By Michele Steinbacher By Michele Steinbachermsteinbacher@pantagraph.com NORMAL - More students are choosing Heartland Community College as a place to take summer courses. And of those enrolling this summer, it appears many are taking heavier loads than in the past.

Fifteen years ago, Heartland Community College handed out its first degrees.There were 50 students in the first graduating class. They were pioneers who attended classes in leased spaces in a shopping center on Towanda Avenue in Bloomington and high schools in Pontiac and Lincoln.

By Phyllis Coulter, The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill. Mar. 8--NORMAL -- A Heartland Community College student is one of six students in Illinois who will be honored Wednesday at the Capitol in Springfield, and his skills also will be featured at an upcoming local event.

By Michele Steinbacher, The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill. Feb. 13--NORMAL -- The lowest of four construction bids for Heartland Community College's Phase II expansion came in about $6 million higher than expected.

By Tony Sapochetti PONTIAC - Pontiac Community Consolidated Grade School District 429 will remain closed for the time being after flooding caused extensive damage to Washington Elementary School.