>>Rameen Karbassioon: Coming up next on City Spotlight, it's all things Shelbyville.

We will sit down with the mayor of Shelbyville, Jeff Johnson, Mark Shanks of the Chautauqua Auditorium Preservation Committee, superintendent of schools, Denise Bence, and Shelbyville High School principal, Rich Stewart.

We will discuss Shelbyville's Festival of Lights, future plans for the Chautauqua Auditorium, and the latest with what's going on with the Shelbyville Schools.

City Spotlight begins now.

[music plays] City Spotlight is supported by Consolidated Communications.

CCI is honored to salute the cities and their leaders in the area, as well as providing TV, Internet, and phone service for the local homes and businesses.

We live where we work, and are proud to support the communities we serve.

More information available at consolidated.com.

Thank you to all of you for joining us for another edition of City Spotlight.

Today, we focus on Shelbyville.

With us today is the mayor of Shelbyville, Jeff Johnson.

>>Jeff Johnson: Hi, good to be back.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: And Mark Shanks is joining us for the first time.

Mark is with the Chautauqua Auditorium Preservation Committee.

I got it right on the first try.

>>Mark Shanks: Good job.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: Excellent.

Gentlemen, thank you for making the time to be here today.

>>Jeff Johnson: Thank you for having us.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: And Jeff, we've had you on.

This is your third time this year.

And we're taping this in late October, but as we sit here and talk, what are some of the highlights from this year?

Festivals, or things that were accomplished in Shelbyville in 2015.

>>Jeff Johnson: 2015's been a good year in the City of Shelbyville.

We've ended up with some of the festivals and the tourism, the lake.

Everything was fantastic.

The visitation numbers were great at the lake.

The Fourth of July was a wonderful time, and we had a lot of people in town.

We had Scarecrow Days, that was just about a month or so ago.

And in Scarecrow Days, the streets were lined with vendors, and with a lot of people visiting our community.

And everybody enjoyed it.

And so, you know, the organizers for both of those did a fantastic job.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: And the Scarecrow Days is a tradition in Shelbyville that happens on Columbus Day weekend.

>>Jeff Johnson: Yeah, sure does.

And it's something that's been going on for a long time, and been building every year.

And it's something that we're looking forward to continuing on next year, that Scarecrow Days will continue on, and then next year, too, with the Balloon Fest.

So, it's an exciting time in Shelbyville.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: Alright, and as we wrap up here, people are seeing this here at the beginning of December, already going on is a light festival.

And if you could tell us a little bit about that, if they haven't been to it.

>>Jeff Johnson: The Light Festival has been in Shelbyville for a long time.

It originally started up by the Eagle Creek Resort, and now it's in the park.

And we have over 500 displays.

We estimate, you know, hundreds of thousands, almost a million lights out there.

And it's at Forest Park, on the north end of town.

It runs 5:30 to 9 most of the week, and on Fridays and Saturdays it's 5:30 to 10.

But there's really, out there at the Light Festival, we don't charge, but we do ask for donations at the end because everything is paid for by donations from people going through, and the sponsors, and the businesses in town.

And then, most of the work is done by volunteers.

Bill Bly and his group does a great job.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: Excellent.

Alright, and before we get to the comments from Mark on the Chautauqua Auditorium, some things going on that you might want to remind the folks at home that are going to be going on as the calendar turns to 2016.

Any works, cityscape, streetscape working being done to continue to beautify Shelbyville.

>>Jeff Johnson: Yeah, it's amazing whenever you stop and think that 2016 is almost here.

And time gets away, but we have so many things.

Somebody mentioned to me the other day, they said that we probably don't realize how much change Shelbyville is going to see over the next few years.

But year, we're going to be working on the streetscape.

We have three different grants that we're going to be making changes in the downtown area, to help beautify the downtown area.

Part of it will include the bike path and making changes on it.

And then, you know, a lot of our businesses are expanding.

So, we're also going to have quite a bit of change on the streets and things to help accommodate that expansion.

So, next year's going to be a lot of construction going on, and a lot of fun things happening, and we're looking forward to it.

It's an exciting time for Shelbyville.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: And another thing that is happening, we're talking with Mark Shanks with the preservation committee at the Chautauqua.

And Mark, we've talked about the Chautauqua on the previous two episodes of City Spotlight.

