our cheerleaders and our Team Massive student section.

We had a great turnout, just people here to come together.

As Christy said, just that opportunity to be a community and to come out and support one another.

So I would guess we had well over 2000 people here.

Received some great compliments from folks that were here just saying it was wonderful to see the bleachers filled and people standing along the fence and cheering on our student athletes.

So yeah, it was a very exciting, vibrant kind of feeling about the atmosphere here.

Rameen: I meant to mention before I asked the question.

You've been seeing some clips.

WEIU News Watch was there.

So we have a few shots of Team Massive, and a few fireworks that lit up.

Christy, what a tremendous night.

Christy: Yeah, truly.

It was kind of a monumental day for us.

And it marked kind of symbolically the end of a lot of things and the coming back together of community and having so many people here celebrating our students and what we're able to do as a school district in Mattoon.

It's just been really, really wonderful.

And it needs to be stated, like our new athletic director, Trent Duckett and our maintenance director, Dustin, and our technology director, Amanda Gibson, spent so many hours out here making sure that that beautiful thing was ready to go.

Rameen: It takes a few people to run those things.

Christy: Yes, I think you would know.

Rameen: Yes.

Christy: It's the work of many on a team that's all very humble and willing to give so kids and families and community can have good experiences.

So it was great.

Tim: And to echo some of that, too, I think former athletic, retired athletic director Dave Vieth was a big part of this as well.

Our former facilities engineer, Ken Metzger, they played a key role in starting this process for us.

So to see this come together, there are so many that have been involved in making this atmosphere.

People that Rameen: People that are no longer here, and that was kind of their lasting mark.

Tim: Yes.

And I think that's important to note, that Christy and I are blessed to be in the roles that we're in, but just like, we'll talk a little bit more about LIFT here in the future.

Those ideas that came before us from those folks that shared those conversations and continued those conversations from Dr. Luther out at Lakeland College to former superintendent Larry Lilly.

I think we feel blessed to be in these roles, to be able to carry some of their dreams out and see them become a reality.

Rameen: Name dropping there of people not just involved with Mattoon but in our area for sure.

This high school football field, this venue was actually first used by the soccer team, if I recall, back in the spring.

So it was one of the first athletic fields kind of completed.

Tim: We actually also have a renovated soccer field that has turf on it, as well as the infield of the baseball field.

New backstop over there.

So yeah, we've had a lot of exposure, I guess, this past spring when things were kind of wrapping up and students had the opportunity to take advantage of being able to play on those new fields.

Rameen: Those venues were open and finished before this was officially, officially.

But the soccer team, I think, was able to play a game.

And driving over here, Tim gave me the super secret route to get back here, so I didn't have to lug all my equipment across campus.

Beautiful tennis courts too, they look very professional.

Tim: Beautiful tennis courts, yes.

I would encourage our community to come out and use our tennis courts, use our facilities.

They're here for our students, but they're also here for our community.

Rameen: We're going to talk about LIFT, probably the last thing we're going to talk about here.

We'll end on a bang, I guess.

But you have some other things that are probably going on in the school district, not athletic related.

I understand you kind of smoothed out the entrance way at the middle school.

Tim: Yes.

We had some dollars that were kind of granted to us to be able to use to assist with that.

Those parents that would drive in to drop off kids, they knew it was like a speed bump kind of coming into the middle school.

But some good things happening there, and some of our other campuses as well.

Rameen: Hopefully they forgot what that bump felt like.

Also Riddle Elementary got some HVAC work?

Tim: They did.

We had a new chiller that came in this past summer.

It was a little warm summer for some folks that were working over the summer over there at Riddle.

But they managed very well and appreciate their new custodian, Ervin Schlabach over there, and Principal Chad Arnold for kind of working through some of those details.

We were able to have summer school over there as well, had a good turnout with that.

So it was a lot of good things happening to enhance our facilities for our students.

Rameen: Almost overlooked on my notes.

The Mattoon Middle School added a greenhouse, and here at the high school you had to move some things around.

So I took some notes from a previous interview they did on the radio.

Greenhouse and wood shop kind of had to be moved around here at the high school.

Tim: Yes.

Christy has experienced a lot of work behind the scenes with that to develop some programming.

So I'll let her share what the exciting opportunities are.

Christy: Oh man.

Rameen: Tell us how they moved and how they'll be better moving forward.

Christy: Yes.

So we've expanded our ag programming, we know that's a important industry in our region, in our community.

And so we added classes at the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade level.

