There’s an idea gaining popularity in urban planning circles that people should be able to live a short walk or bike ride’s distance from everything they need. To talk about 15-minute cities, The 21st was joined by a professor of urban planning and a city administrator.

At a Unit 4 Board of Education meeting Monday night, the district’s superintendent, Susan Zola, suggested moving the International Prep Academy, a kindergarten through fifth grade bilingual program, to building now housing Garden Hills Elementary, a majority black school in north Champaign with more than 200 open seats. 

The Champaign County chapters of both the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) jointly sent a letter to the Champaign Community Unit School District 4 Board of Education and superintendent Susan Zola highlighting a lack of access to gifted and advanced placement classes for black Unit 4 students, as well as disparities in discipline and academic proficiency for black pupils as compared to their white peers.

The Champaign Unit 4 School District has officially avoided a strike. On Tuesday, the Unit 4 Board of Education and teachers union both voted in favor of a new three year teacher contract.