I've heard comments from Jeff, and from Freddie Fry from Shelby County Tourism.

Why is the Chautauqua Auditorium an important part of Shelbyville?

>>Mark Shanks: Well, the Chautauqua Auditorium is the icon and the centerpiece for our community in a lot of ways.

It was built in 1903.

It's an engineering marvel and a one-of-a-kind structure.

When I moved to Shelbyville 14 years ago, it was one of the first things that made an impression on me.

I said, "Wow, what is that big building, and what do they use it for?"

Unfortunately, for the last several years with tight budgets and things, some of the maintenance and stuff wasn't done.

The building started to get in bad condition.

And a group of us just didn't want to see that building go away.

And it looked like, there for a while, that maybe the wrecking ball was on the horizon for the Chautauqua building.

But we just couldn't let that happen.

And so, our community's pulled together.

We've done a lot of things to save the building.

Right now, the wrecking ball's out of the picture now.

So, now we're looking at how we can continue to enhance and improve the building going forward.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: I know a lot of work has been done on the inside and outside.

Is there anything you can tell us about some of that work that's been done?

What things have been updated, fixed this year, this past year?

>>Mark Shanks: Well, this year a lot of things have happened.

We had an engineering study, and then we were able to do the engineering work to shore up the structure.

We had some of the timbers in the ceiling were giving us some problems, and we had to address those to make the building safe and usable.

And we've done that now.

The engineers signed off, the building is safe and usable.

So, we were able to start programming things back into the building.

There's still a lot to be done.

We were able to get the windows replaced in the upper clear story.

So, now the light can not only get into the building, but at night when the lights are on, you can see the beautiful glow of the lights throughout the part.

So, that was a big accomplishment for us.

We've done some painting on the structure.

In the spring of next year, we're going to be finishing painting the outside of the structure, we hope.

And still a lot to do, but a lot's been accomplished, and it's coming back to life.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: Excellent, you answered my next question, what's on the horizon.

So, plenty more to be done.

What are some of the events that were held at the Chautauqua this past year?

And what were people's receptions to it, in Shelbyville and people that were just visiting?

>>Mark Shanks: Well, we've been able to program a lot of things back into the building.

We've had some vendor fairs the fourth Saturday of each month, throughout the summer, and that just ended this October.

A lot of vendors in the building, and people were able to come out.

The building's open and usable.

That's one of the things we've heard from people.

If we're going to save the building, we've got to use it.

And so, that's what we've been trying to do is program a lot of things in there.

We had an Air Force band perform in there this summer that was very well attended.

We've had lots of activities and festivals in the building and around the building through the summer.

We, as this is taping we're getting ready to have our Halloween ball.

And we're going to have Captain Rat and the Blind Rivets performing there, so we anticipate a big crowd for that there.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: And when I talked to Freddie Fry from Shelby County Tourism a few months back, she talked about what kinds of things can be held there in the future.

And she used the term "B level entertainment."

What would that be, and is that something that you guys are really targeting for the future?

>>Mark Shanks: Right, well, I don't know if I'd call it B level entertainment.

We're hoping to bring in some bigger name acts and things that will draw a regional draw, instead of just the local community.

The building lends itself to both.

You know, we can have local events for the community, things put on by the, you know, the kids from the schools and local talent.

But we also want to try to reach to a higher level and get some acts in there that are going to draw large crowds from the area.

And the building's also got a lot of uses for things like wedding receptions, weddings.

We've actually had a lot of interest in that.

There have been a few weddings there.

And with our newly improved sunken gardens, it lends itself very well.

The two go right together, they're right next to each other, so.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: And Jeff, I've asked you, obviously, on the last two times you've been here to talk about the Chautauqua.

The things that are being done there to keep this grand old structure that's been a part of Shelbyville for so long, you obviously have to be pleased where things are going.

There's obviously no wrecking ball, as Mark has said.

>>Jeff Johnson: Right.

Yeah, we're very pleased.

And Mark and the entire group has done a fantastic job.

It's a building that's so unique, and one that is such a part of Shelbyville that we have to save it.

And the opportunities it's going to provide for the entertainment to bring people to town.

Yeah, it is.

It's been wonderful.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: And as we wrap up here with you guys on this portion of the segment on Shelbyville here on City Spotlight, we're going to talk about Shelbyville schools here in the next segment.

