Drop in a question of your very own BY CLICKING HERE or by emailing Kathy Reiser at mailbag@news-gazette.com.
A new “smart drop box” for Champaign County vote-by-mail ballots … questions and answers about Franklin STEAM Academy, in advance of the Unit 4 referendum … a busy fall for fans of indie and local films … and much more in this week’s Mailbag.
“I heard the county has a new ‘smart drop box’ for election ballots. What does that mean? What makes it ‘smart’?”
The county’s first smart drop box is in the first-floor lobby at the Bennett Administrative Center. “This drop box captures the image of anyone who places a vote-by-mail (VBM) envelope in it and scans the barcode on the envelope, which informs us as to who the voter is,” said Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons.
A dozen bright-yellow ballot drop boxes were placed in locations around the county starting in 2020, and “we have been asked countless times about (having) cameras on, or near, drop boxes” to ensure the security of the ballots inside the boxes.
“The ability to scan the barcode on the envelope within the drop box allows us to update who has voted by mail in our system quicker and update the return status for the voter without having to remove the ballots,” Ammons said. “The built-in camera to capture who is putting the envelope in the Drop Box increases security.”
Ammons said neither his office staff nor election judges will ever know who the voter actually voted for. “All VBM ballots are returned with the voter’s name and actual ballot inside; however, our opening process prevents anyone from seeing who the voter actually voted for.” The processes used for opening and tabulating ballots are the same for VBM ballots as they are for those cast in polling places on or before Election Day.
So… must the person who inserts the ballot into the smart box be the actual registered voter who requested the ballot? No. The voter can deputize someone else to deliver their completed ballot for them.
“There is a space on vote-by-mail envelopes for voters to specify an approved delivery agent. If a voter claimed they never returned their VBM ballot and did not approve of a delivery agent, we could check camera footage to determine who placed the relevant envelope in the smart drop box,” Ammons said.
The county purchased the smart drop box for $12,000.
“It would be ideal to have the smart boxes at all 12 (VBM drop box) locations, but we need to see how this deployment works out first. This one is for indoor usage but they are available for outdoor usage as well.”
Franklin Principal Dave Mast describes the stage area that can only be accessed via stairs. For promotions and other on-stage events that require full Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, the district rents a ramp that is placed in front of the stage.
“What are the most pressing needs for new or renovated facilities at Franklin STEAM Academy?”
Principal Dave Mast led a tour of Franklin, 817 N. Harris Ave., last Sunday as part of Champaign Unit 4’s effort to demonstrate the need for a $192 million referendum that’s on the November 3 ballot. Franklin Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics Academy, which was built in 1953 as Franklin Junior High, would be razed and replaced with an all-new middle-school building if the referendum passes.
The referendum also would allow for construction of a fourth middle school in the southern part of the district; fund extensive renovations at Jefferson Middle School; provide extensive renovations or replacement of the former Carrie Busey Elementary, now used by upper grades at International Prep Academy; and fund state-mandated health/life-safety repairs or replacements at multiple schools.
The tour of Franklin’s portable and permanent classrooms, gym, cafeteria and other areas emphasized the need for more and better space – not just more square footage, but space that can be configured to more effectively support 21st Century learners. Mast said his students and staff experience that “space crunch” throughout the school day and on every day of the school year.
Franklin STEAM Academy’s main entrance. Leaders say the school’s retrofitted security features are not ideal.
Today, Franklin houses about 665 students and 110 full- and part-time staff. Space is so tight that the school must use two classrooms in each of four trailers anchored behind the building. Some students spend most of their day in one of the trailers, while others come and go for Spanish, health and other single-period classes.
Those portables have no restrooms. Anytime a student or teacher needs to use the restroom, they must walk to the main building and be “buzzed in” by the security guard. In inclement weather, that may mean donning a coat and/or boots, and dodging icy patches on the classroom’s metal steps or ramp and the asphalt between the trailers and the building. Mast said custodians typically treat the ice three times a day when the weather calls for it.
Students who take classes in any of those eight portable classrooms are able to have lunch in the main school building’s cafeteria, which can accommodate about 230 children at a time. Lunch periods are staggered; when students leave a portable for lunch, another class usually takes their place in the trailer for that period.
“So we’ll also have, at some point, every kid in some way, shape or form is going to be out in a portable” classroom, Mast said. “Some more than others. If you’re a 7th-grade student, you could probably easily spend about 75% of your day out in a portable.”