And there's a beautiful new greenhouse behind the middle school.

Rameen: Wow.

Christy: Yeah, it's actually wrapping up and kids are taking classes and they're going to be doing all kinds of cool things that will lead into programming at the high school level.

Rameen: Fantastic.

Christy: You mentioned we moved it.

Yes.

We have a great tailgating family section kind of behind the bleachers now.

And the greenhouse was built inside a courtyard, so there was some really cool crane action happening to get the equipment in there.

Rameen: Fantastic.

Christy: Yeah.

Rameen: All right.

We got about five minutes left.

So let's devote the last five minutes to LIFT.

I know you could probably talk 30 minutes about the program, but it officially got underway at the start of the school year.

Downtown Mattoon, the former Consolidated Communications building.

Year one of it.

I have some numbers written down here.

17 schools involved from across the area.

You have about a hundred students, correct?

Tim: Yes.

Rameen: And for our audience, it's a regional thing.

It's not just a Mattoon thing.

Tim: Yeah.

To offer a little history with that.

And then I'll let Christy kind of walk through the programming for the viewers.

Back in April of 2021, we presented to our board this wonderful opportunity that Consolidated was looking to divest of that property.

So our board was gracious enough to take a leap of faith and acquire that property, and we've put about 13 million in renovations into that property over the course of, I guess the last 16, 18 months.

And just this past Friday was the first student attendance day at LIFT.

Rameen: Wow.

Tim: And it was powerful, to say the least, to see students come in and the looks on their faces to see this beautiful, new, innovative space.

We've been blessed to work with.

Some great contractors from Grunloh construction out of Effingham, and our architect BLDD, with Steve Oliver, Joey Kuenstler.

They've been wonderful to bring this experience, what they had a vision for, to reality for our kids.

So to offer a reminder of what's offered in LIFT, LIFT stands for Leaders Innovating For Tomorrow.

It's Seven Pathways, seven floors.

And Christy, as well as over 140 community members, students, staff came together to lead a process that developed these pathways and the courses that are being offered.

Rameen: Christy, roughly how many adults are in the building?

Because there's a hundred students, roughly, year one.

How many adults are in the building to help run this thing?

Christy: So we have seven facilitators, a director, a secretary, and a director of early childhood.

So under 10.

But those facilitators, talk about a powerful group.

Tim mentioned the work of many.

We had 150 people come together, give ideas on what programming would be relevant in our programming areas.

And then we hired great people from industry, not all from a traditional teaching background.

And they have, since the beginning, since they were hired, they've started developing curriculum so that our students can get the outcomes envisioned by all those industry leaders way back in May of 21.

So yeah, the programming offered in communications, which we need you as a guest speaker for sure.

Come see the space.

Rameen: Hopefully I won't stumble on my words, but I'd be glad to.

Christy: Yes, we'd love to have you.

The first floor is Childcare, which is birth through three.

We also have pathways into social work out of that childcare center.

The second floor is all information technology, so cyber security, networking.

And some of those specific classes came from our industry partners who emphasized the need for employees and trained workforce in that area.

Rameen: You want to keep as many of these local kids local.

Christy: Right.

Mattoon has done a great job of coming up with innovative programs that attract remote workers here to our community, and so those jobs and information technology, we already have employers lining up for kids who are going to graduate with certifications that'll have them ready.

Floors three and four are kind of together in terms of HVAC, green energy construction, architecture and manufacturing.

Great industry support there.

And also support from Lakeland and from Eastern in those pathways.

And then we have a leadership floor, which really sets us apart from a lot of the other CTE centers that we've seen.

Franklin Covey has been a huge partner for us.

And so students are developing those inside out leadership skills and credentials along with some business and finance classes with our partners at First Mid.

And then of course, the sixth floor, which is wrapping up, is our Culinary Arts Institute.

So hospitality.

It'll be a restaurant, so our viewers need to make reservations for the spring.

The kids will do everything from menu development to pricing, serving, so the whole gamut of the hospitality spectrum.

Rameen: Just a wealth of skills to be learned there.

I understand it's opening up to the public a little bit.

Tim: It is.

Rameen: This episode is airing at the end of September, so when can the public see it?

Tim: We have a date set for an open house on October 20th, and we're excited to allow the public to come in and see all the great enhancements that have taken place and the opportunities to see where kids are going to be learning, and where our future leaders throughout the region, as you mentioned, I mean, we have 17 school districts that have signed on.

Rameen: Tremendous.