Jeff, you're from Shelbyville, and the work that's being done on the Shelbyville school district, Denise Bence, and the rest of her staff, and the teachers.

Talk a little bit about what you like about what's going on there.

>>Jeff Johnson: They're doing a great job.

And I'm a product of Shelbyville schools.

I'm proud of it.

I'm proud of what they've been doing.

And it's all part of the quality of life.

It's so important to have good schools, and we're so fortunate.

You know, the entire staff out there does a wonderful job, and it's truly an asset to the City of Shelbyville, and it helps make it easier to attract new visitors and new residents to the city.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: Excellent.

And Mark, I'll give you kind of the final word here on this segment.

Something you're looking forward to.

Obviously, you're working with the Chautauqua.

Something you're looking forward to here, coming up in 2016.

>>Mark Shanks: Well, I just am excited about the things that are happening with the streetscape improvements in Shelbyville, and with the school district.

I am thrilled with our school district.

They do a great job.

For a small town, they do a lot with a little.

And the schools are the heart of every community.

And as a business person, I understand for my business to grow and prosper, we've got to have a strong core in our community.

And if the schools are doing good, and the Mayor and his team are doing great things with the improvements downtown, I think we have got a very bright future in Shelbyville.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: The future does look bright for Shelbyville as we move into 2016.

A Happy New Year I guess I can wish you guys here, as this show is airing in December.

So, thank you for your time, Jeff Johnson, the mayor of Shelbyville, Mark Shanks with the Chautauqua Preservation Committee.

Gentlemen, it's been a pleasure.

>>Jeff Johnson: Thank you for having us.

>>Mark Shanks: Thank you.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: And as we continue on here on City Spotlight, we'll talk more about Shelbyville schools here in a bit.

But first, let's take a look at some of the upcoming activities going on in Shelbyville.

[music plays] And we're back on City Spotlight, talking about Shelbyville today.

And we're back now to talk about Shelbyville schools.

And with me is the superintendent of Shelbyville schools, Denise Bence, and Rich Stewart, the principal of Shelbyville High School.

Thank you, guys, for taking the time to be here.

>>Denise Bence: Thanks for having us.

>>Rich Stewart: Thank you.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: Appreciate it.

And both your first visits to City Spotlight.

If you guys could tell me a little bit about yourselves.

Denise, if you would go first, please.

>>Denise Bence: Like you said, my name is Denise Bence.

This is my sixth year as the superintendent in Shelbyville.

I've actually been in the district about 20 years.

I started out as a school psychologist, and then elementary principal for about 10 years.

So, I know the district well.

I've been there for a while.

And it's a great place.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: Excellent, thank you for being here.

Rich, you're the principal at Shelbyville High School.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, please.

>>Rich Stewart; I'm entering my 14th year in education.

This is my fourth year in Shelbyville.

I grew up in Moweaqua, so I'm very familiar with Shelbyville, even though I didn't grow up there.

And it's been a great experience, great community.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: Excellent.

Well, again, thank you guys for being here.

And Denise, I think the appropriate place to start is if you guys could tell us a little about your schools, the structures, how old they are, and any recent work that's been done either this year or in recent years.

>>Denise Bence: Sure.

Well, when I took over as superintendent that was one of our priorities, is to look at our facilities and what upgrades they needed.

All of our district buildings are fairly old.

So, we have an elementary building that was born, "born," that was built in the 1920s, and our middle school and high school was built in the 1950s and 60s.

And so, after that many years, it's time to do some upgrading.

And over the past six years, we've done a 2.1 million dollar upgrade to our middle school, which we did new windows, heating and air.

And then, we just completed at the beginning of this school year a 3.1 million dollar upgrade to our high school, where we renovated it with new heating and air and windows.

And then, at our elementary building we also air conditioned it over the summer.

We were lucky enough to get a TIF grant from our city, and so that helped us do that.

So, you know, overall our facilities are in good shape.

We have a long term goal of moving all of our buildings, or all of our students onto one campus.

Right now, our middle school and high school are on one campus, our elementary school is more in the downtown location.

So, long term we'd love to have everyone on the same campus.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: And those plans, do you have a, is there plans in the works as to achieving that goal of everybody on one campus?