Residents of Unit 4 tour a trailer-classroom in which students attend Spanish classes.
Carla Phelan-Erdey, Unit 4’s chief communications and community engagement officer, said the trailer classrooms “present safety and security challenges because students and staff must move between separate structures rather than remaining within a secure, unified school building. A permanent facility would allow the district to provide a more modern and cohesive approach to school safety and security.”
Even with eight classrooms in four trailers behind the building, lack of suitable space is still problem within Franklin’s main building.
Mast noted that about one-third of Franklin’s students are involved in band or strings music classes, and the existing facilities are inadequate to meet their needs. “I mean, we’re having conversations with my band teacher about having to possibly cap bands” enrollment.
“We have too many kids who are interested in it” – a nice problem to have – “and at some point we can only fit so many kids safely into our room. So we’re going to be creative about maybe opening up another section of band at some point,” which may solve one problem and create others.
Sound-deadening panels were affixed to the band room’s walls in recent years. However, Mast said special-needs classrooms are adjacent to the band room, and when “you have kids on the other side who are just now in tier-three interventions, and reading, and pull-out math, and pull-out reading that are trying to focus,” it’s difficult for them to do that with bucket-drumming or other music classes going on next door.
Students do not dress for physical education classes at Franklin; they wear their “street clothes.” The locker rooms are used for storage – and occasionally for make-up tests.
Mast said Franklin’s physical education students do not dress for P.E.; they take the class in their street clothes. Storage closets have been repurposed as faculty and staff offices, and the locker rooms are used for storage of athletic equipment, furniture, boxes of curriculum materials and other items. Three P.E. teachers share an office that once was a storage closet.
Children who have to miss standardized tests in the springtime usually find themselves taking the make-up tests in a (gym-adjacent) locker room that’s used primarily for storage – not an ideal setting for concentrating and doing their best on an hours-long test.
The stage at one end of the school gym does not meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards, which did not exist when it was built in 1953. Mast said the stage technically does not need to be accessible to every student at all times – as long as the district can rent a temporary ramp when needed for promotion ceremonies and other occasions that bring the entire school community together. The areas behind the stage curtain also are used for storage.
Mast said he’d love to have all-school pep rallies and performing-arts assemblies in the gym/stage area – and to allow each 8th-grader’s family more than two or three tickets for the promotion celebration – but “it has an occupancy set … by fire marshals that we can’t exceed.”
For anyone who has limited mobility, “the only way to get to the stage is to walk up the stairs, whether you’re a staff member, a student or a visitor,” Mast said. Several Franklin students are in wheelchairs. Storage is in short supply throughout the school. Rather than freestanding cabinets, some classrooms keep plastic totes and boxes on open, wall-mounted shelves just below ceiling level and above student desks.
A Franklin STEAM Academy classroom that accommodates 6 to 7 special education students. The space is small enough that teachers have had to get creative with wall-mounted storage near the ceiling.
Shared spaces create challenges for students and staff alike, Mast said. The associate principal’s “office” doubles as the school’s only conference room, which sees extensive use for Individualized Education Program (IEP) appointments, faculty-staff team meetings and other purposes.
About 400 7th and 8th graders were admitted during Franklin’s first academic year, according to an undated newspaper clipping in the files of the Champaign County Historical Archives. The junior high’s enrollment expanded to include 9th graders a little later on. In the late 1970s, Unit 4 reorganized its attendance levels to include grades 6-8 for middle school, and 9-12 for high school.
Mast said Unit 4 does have a few school buildings that are older than Franklin, but it “is the … oldest that has not been touched at all” in terms of extensive remodeling and/or permanent additions. The old Dr. Howard School was razed and an all-new school building on the same site opened in 2020. Central High and Edison Middle School underwent extensive renovations with building additions in recent years, with funding provided by the 2016 referendum.
In terms of state-mandated health/life-safety improvements, “Franklin needs a new roof,” said Director of Capital Projects and Planning Elizabeth Stegmaier. Doors and flooring also must be replaced if Unit 4 is to continue using the current Franklin building. One way or another, she said the district will have pay for those things – whether the new roof is atop a new building or the existing one.
Principal Dave Mast describes the daily routine for teachers and students who do their work in any of Franklin’s four classroom trailers, each of which houses two classrooms.
