Marengo, IL D154 School Board Recap: October 13, 2026

Failing grades at Marengo Community High School fell last year to the lowest level the principal knows of, the District 154 Board of Education heard Tuesday night. The principal credited the school's intervention staff and the support time built into its Wednesday half days. The board also approved overnight trips for FFA and varsity wrestling and a $1,000 donation, and tabled its personnel report to closed session.

Five of the board's seven members were present when the meeting began, and a sixth arrived during the superintendent's report. No one spoke during public comment.

On the consent agenda, the board approved the minutes of its September 28 meeting, two overnight trips and a $1,000 donation from Marengo Youth Wrestling. The trips: about 11 FFA students will attend the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis October 21 to 23, traveling on the school's activity bus, and the varsity wrestling team will compete at the Lincoln Wrestling Tournament December 27 to 29, a tournament the athletic director's memo says the program has attended for the past few years. The vote was unanimous.

Failing Grades Keep Falling

Principal Jason Mullens showed the board four years of data from the school's Wednesday support study hall, held on the school's half days. Students failing a class or missing assignments are invited to stay, and strongly encouraged to. Students who are passing but struggling can stay too.

The chart tracks the number of students invited each month. In the first year, 2023-24, it climbed past 200. It dropped in each year since, and the current year has started lower than any of them. The school ended last year with 45 failing grades in the building, Mullens said, counting grades rather than students, and called last year a "record year" for the fewest failing grades "that I know of." Mullens tied the drop to the intervention staff and systems the board has paid for: "We're going in the exact direction we wanted to go."

Turnout is the weak spot. Mullens said there have been Wednesdays with 100 students on the list and about 40 in the room, and that the school has reorganized the hall so students sit by subject with staff assigned to each subject. Separately, students with 10 or more missing assignments are required to attend a mandatory homework session. Staff escort them, Mullens said, but are told not to hold students who walk out; those students face consequences afterward. A board member asked whether parents are receptive; Mullens said that for the most part they are.

Solar Tie-In Expected Around New Year's

Assistant Superintendent Angela Fink said the LED lighting project wrapped up last week with the auditorium, apart from a few fixtures waiting on parts. The solar arrays on the roof are done except for a punch list, and the installer was back on site this week. The second phase, the electrical work and connection on the side of the building, should begin in November if parts arrive on time, with the system tied in around the end of December or early January after testing.

The new equipment will sit at the back of the building near the generator. It needs six feet of clearance, so it could not go inside the existing fenced area, and the district may add fencing and concrete around it.

A Safety Survey Amendment, and Some Missing Buildings

Fink also reported that the district's amended 10-year Health Life Safety survey had been approved by the state as of October 2. That starts a one-year clock on the most urgent items. The district's facility inventory is missing some buildings put up after the original school, including the greenhouse and the maintenance shed, Fink said, and the district is working with the Regional Office of Education to find the permits and occupancy records needed to add them. It was a report, so the board took no vote.

Personnel Report Tabled

The board was asked to approve the personnel report, but Superintendent David Engelbrecht said no report was attached and that the personnel items would come up in closed session. The board voted to table the report.

Social Media Lawsuits

Engelbrecht updated the board on the lawsuits school districts have brought against social media companies, which Engelbrecht said drew a lot of discussion at a recent Illinois Association of School Administrators conference, naming Meta, TikTok, Snap and Google. Some districts are pulling together records of what social media has cost them in staff time and services, and the district itself added a social worker. Asked whether any district had said it was not taking part, Engelbrecht said none had in the superintendent's conversations, though many have not decided. The board planned to discuss the district's options in closed session. It was a discussion item, so the board took no vote.

Around Town

• FOIA log. Engelbrecht walked the board through the district's log of Freedom of Information Act requests, about 12 so far this year, about half of them labeled commercial. Engelbrecht said the commercial requests are the frustrating ones, describing some companies that use public records to resell information or to undercut competing bids. The district's FOIA page, linked at the bottom of every page of its website, offers an email address and an online request form. Engelbrecht said the district has been advised not to open attachments from unknown senders, and to offer a way to file requests on its website instead.
• Dates. Early dismissal at 11:25 a.m. October 21; parent-teacher conferences noon to 8 p.m. October 22; no school October 23, a teacher institute day. The Veterans Day program is November 11, 9 to 11 a.m., with a local speaker, and an 11:25 a.m. early dismissal that day. Thanksgiving break is November 25 to 27.
• State conference. The agenda listed the state school board conference as November 21 to 23; the dates were corrected at the meeting to November 20 to 22.

The board then went into closed session to discuss litigation, student discipline, personnel, property and security. Marengo Weekly asked before leaving whether any votes were expected afterward and was told no. Any action will appear in the meeting's minutes. Quotes are from Marengo Weekly's recording of the meeting.

A note on our coverage: In most months, the District 154 board meets on the same Monday night as the Marengo City Council, which Marengo Weekly covers in person, so we are not often able to attend. This meeting fell on a Tuesday.

The board's next regular meeting is October 26 at 7 p.m. at the high school, 110 Franks Road. Agendas are posted on the district's BoardBook page.