The Unit 4 school board listens to JG Consulting’s CEO during a prior visit.
Rob Le Cates/The News-Gazette
News-Gazette Radio airs from 4-5 p.m. Monday through Thursday on WDWS 1400-AM and streams on news-gazette.com.
As tough jobs go, they don’t come any more demanding around here than the one the Champaign school board is preparing to fill in the weeks ahead, member AMY ARMSTRONG said on Wednesday’s third edition of News-Gazette Radio.
“I hear it over and over in the community: Superintendent of Unit 4 is probably the hardest job in our community because we do have competing interests and values and you have to sort through that,” she said.
“You’re no longer a teacher. Superintendents are typically trained to be teachers but this is next level. It becomes leading a business” — one that matters to families with and without students, who care how their tax dollars are being spent, Armstrong added.
The next step in the process to pick Shelia Boozer’s successor comes tonight, when the board’s Texas-based search firm, JG Consulting, lets members know during a closed-session special meeting who applied during the monthlong period that ended last week.
Interviews with preferred candidates are scheduled to follow later this month.
Armstrong, the lone board member with superintendent search experience in Unit 4, says the district’s next CEO will need to keep a close eye on the district’s budget, given what’s happening at the federal level.
“The impact of the federal government right now is probably (the biggest challenge) I see on the horizon,” she said. “It’s going to land in our back yard. The things people think are not going touch our community … are going to affect our community. The cuts to child care, food, SNAP benefits — all of those things impact our kids and our families.”
The Kirby Avenue bridge over Interstate 57 in Champaign.
Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
— An “optimistic” outlook for the massive, multi-phase I-57/74 reconstruction project has roadwork being wrapped up by year’s end, Illinois Department of Transportation project implementation engineer KEN CRAWFORD said.
Also on the agency’s to-do list:
— The widening of the frighteningly narrow Kirby Avenue bridge over I-57, between Duncan and Staley roads: Crawford isn’t personally involved in planning but says: “I do believe it’s going to happen in ’27. The design is happening right now. It’s going to be an inconvenience for a while because … we’ll probably be required to close that road for a little while but there are a couple of options to get around.”
— Post-paving work on U.S. 45: As soon as March, expect to see IDOT crews replacing traffic signals between Curtis Road and Springfield Ave., Crawford said.
Andrew Adams/Capitol News Illinois
— Champaign County ended 2025 with close to 500 more electric vehicles in local driveways than it had at the close of 2024, according to state data.
Of the 1,925 countywide, 539 belong to residents of Champaign’s 61822 ZIP code.
Other top ZIPs:
— Champaign’s 61821: 241.
— Urbana’s 61801: 204.
— Champaign’s 61820: 197.
The list of towns without a single electric vehicle shrunk this past year, with Henning, Ludlow and Rossville now each reporting one.
Among the holdouts: Bondville, Buckley, DeLand and Sibley.