Franklin STEAM Academy’s first “portable” was placed behind the main school building in 2017. A participant on the Sept. 19 tour of the school asked why the district has continued renting classroom trailers, rather than buying them, when the need for space seems more long-term. Stegmaier said “at the time, whenever we bring in a portable, we’re hoping that it’s not going to be long-term.
“So we’re thinking, OK, well, maybe they have a bubble classroom. Maybe there’s a particular program that they’re offering now that they didn’t used to have. Unless we’re certain that this (need) is going to be here for the foreseeable future, we rent.” A bubble class is an extra class that’s created because of a temporary spike in enrollment at a specific grade level.
When the need for additional classroom space at a particular school turns out to be more permanent, district officials can’t just decide to build a new, permanent addition in time for the next school year – or even within a few years, unless it’s part of a long-term facilities plan that has funding attached to it.
During the tour, Stegmaier said she didn’t know specific dollar-figures for the rental cost of the Franklin portables, but she recalled one estimate for use of portables during a renovation of South Side School “was about $41,000 for two years of a rental.” That included the cost of bringing in the portable, setting up the ramps and steps, providing electrical power, 21 months of rent and hauling it away when it was no longer needed.
So why weren’t Franklin’s permanent facility-related needs addressed before – say, with funding from Unit 4’s last referendum that passed in 2016? With the more pressing needs of the schools that were Unit 4’s oldest at the time – Central, Edison and Dr. Howard – and the district’s bonding capacity, Stegmaier said including Franklin would have been “too much to ask of the community” in one referendum.
“We always knew, in 2016, that the middle schools were the next big thing the district needed, and here we are,” she said.
My Mailbag predecessor Tom Kacich once wrote “as clubs go, it’s pretty hard to beat the Urbana Half Century Club.
“There is no initiation. There are no dues. There’s one meeting a year, and it’s a dinner meeting. A few people do all of the work. Members don’t have to sell bags of peanuts, rolls of candies or Christmas trees to raise money.
“The only real requirement is that you are on the plus side of 50, and sometimes they fudge that.”
That’s still true today and the club’s annual meeting, which celebrates local history, is coming up on Thursday, Oct. 22, according Phyllis Williams, one of those “few people” Tom mentioned.
Organizers say this annual event “is our way of honoring and carrying on the tradition of the early settlers to Champaign County, who gathered annually to enjoy each other’s company, and plan for the future.”
The dinner/meeting will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 309 W. Green St., Urbana. For benefit of those with mobility concerns, the space is accessible.
This year’s program is a brief history of the Champaign Public Library, presented by Cat Purcell. J.O. Cunningham Award honorees are Tom Betz, Lorraine Cowart, Greg Knott, Alan Nudo and Barbara Wysocki. Urbana High School’s VCR A Cappella group will entertain during the 5:30 p.m. social time. University Catering will serve a buffet dinner at 6.
Reservations are $35 per person; they must be made by Wednesday, Oct. 14, to ensure an accurate count for the caterers. Contact Williams (217/778-7011 or pbwinter@illinois.edu) to reserve your spot. Payment by check or credit card may be made at the door on Oct. 22.
Or, if you prefer to pay in advance, mail a check made out to “Half Century Club” to Steve Beckett, treasurer, 508 S. Broadway Ave., Urbana, IL 61801.
“Haven’t heard much about the C-U Film Society lately. What are they up to this fall?”
They’re still showing independent and locally made films – and they would love to have a little help from a film buff with a flair for publicity, to better get the word out to local movie lovers.
The society will be showing several films this weekend in conjunction with the UI’s Pygmalion music and culture festival:
Steal This Story, Please (film) – Friday, Sept. 25, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the UI’s Spurlock Museum
The Green Mill: A Real Chicago Joint (film) – Saturday, 6-7:30 p.m. at the historic Tiernan Hall, 115 W. Main, Urbana
Animation After Dark (shorts) – Saturday, 8-9:30 p.m. at Tiernan Hall
Death of a Rock Star (film) – Saturday, 10 p.m.-midnight at Tiernan Hall
Jewish-American (shorts) – Sunday, 4-5 p.m. at Tiernan Hall
Homegrown (shorts) – Sunday, 6-8 p.m. at Tiernan Hall
Slouching Towards Branson (film) – Sunday, 8:30-10:30 p.m. at Tiernan Hall
Film society president Nat Dykeman says their Doctoberfest 2026 will feature at least 14 documentaries in the coming weeks. All of the following will be shown at The Savoy 16 + IMAX Theater in Savoy:
Friday, Oct. 2, 7 p.m., Hanging By A Wire
Thursday, Oct. 8, 7 p.m., The Last Movie Critic
Friday, Oct. 9, 7 p.m., All Skate
Saturday, Oct. 10, 1:30 p.m., Cookie Queens; 3:30 p.m. Joybubbles; 6 p.m., The Last Picture Shows; 8 p.m., Pinball: Beyond the Bumpers.
