CHAMPAIGN, IL (Chambana Today) – Parkland College is looking to offer tuition and fee discounts to district high schools participating in an early-college academy.

The Parkland College Board of Trustees recently approved offering tuition or fee arrangements for District 505 school districts taking part in the Parkland Early Transfer Academy (ETA), starting this fall. The program allows students ready for college to enroll in Parkland classes to work toward completing a Parkland credential or an Illinois State Board of Education College and Career Pathway Endorsement, or both.

The total cost of the tuition and fees will be determined by the credit hours offered students in ETA. Parkland College will forgive two credits for every 12 hours offered to a district’s ETA students. On top of this, the board also approved Danielle Wilberg as Parkland’s new associate vice president for development/executive director of the Parkland College Foundation. She begins on April 1, replacing Tracy Wahlfeldt, who retires on April 20.

The board also approved:

  • the award of an honorary degree posthumously to Andrew W. Thomas
  • the purchase of:
    • repair services from Poplar Grove Airmotive, Inc., Poplar Grove, Ill., $46,050
    • six career exploration carts from Vista AAC, Ltd, Youngstown, Ohio, $49,760
    • services with Carle Hospital for athletic training room and event coverage, $26,720
    • services with ReUp Education, Inc, Austin, Texas, to provide bundled reenrollment and student success services for a term of five years at a rate of no more than 30 percent of tuition realized from the reenrollment of these stop-out students
  • the filing of grant applications:
    • Champaign County Developmental Disabilities Board Grant
    • Case New Holland (CNH) TopTech Grants Program
  • funds awarded to Parkland from external sources:
    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC): US Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center Grant (International and Middle Eastern Studies curriculum projects)
    • Illinois Community College Board: FY25 Noncredit Workforce Training Initiative Grant
    • ICCB: FY2025 Digital Instruction for Adult Education
    • ICCB: Mental Health Early Action on Campus Support Expansion Project
    • ICCB: FY25 Scaling and Assessing Developmental Education Reform Act (DERA) Project
  • personnel appointments and modifications:
    • Melanie Lewis, Director of Benefits and Compensation, Human Resources
    • Martha Jacobson, Director of Talent Acquisition and Labor and Employee Relations, Human Resources
    • Rowan Miller, Custodian, Physical Plant
    • Christopher Livesay, Custodian, Physical Plant
    • David Knapp, Custodian, Physical Plant
    • Samuel Welander, Custodian, Physical Plant
    • Keelan Hensley, Custodian, Physical Plant
    • Joshua Boyd, Custodian, Physical Plant
    • Gabriel McElhaney, Custodian, Physical Plant
    • Kharina Roman-Rivera, Program Manager, Community Specialist, Career and Community Engagement