Tim: We hope that will continue to grow.

We have the opportunity, I think, to have 28 different districts students attend.

Rameen: That's unbelievable.

Tim: But we see this as an opportunity too, to enhance those skill forces in all of our surrounding communities throughout the region so they can stay in their communities, raise families, and experience the great livelihoods that we've had the opportunity to here in central Illinois.

Rameen: A second avenue of skills being learned kind of in Mattoon with obviously Elevate there in the mall, that similar goals.

So Mattoon a regional destination for skills to be learned.

Tim: We've got a great partnership with Elevate.

Christy did a wonderful job of working with them to kind of coordinate the start of the year with our students out there.

Christy: Rameen, really quickly, one question we are getting is, can students still enroll?

I had parents call from some neighboring communities and say, "We didn't get enrolled for fall.

Are there slots available for spring?"

And there are.

So if students are interested in joining us this semester, they're able to do that.

And then of course we'll start registration for next school year.

Hard to believe, but we will start that soon.

Rameen: There's your pitch for later this school year, and if your kid is involved in this wonderful new LIFT in Mattoon.

City Spotlight will hopefully get a chance to come later this season and maybe get a tour if one of you guys will show us around.

Tim: We'd love to have you.

Rameen: Show us around and check out the new stuff from the inside.

Wish we had more time to talk.

But we have one more segment to go and I think the time with Dr. Christy Hild, Tim Condron, Mattoon Schools, congratulations on all the new things going on.

Just a tremendous amount of new things going on in the two major school districts in Coles County.

Thank you so much for your time, and again, congratulations on all the work you've done.

Tim: Thank you, Rameen.

Appreciate it.

Rameen: Coming up next here on City Spotlight, we'll have a segment with Lake Land College President, Dr. Josh Bullock.

But first, let's take a look at some of the upcoming activities going on in Mattoon.

[music plays] A first for Lake Land in its 56-year history is that you approved the first tuition decrease in the school's history.

Tell us about that and why it's significant.

Josh: It's significant because as we worked with students, as we've heard their stories, as we've met with our student government, what we hear overwhelmingly is the impact that inflation is having on them.

The cost of living is going up, their housing expenses are going up, fuel for their vehicles are going up, food to put on their table is going up.

We wanted to make sure that every student looked at higher education as important as having food on their table and housing and fuel.

We didn't want anybody to say, "I have all these other expenses.

I can't afford to go to college."

Our board of trustees took the bold step to reduce tuition by almost 10%, which is unheard of in higher education and the first time in our 56-year history.

We did it for our community and for our students.

We were able to do it, we figured out budget wise how we could do it with minimal impact on the college for this short period of time.

We're thrilled that any in district student coming into Lake Land College, it's $100 per credit hour.

It's really a statement for us to say we're 100% behind you during these challenging economic times.

Rameen: All right, very good.

Congratulations on that.

When one strategic plan ends, maybe another one starts, you have a new one starting.

Tell us about that.

Josh: We do, it's been several years in the making.

We're just wrapping up our strategic plan, June 30 was the final date for our prior strategic plan.

We were happy to accomplish our major objectives.

We implemented guided pathways for student success, we implemented data analytics on campus and a host of other things.

This strategic plan was developed, this plan that started July 1, with a tremendous amount of input from our community, not just the college community, but our community at large.

We had input from over 1,200 stakeholders through focus groups and surveys, we met with faculty and staff, and we really developed a collaborative plan that I think is going to carry us forward.

It started with a trend analysis.

With all of what's happening in our environment and the impacts that we've talked about with the pandemic, we knew things were changing.

We really wanted to get a gauge on where are we today, where is higher education in our environment today, and where do we think it's going to go in the future.

I really believe the collaborative approach we took with the amount of input has helped us develop a plan that will carry us into that longterm future.

Rameen: This trend analysis report is going to be used for the next three to five years, moving forward, that's the timeframe?

Josh: Absolutely, our current five-year strategic plan that started July 1.

We'll continue to use that data, we present it to community organizations.

If there are community organizations looking at planning, we share that data.

It's available at no charge on our website.

Our goal is to make sure since it was developed here we share it with the broader community so that they can use it in their planning efforts as well.

Rameen: You referenced in our first location stop, at the new Workforce Development Center, some of the new tech that came about.

That is part of some exciting news for the early childhood education.

Josh: It is.

We received an early childhood education grant from the State of Illinois.

We're using that to bolster the workforce.

