Sharing the Investment
Did you know? Approximately 35% of purchases in McLean County are made by visitors and travelers.
If the One-Cent Tax is approved, revenue from these purchases will directly support our local schools—helping fund safety improvements, facility upgrades, and property tax stabilization.
This means non-residents contribute to our schools, easing the financial burden on McLean County property taxpayers while ensuring our students and community benefit.
Learn more about the sales tax referendum by attending our community information meeting on March 10th @ 5:00 p.m. in the Media Center at Olympia High School, visiting our webpage www.april1cent.info or contacting us directly.
#april1cent
Check out this list of trustworthy resources to help you learn what's true (and what is not!) on the web. You can even use one of them to look back in time and what was on a website in the past!
Yearbook Orders are due FRIDAY! See ordering information below!
Say hello to two-way messaging and classroom announcements in the Olympia CUSD 16 app! With the addition of Rooms, our district app keeps getting better. Parents/guardians check your email/text for instructions to sign up and access new features.
Show your children how you get news and information from different places, and explain how you make your choices. Use words like "credible," "trustworthy," "respected," and "fair." Ask them where they get their information, and if they think about those same words when choosing. As kids get older, introduce the ideas of bias, satire, and clickbait.
Yearbook orders are due by this Friday, February 28. See below for ordering information.
How Do I Make Sure I Am Invited To Rooms?
Each parent needs to have a unique email address or a phone number that is classified as “Cellular” associated with their account.
You can add an email address in Skyward Family Access on your own using the My Account menu. If you do not have access to Skyward, please contact your school’s office and they will work with you to update your information.
If you do not have an email address in the system, you must have a unique Cellular phone number to receive the invite. If you only have the default "phone" number, it will not pull into Rooms. You need to have a number that is identified as “Cell”. If your default phone number is your cellular phone number, you should repeat it and identify it as “Cell” using the drop down box.
See more details on our Rooms FAQ website here: https://www.olympia.org/page/rooms-faq
Congratulations to Nicole from our Transportation Department as she received a dozen cookies from Sprinkled with Love for our "Fresh Cookie Friday" event. Sam from Food Service was also a winner of a dozen delicious cookies. Thank you ladies for all you do for Olympia!
If a picture's worth a thousand words, do the words always tell a true story? One way to find out is through a reverse image search. Search with an image instead of a keyword and see what you discover! This process has gotten even easier with tools like Google Lens!
Play around with ideas, deciding which are facts and which are opinions. Ask: How tall are you? What's the best food in the world? Do you like dogs? Point out that both facts and opinions show up in the news, but opinion is usually labeled.
Early voting has started in McLean County! You can vote early by mail or in person until March 31st. For details on voter registration, mail-in voting, polling locations, and more, visit www.elections.il.gov.
https://bit.ly/MCEV25
Say “hello” to two-way messaging in the Olympia CUSD 16 app! The same district app now offers class streams, class announcements, and parent-teacher chat. Look for your personalized invitation to begin using this feature in our app after Feb 24th.
Download for Android https://aptg.co/ZDkmVX
Download for iPhone https://aptg.co/49q8Hl
Use real-life examples to help kids understand how people can view the same situation with totally different perspectives. One child might experience a game on the playground as fun, while another might feel like the rules are unfair. Sibling conflict can be a great example of how two people can have wildly different opinions about the same event. With older children, talk through controversial subjects and take turns arguing for different sides to help kids understand various viewpoints.
Fake News has been around for a long time. Track its history from 63 B.C. through present day in this infographic. Where do you see Fake News today? Where does AI fit in? How does it impact your life? Does it impact the type of media you consume, or where you consume it?
https://youtu.be/mh1dLvGe06Y - BBC
When we get news from our social media feeds, it often only tells us part of the story. Our friends -- and the website's algorithms -- tend to feed us perspectives we already agree with. Check out these ways to escape the filter bubble and make sure your ideas about the world are being challenged.
When you see advertising on TV or on a billboard, ask your children to figure out what the ad is selling. Sometimes it's obvious, and sometimes it's not. Help them explore why certain pictures, sounds, or words are used to sell certain products.
Well-crafted headlines benefit everyone. They help readers digest information and publishers sell news stories. But what if the headline is misleading? What if it's crafted just to get clicks and not to inform? "Clickbait" headlines may benefit advertisers and publishers (think $$$), but they don't benefit readers. And when they go viral, they can badly misinform the public. This week, look for clickbait headlines in the media that you consume and discuss them with your family. How many can you find before Sunday rolls around!?
If approved, by law the One-Cent Tax revenue can be used for:
🔒 School Safety and Security: Fire prevention, life safety, School Resource Officers, and Mental Health Providers.
🏫 Facility Improvements: Roof repairs, replacing doors, and completing the Ag/STEM classroom spaces, and adding a multipurpose space to the OHMS campus.
🪙 Property Tax Stability: Offset eligible expenses, and as a result, reduce the reliance on property taxes to cover these costs.
If approved, each school district decides how to allocate these funds to address the unique needs of their school community.
Learn more about how this request could benefit students, staff and our school community by attending our community information meeting on March 10th at 5:00 p.m. in the Olympia High School Media Center, visiting our webpage (www.april1cent.info), or contacting us directly!
#april1cent
bit.ly/OlyNMV2
All media comes with an author and an agenda. Help kids think critically about any media they view with critical questions that dig below the surface. And to really empower kids, have them create their own media with these same questions in mind.
On April 1, 2025, voters in McLean County will vote on a 1% County Schools Facility Tax, also known as a one-cent tax. All school districts across McLean County have united to bring forward this request.
If approved, the one-cent tax will provide Olympia CUSD 16 with:
- Safety, security, and support, providing revenue for things like school resource officers and mental health providers
- Facility upgrades such as roof repairs, replacing doors, and completing the Ag/STEM classroom spaces, and adding a multipurpose space to the OHMS campus
- Property tax stability for homeowners- Districts can use the one-cent tax revenue to offset eligible expenses, and as a result, reduce the reliance on property taxes to cover these costs.
Learn more about how this referendum can make a difference by visiting our webpage at www.april1cent.info or contact us!
#april1cent