>>Denise Bence: Well, we'd love to get a state construction grant, and we've been on that list since, probably the last 20 years.

So, we're kind of waiting for, you know, the State to fund some money into that construction grant.

And so, if that happens we kind of have tentative plans, then we can move forward.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: And it is a challenging time in the State of Illinois to accomplish just about anything involving money and the school district for any improvements to happen, to whether you have a newer building or an older building.

How has the lack of the state budget affected school districts, such as Shelbyville's?

>>Denise Bence: Well, we are lucky, school districts are lucky because that was one of the first things that the State did was make sure that we were getting state aid.

So, we have been getting some of our payments, which helps.

But in the long term, you know, over the last five or six years, our state aid has remained pretty flat as our expenses go up every year.

So, trying to maintain a balanced budget when your revenue is flat and your expenses are going up, it's a tough time to be, you know, a district superintendent, a district board, trying to just maintain things.

And over the last six years, we've actually cut 15 positions just to try to maintain that balanced budget, cut supply lines, cut really any unnecessary spending.

It's just been a real challenge.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: And Rich, if I could ask a follow-up for you.

Improvements done to the building that you're at, how has it helped where you work and for the students and staff that attend the building?

>>Rich Stewart: Well, it's, it might sound like something simple, and I know all of us that grew up without air conditioning think, "Well, they don't really need air conditioning.

I didn't have it when I was in there."

But what you might have forgotten over the years is it could be really miserable.

And that really limits the amount of focus to all sorts of students can have at any one time.

So, by increasing basically the amount of time people can focus, we are packing in a lot more learning.

And it was a great start to the school year, a cool start to the year for us.

And you could really tell the difference when students were leaving at the end of the day, and just through the course of the day that, you know, a lot more productive work going on that maybe in prior years due to heat.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: Alright, so the improvements are already helping and paying off.

Excellent.

Alright, let's talk a little bit about the community support, with what's going on with the Shelbyville schools, and some highlights at the different schools.

Which school do you want to start at, Denise?

>>Denise Bence: Well, I think just our community in general, I can't tell you how supportive they are of our district.

One of the reasons why we were able to do that high school project was two years ago, we were able to pass a sales, countywide sales tax, which gave us sales tax money to fund the 3.1 million dollars.

So, that was a huge support to our district.

But even in individual buildings, we have our elementary building, we constantly have parents there who come in, in any way provide supplies or just help in classrooms.

At our middle school, we have a mentoring program, and we have right now about 12 community members who come in every week and mentor our students.

Any time we have something that needs to be done, we have a booster club that's run by parents.

Recently, our baseball field was looking a little shabby, and parents volunteered to come in and revamp it all, all with donations.

When our scoreboard needed repainting at the high school, parents got together on the weekend and repainted it.

We have a great, active PTO who, they provide grants for our teachers.

So, when teachers want to do special projects they get money from the PTO to be able to do those things.

And so, there's a lot of things, especially extracurricular things, that happen in Shelbyville that wouldn't without all that community support.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: Mmkay, let's talk about some of the activities, things that students are involved in, and some of the things you mentioned at the high school that are going on, "No Job Left Behind."

If you could tell me a little bit about what's going on there, and then Rich can follow up with a comment on that.

>>Denise Bence: Right, well that is something that started out of the Chamber of Commerce in Sullivan, out of Moultrie County.

And they were trying to connect business leaders with schools.

And you know, right now, especially in the area of manufacturing, manufacturers are having a hard time finding qualified skilled workers.

And what better way to match up our kids with employers in the area, so that we can help kids stay in our community and have great jobs.

And so, they kind of started that in Moultrie County.

And Rich started going.

We heard about it, we thought it was a great thing for Shelby County.

And so, we kind of tagged onto their initiative.

And since then, we've at our high school done some things kind of similar to what Moultrie County in Sullivan has done.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: Okay, and Rich, great opportunities for students to learn about career paths and the local businesses.

>>Rich Stewart: Oh yeah.

You know, sometimes it's popular to be negative and complain about what we don't have or what we can't do.

Working with No Job Left Behind and with the business partners in the local community, it's not that.

It's, hey, how can we help each other, make things better for the community and for the students.

And so, it's been amazing to me to think how successful we've been.

Looking at, we've partnered with GSI, ag-related industry.