Sunday, Oct. 11, 12 noon, Silver Screamers; 2 p.m., A Brief History of Chasing Storms; 4:30 p.m., Cat Video Fest 2026
Monday, Oct. 12, 7 p.m., The History Of Concrete
Saturday, Oct. 17, 4 p.m., The Lorraine; 6:30 p.m., Once Upon A Time In Harlem
Sunday, Nov. 1, 4 p.m., Time Warp
While the Doctoberfest films are documentaries, the titles can’t necessarily be taken at face value. The plot of The History of Concrete is a good example:
“After attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, (filmmaker John Wilson) decides to use the industry-approved Hallmark formula to tell this seemingly drab story and increase his movie’s appeal. But his foundation soon begins to crumble – literally and figuratively – as he struggles to balance artistic freedom with the realities of the modern film industry.”
Tickets for all Doctoberfest showings are available at the-chambana-film-society.square.site.
“What’s being built along Prairieview Road at South Mahomet Road? Whatever it is, it looks like it’ll have a drive-thru.”
Mahomet Village Administrator Patrick Brown says it’s a new branch location for the Champaign-based Central Illinois Credit Union. Reporter Jana Wiersema wrote about the credit union’s plans in February 2025.
According to its website, CICU was incorporated March 4, 1948, as John L. Kelly Chapter Credit Union with 210 charter members. The name was changed to Central Illinois Credit Union on March 31, 1983. It is headquartered at 2106 W. John Street in Champaign, just north of Centennial High School.
CICU merged with SuperValu Midwest Federal Credit Union on July 1, 2004, and merged with the News-Gazette Credit Union on March 1, 2006. UNFI bought SuperValu in 2018.
The current “field of membership” includes persons who are: residing or employed within the Illinois counties of Champaign, Coles, Cumberland, DeWitt, Douglas, Ford, Moultrie or Piatt; certain employees, owners and suppliers of IGA stores and SuperValu/UNFI facilities; employees of the News-Gazette (I did not know that!); employees of CICU; and members of eligible persons’ immediate families or households.
The website says the CICU “provides its membership with a full range of quality financial services at competitive rates, while maintaining financial stability and capital growth within the association.”
“Has CN applied herbicide in the past month or two along its tracks passing through south Champaign and Savoy? Huge swaths of vegetation suddenly turned very brown and crispy – mostly near the tracks, and maybe in parts of IDOT’s right-of-way, too. It did not seem like a gradual, seasonal color change.”
Canadian National Railroad spokesperson Ashley Michnowski said CN “did not spray in the area in question. She said CN did, however, “conduct vegetation management” near County Road 400 N and U.S. 45 in Pesotum.
“To support safe railway operations, CN carries out an annual vegetation control program along its rail lines. Certified applicators apply herbicides on and around the railway tracks, limited to a maximum of 30 feet from the center of the track. Spraying primarily covers the graveled area known as the ballast and, where necessary for safety, other areas of the right-of-way.”
I had contacted IDOT engineer Kensil Garnett several weeks ago to see if IDOT had sprayed any herbicide along U.S. 45 in Champaign and Savoy, and he said the agency had not. To my knowledge, IDOT and CN are the only two entities that have jurisdiction to manage vegetation on most of that narrow strip of land.
Michnowski said CN publishes the list of herbicides and pesticides used, along with the railroad’s spraying schedule, on its website at Vegetation Management|Vegetation Control|cn.ca.
“Why has The News-Gazette cut its weather information in Monday’s e-edition, eliminating the lower-front-page icon and pretty much doing away with local forecasts on the back page of the A-section?”
The scoop, straight from Managing Editor Niko Dugan: “With so many other ways to receive weather information in a much more timely manner online and via mobile devices, we decided to devote more space in Monday’s E-Edition to content readers can’t get anywhere else.”
