You'd be hard pressed to find yourself a local school leader who is fighting harder to restore local control than Clinton Schools Superintendent Curt Nettles and his relentlessness recently paid off in the form of a face-to-face meeting with the State Superinendent of schools.

The veteral school leader would not divulge a lot of details about the meeting he recently had with State Superintendent Dr. Carmen Ayala but came away very encouraged by the interactions and a few of his colleagues were able to have. He hopes the next step is a meeting with officials from the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Governor's office.

For some time, Nettles has been disheartened by not being able to reach the Governor nor his office to set meetings and speak to someone. He feels they are closer to something like that than they have been at any point in the last two years.

For Nettles, one of the main goals of meeting with Dr. Ayala was to broaden her scope of understanding of the Illinois education system beyond just the boundaries of Chicago Public Schools and the Collar County school systems.

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After the positive interactions of recent weeks, Nettles looks forward to the next steps of getting in front of more people and having more positive conversations.