They're actually going to pay some of our students in an internship.

Engineering and welding.

IHI is a local Shelbyville company that produces turbo chargers, super chargers.

And they're also going to allow a student to intern there.

It's just really exciting.

You know, you think about a traditional format, where kids graduate and they either go right to the workplace, maybe it's the armed forces or a tech school, or a four-year university.

Well, why wait until they've graduated from high school to have an experience that might help them decide, "You know what?

I don't want to go down this road."

And if they're helping the local community and business at the same time, it's a win-win for everybody.

So, we're really excited, and you know, I'm personally thankful to the community and all the support they're showing us.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: Excellent, great opportunity for them there.

And another opportunity that's been going on there, they have a broadcasting program.

So, I'm interested to hear what's going on there.

We're obviously taping here in a TV studio, but what kind of broadcasting, video opportunities do students have at Shelbyville High School?

>>Denise Bence: Right, so we've always had a broadcasting class, but just over the last two years, three years, we've really tried to improve that.

They now have a green room that they can tape in, and we've actually moved the class into a bigger classroom so they have more room for taping and those kinds of things.

So, they do a weekly newscast for our schools.

We would like to in the future have them help us highlight our different programs, so that we could post those on our website or Facebook pages.

So, it is really a neat opportunity for kids.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: And Rich, I mean, this, we were talking before we started taping here, and it's 2015.

There's visual, there's media everywhere.

This is another great opportunity for the kids to try something that's really out there.

>>Rich Stewart: Oh yeah.

It's been great.

Ms. Bence has been very supportive, in terms of upgrading from antiquated equipment to the digital age.

You talk about the year, it's time to get in that age.

So, it's really been good.

Kids, in the past maybe it's been a little bit focused on a lot of fun, and maybe not quite all the technical skills.

But we've had some changes here recently, and looking at really getting into the community and highlighting all the great benefits of the community.

And we're really excited about the opportunities that we have now.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: As our time continues to fly by here, are there any other programs or highlights, whether it be at the high school or any other schools, that you'd like to bring up before we conclude here?

>>Denise Bence: Well, I think that, you know, even though we're a very small school in the scheme of things, we offer a lot of opportunities for our kids.

And even with a limited budget, we've tried in all the cuts that we've made to make sure that all of our programs stay intact.

And I'm really proud of all the opportunities, both extracurricular and curricular, that we can offer kids, even though we are a small community.

It's pretty amazing the variety of classes that our high school kids can take, the variety of extracurricular activities that our kids, you know, from junior high to high school can get involved in.

So, that's our goal, is to maintain lots of opportunities for kids, so that they kind of, like Rich said, have an idea of what they want to do when they leave us and, you know, what their future holds for them.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: Alright, I'll ask my final question here.

And you guys both work and live in Shelbyville.

To live, to raise a family, and more importantly for the students, for people to send their kids to Shelbyville schools, why is Shelbyville a great place to live?

I'll let Rich go first.

>>Rich Stewart: Alright, I have two young children.

And when I think about the opportunities that Shelbyville gives them, the respect, the fun, the safety, all these different things, it's just really a special and honestly wonderful place.

In terms of the high school or education, we might be small, but we're competing to be the best high school or educational institution in the state, as far as I'm concerned.

So that's kids graduate, can easily graduate from high school with their first year of college credits taken care of.

We also have opportunities for kids that want to get certificates in industry-specific things.

So, I mean, really focusing on the entire spectrum and the whole child, whether it's social-emotional or academics.

>>Denise Bence: I think the bottom line is our staff cares about kids.

I mean, you can see that on a daily basis.

There's never a day that goes by that there isn't some story about a teacher, an aide, a bus driver, you know, cafeteria worker going above and beyond to help our kids be successful.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: Well, a lot of great information from you guys today.

A great show on Shelbyville here.

Thank you for your time and sharing some information on Shelbyville schools.

Denise Bence, the superintendent of Shelbyville schools, and Rich Stewart, the principal at Shelbyville High School.

Thank you, guys, for being here.

>>Denise Bence: Thank you.

>>Rameen Karbassioon: And that'll do it for this latest edition of City Spotlight.

We thank all of you for watching, and we'll see you next time.

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We live where we work, and are proud to support the communities we serve.

More information available at consolidated.com.

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