Granite City Community Unit School District #9 has announced the winners of its Young Authors competition for the 2025-26 school year. The event is open to students from kindergarten through eighth grade, with each school in the district selecting winners based on their student population.
After initial selections at individual schools, winning entries advanced to a district-level judging round. Dr. Liz Niepert, principal of Maryville Elementary School, coordinated this year’s program. Forty volunteers, including student judges, evaluated submissions at the district level.
A total of 38 students were chosen as district winners and will represent GCSD9 at the Madison County Young Author Conference scheduled for April 18 at Granite City High School. Each spring, the Madison County Regional Office of Education holds this conference to recognize Young Authors winners across grades K-8 from area schools. Students have opportunities to share their books, participate in activities focused on reading and writing, and attend performances by local authors or storytellers.
The Granite City Community Unit School District 9 includes several schools such as Coolidge Junior High School, Frohardt Elementary School, Granite City High School, Grigsby Intermediate School, Maryville Elementary School, Mitchell Elementary School, Prather Elementary School, and Wilson Elementary School. More details about these schools can be found on the Illinois Report Card website: https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/
According to state education data, GCSD9 employs 320 teachers with an average salary of $67,898; most are women (77.1 percent), and no teacher recorded more than ten absences during a school year. The student body is diverse: 65.3 percent White, 15.9 percent Black, 11.7 percent Hispanic, and 0.6 percent Asian (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). In recent years the district spent $17,739 per student for a total budget exceeding $106 million (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). Chronic truancy remains a challenge; in one recent year there were 755 chronically truant students—12.6 percent of enrollment—compared with a statewide average of 9.6 percent (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).
GCSD9 serves pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade across its eight schools in Granite City and Madison County (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).
Dr. Liz Niepert stated that forty volunteers helped judge this year’s submissions at the district level.
The following students were recognized as winners:
Maryville Elementary:
Wes Kosydor – Dragon
Lincoln Kimmel – Lincoln & Tony’s Monster Truck Adventure
Savannah Pellazari – The Haunting on Redwood Street
Cristian Escalet – Trip to Guatemala
Antwon Scott – Human vs Zombies “The Final Hearing of Jackson”
Wilson Elementary:
Mason Paterson – The Beach Day I’ll Never Forget
Darrianna Brockman – The Celestial City
Mitchell Elementary:
Arlyn Monroe – The Mysterious Campfire
Emmett Neuling – Old Faithful
Lukas Messick – Those Who Remain
Frohardt Elementary:
Thelonious Mueller РK̩yah
Emery Corzine – Remi
Arianna Elliott – The Big Flower
Winston Evans – The Golden Banana Tree
Christian Elliott – How I Learned About Different Countries
Logan Sampson – The Last Box on Valentine’s Day
Prather Elementary:
Ava Ortiz – The Best Dream Ever
Cora Pointer – Runner the Baby Kitty
Joel Linares Rivera – Canto’ del Grillito y la Flor Mágica
Ahri Whalen – The Old Man that Never Left Home|
Mackenzie Hart – The Skating Game
Benjamin Ortiz – Benji Boy to the Rescue
Grigsby Elementary:
Isla Tyler – The Best Fairy Tale Ever
Grayson Bishop – Spider Adventure
Kendall Stewart – New Friends
Adrian Canales Rojas – A Field Trip to the Amusement Park
Connor Stewart – The Underground Forest
Ayden Johnson – The Amazing Super Great Scary Adventure of Supa-Pugg
Maya Schillinger – Whispers in the Woods
Zariyah Sims – The Sleepover Horrors
Daniel Bautista Sanchez – Los Oficios de Casa
Aiden Williams – Bears
Coolidge Junior High School:
Searrah Tyler – A Miracle from Heaven
Tyler Cook – Timmy the Teen!
Dallon Adkins – The Missing Prince
Zayden Perry – The Great Musical Chase
Maisie Curran – Little Worlds
Gabriel Wiscarson – David and the Egg
For more information about Granite City Community Unit School District #9 visit www.gcsd9.net.
