At its monthly meeting Tuesday, Sept. 9, the Rochelle Elementary School Board heard an update on the status of its HUB Program from Superintendent Jason Harper and HUB Program Director Yazmin Nambo.

After its grant cycle ended in summer 2025, the Rochelle Elementary School District will locally fund its HUB Program through Dec. 12. Programming is running in a more limited fashion this semester. The HUB Program will not offer a morning option, and some of its enrichment opportunities will not be available. Students will still benefit from the after-school program, daily academic support, snacks, and door-to-door transportation as needed.

The grant-funded HUB Program serves at-risk students in the district’s K-8 grades, offering before- and after-school activities as well as summer programs. In addition to educational support, the program provides enrichment through field trips and community-led demonstrations. The HUB recently completed its third year of a three-year grant cycle, following two previous five-year cycles – marking 13 years of continuous service.

Nambo said Tuesday that she’s been told recently by a state consultant that there is no timeline for the HUB Program’s grant. One grant application was opened up for after-school programs for non-school districts. Nambo said she explored applying for the grant through the Flagg-Rochelle Community Park District partnership, but learned it wasn’t an option since the program must be run entirely by a park district, not a school district.

“They just keep telling us that there’s no timeline,” Nambo said. “We looked into applying for that other grant, but we don’t have anything else right now.”

Harper said the district has communicated the change and situation to families of students to prepare them for the program’s potential end so they can make arrangements for the spring semester.

“After winter break, the program won’t exist anymore pending some sort of change that happens at the state/federal level with grant funding,” Harper said. “That becomes more of a reality as we get closer and closer. Parents need to have different plans in place come January.”

Nambo and the HUB Program team will continue to monitor the state grant situation, Harper said.

“In the event that there is the opportunity for us to apply for this type of programming, we will apply again,” Harper said. “The timeline of submitting a grant to potentially receiving it is usually about half a year. All those variables could come into play. But at this point, there is nothing being offered.”

School improvement planning

Harper presented an update during the meeting on district and school improvement planning. The superintendent said that after a discussion tour across both Rochelle school districts in spring 2024, the elementary district has put four improvement areas into place with four specific work groups.

Among the four are social emotional learning with goals for each building, school information system use improvement, academic readiness, and finally, staff retention, development and recruitment.

“We’re trying our best to collaborate across districts and buildings,” Harper said. “All while working to bring multiple voices and stakeholders into this process. It’s been a multi-year process, and hopefully, as we look back on these goals throughout the year, we’ll have good progress.”

New teachers

The board heard a presentation by the principal of each school in the district during the meeting regarding new teachers who recently started their year. Stepping Stones Preschool has three new teachers, Lincoln Elementary School has one new teacher, Central Elementary School has four new teachers, Tilton Elementary School has four new teachers, and Rochelle Middle School has nine new teachers.

“We have a lot of new teachers again this year,” Harper said. “We’re grateful for all of their efforts. I’d like to thank them for that and the teacher’s association for its efforts on working with our new hires to create a genuine and meaningful mentor experience for them.”

Budget

The board held a public hearing and unanimously approved its fiscal 2026 budget during the meeting. District Business Manager Kevin Dale presented the estimated core numbers of the budget to the board.

Total revenue is estimated to be $23,274,787, and total expenditures are estimated to be $25,734,537, with total transfers of $6.5 million. Dale said the budget is operating at an intentional deficit due to ongoing construction projects in the district, namely a large renovation and expansion at Tilton School.

“We’ve been talking for months about construction projects and how we’re using our reserves to spend down costs,” Dale said. “This is an intentional deficit budget, primarily due to construction costs and moving money to address those costs.”

Dale said the district’s reserves are still “healthy” despite the transfers to partly offset debt incurred by construction. He also said “a lot” of the district’s grant funding for various operations has been reduced.

Personnel

The board unanimously approved support staff personnel changes including the resignations of Mikayla Johnson (paraprofessional, Lincoln) and Kaylee Brown (paraprofessional, Lincoln), the employment of Rusul Al-Mashhadani (paraprofessional, Central), Krystal Baez (paraprofessional, Lincoln), Alejandro Nazario (bilingual paraprofessional, Tilton), Denia Rincon (paraprofessional, Lincoln), Courtney South (health aide sub, Stepping Stones) and Jose Vicente (bilingual paraprofessional, RMS) and the transfer of Danni Kaecher (health aide sub to full-time health aide, Stepping Stones and Tilton).

Also approved Tuesday were extracurricular personnel changes, including the resignation of Haydin Sorrentino (volleyball assistant coach) and the employment of Jessica Kielsling (speech coach), Cora Martinez (dance coach), Chelsey Stolte (lunch detention), Adaleiah Villalobos (cross country assistant coach) and Myranda Wilbur (dance coach).