Kelly Smits
Education and Environmental Reporter | Belleville News-DemocratKelly Smits joined the Belleville News-Democrat as a news intern in July 2023 before becoming the education and environment reporter. She recently completed a joint master’s program at Sciences Po Paris, where she studied journalism and environmental policy. Previously, she has reported for the Green Bay Press-Gazette and PolitiFact Wisconsin and freelanced for the River City Journalism Fund.
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Grant School District 110 failed to apply for several federal grants in recent years. The district was certified as being in "financial difficulty" in March by the Illinois' State Board of Education. -
In April, Collinsville Unit School District #10 announced it’s considering closing the school due to declining enrollment and would hold three hearings to receive public input. -
In fiscal year 2025, the district will reduce its expenditures by about $266,000 due to staff attrition and some students not being placed in out-of-district programs. -
The lawsuit filed in St. Clair County alleges the metal plant in Sauget — formerly Big River Zinc — improperly stored chemicals, illegally dumped waste and contaminated standing water. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency referred the suit to the attorney general's office. -
Total solar eclipses occur every year or two, but it is exceedingly rare for the paths of two of them to intersect only a handful of years apart, as it has in a swath of southern Missouri and Illinois. -
A handful of Metro East schools near to, or within, the eclipse’s path of totality — the area where people can see the moon completely cover the sun — will be closed. -
The Grant District 110's school board meeting was relocated from its usual setting in the school library to accommodate the crowd. -
The Illinois State Board of Education found Grant Community Consolidated School District 110 as being in "financial difficulty" last week. The teachers' union says the superintendent should resign. -
Aviston School District 21 has asked voters to approve an increase to its educational fund tax rate three previous times. Each time, it failed by three votes or less. -
For the past two and a half years, the 90-some students of Venice Elementary have been going to a makeshift school in Granite City after their school was condemned. -
Notre Dame Academy in Belleville and St. Ann in Nashville, Illinois will both close at the end of the school year, citing declining enrollments. -
Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville will receive a $595,000 grant to be become a U.S. Department of Energy Industrial Assessment Center.
