Several groups of Oblong students will be hitting the road this year with the blessings of the Unit 4 school board.
During its meeting Thursday, the board approved several trip requests as presented. The first will send music students to the Illinois Music Education Association All-State Conference. The annual event is Wednesday, Jan. 25, through Saturday, Jan. 28, in Peoria.
This will be followed Feb. 1 by the Oblong High School ag class trip to Toyota of Indiana in Princeton and Berry Global, a plastics manufacturer in Evansville.
The OHS math class will travel to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign March 31 and the high school volleyball team will be at Fairfield High School July 10 through 13.
Also Thursday, Board Secretary Kyle Bailey seated new board member Erin Dix. Earlier this month, Dix was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Chad Pusey until after the April 4 consolidated election. She is running for the remaining two years of his term.
Meanwhile, board member Brady Lewis was elected as board vice president.
In personal matters the board, hired Samantha Johnson as an assistant junior-high volleyball coach and approved Jayce Waggoner as a volunteer assistant high school wrestling coach.
The members also accepted the resignation of bus driver Cricket Glosser.
The board heard school calendar options for the 2023-24 school year and approved this year’s graduation dates. Junior high commencement is Thursday, May 18. High school graduation follows on Friday, May 19.
Board members also approved the annual audit, the Oblong, Palestine and Hutsonville intergovernmental agreement for high school track and opening closed session minutes from July through December.
The next regular board meeting will be 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, in the Oblong Elementary School Oblong Room.