One of the big challenges for families is finding childcare, and that's because there aren't enough childcare workers.

We want to make sure we help aid that pipeline, not only for those who are considering as a new career, but some of those incumbent workers who need to upskill so they can move themselves forward and further within their career.

Part of that will include us putting a small learning lab in place so that we can teach, with live students, those three to five-year-old students, teach our students the latest and greatest techniques in providing early childhood education Rameen: And some new technology, it's called HyFlex.

You have all kinds of HD cameras to help you accomplish that.

Josh: We do.

The HyFlex system is in 24 classrooms on campus today.

They have cameras that are not only ultra high definition, but as you're talking, they'll zoom in on the individual talking.

You can use it to broadcast classes so students can participate remotely or watch those lectures in the future.

One of the things we're bringing to our board of trustees after overwhelming support from our faculty for the technology is purchasing additional equipment so we can continue to outfit more classrooms, so that we truly can meet the times and the places that students have available for education.

They're so tied up with work and life that just happens that oftentimes coming to class on a very specific time and driving to campus might be challenging.

We want to make sure that we provide as much flexibility as we can so those students can stay engaged with higher education.

Rameen: These new HyFlex cameras are not just on Lake Land's campus, it's also at the Kluthe Center as well.

Josh: Kluthe Center and our outreach centers in Pana and Marshall.

We also have a number of high schools.

We received a grant from the US Department of Agriculture several years ago to put these types of systems in high schools so we can help and deliver dual credit courses as well for some of those high schools that might not have teachers that are qualified to deliver dual credit, that we can use our faculty to deliver dual credit to their students.

Rameen: The dual credit partnership, it's always exciting to hear this from not just folks such as yourself, but also K through 12 superintendents that are excited for their students to benefit from these dual credits.

Again, reemphasize the importance of the dual credit partnerships that you have.

Josh: Absolutely.

Dual credit saves families money and it helps students in high school not only get a leg up on their higher education, but for many of those students who maybe are thinking, "Is this right for me?

Can I do it?"

it lets them know, "You know what?

I can try it while I'm in high school and I can do it."

It motivates them to pursue higher education afterwards.

We find that on an annual basis, we're saving families about $1.7 million in tuition and fees that they otherwise would pay at Lake Land rates when they come to campus after graduation.

It's something we're really excited to do to give every student that opportunity to experience higher education and determine for themselves if it's for them or not.

Rameen: You continue to get recognition from something that you mention pretty much every time we tape with you, the Aspen Institute continues to recognize Lake Land for the work that you guys do.

Josh: Yes.

We were recognized again for the, I believe, fifth time in 12 years as one of the top 10% of community colleges in the nation.

I give every bit of credit to our faculty and staff here.

We have literally the best, and I'm a bit biased, but literally the best faculty, I think in the nation, who are here and they're so dedicated to our students.

Our staff are here for our students.

They will bend over backwards to help students.

I think this award from Aspen is a reflection of that.

Rameen: All right, very good.

Something that we've mentioned nearly off the top of this taping with Josh is continued use of technology, not just the pandemic made us do that, you have other continued technological advancements on campus.

Josh: We have, we've continued to invest in technology.

We have a new radio TV lab.

We've brought in virtual cadavers where now we can connect those to our HyFlex system where you can anatomically dissect a body without having a real body being there, full size, life size.

Rameen: Sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Josh: It is.

I've seen it, it's incredible.

We have a new ambulance simulator that was just installed.

It's literally the entire back end of an ambulance for our EMS and EMT students so that they can practice in the environment within the classroom.

As we continue to move forward, we're committed to continue to invest in technology, welding simulators, things that will allow us to educate students in new and innovative ways.

Rameen: You have continued use of solar on campus.

Josh: We do.

As we've expanded solar, we've added solar to the roofs of four additional buildings I believe since the last time we talked, about 400 KW of additional solar.

We are up to the point where we can generate about 700 KW.

On days like today, where it's beautiful and sunny, we have buildings that are putting energy back onto the grid so that we can use it at other buildings on Lake Land College.

But my goal is eventually to get to where we're over a megawatt of solar generation, because it is efficient, it's the right thing to do from a sustainability standpoint, and it really sets Lake Land College apart.

Rameen: City Spotlight is supported by Consolidated Communications.

CCI is honored to salute the cities and their leaders in the area, as well as providing TV, Internet, and phone service for the local homes and businesses.

We live where we work, and are proud to support the communities we serve.

More information available at consolidated.com.

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