November 2011
59 posts
October 2011
72 posts
Trick-or-treat safety tips (Between the Bylines) →
…Here are @Suntimes’ school rankings, based on State Report Card data: fh.suntimes.com/reportcards How did your school do?
Illinois applies for waiver as no Fox Valley... →
ELGIN — In Gia Tummillo’s dual-language classroom Friday at Otter Creek Elementary School, several second-grade students sat at their desks, quietly reading books to themselves. Those books had titles such as “La vida en los océanos” (“Life in the oceans”) and “Una niña llamada Helen Keller” (“A girl named Helen Keller”).
Two girls curled up on the floor at the back of the classroom with a bag of...
Good times. :) RT @iamK_Lee Indoor s’mores with Halloween candy at @mcemilywrites scary movie party #allgoodthings http://t.co/ebeI8Li
More secrets of Munger Road (Between the Bylines) →
Secrets of Munger Road (Sun-Times Media) →
BARTLETT — The Elgin Paranormal Investigators had been at the railroad crossing on Munger Road here no more than a half-hour on a recent Saturday night when they experienced what investigator Krystiena Kurtz called the stuff of “our worst nightmares.”
There were screams from the railroad tracks, all kinds of activity, flashing lights, and then … .
“OK, everybody get in the car and leave....
“The paranormal was ‘modern myth,’ a replacement for religion.” Interesting column on #Halloween in @StarTribune: http://t.co/o2fUDwA3
Think Halloween is scary? State Report Cards come out Monday! How schools did last year (w/ references to mythology!) http://t.co/cIH90Wkx
Emily on Elgin Paranormal Blog Talk Radio, Sat.,...
Listen to internet radio with EPI Para Radio on Blog Talk Radio
In case you missed it, here’s a little sneak peek of my article coming Sunday in The Courier-News investigating all the urban legends set on Munger Road, on the border of Bartlett and Wayne in suburban Chicago.
Dist. 300 eyes next steps in Sears tax break... →
The first part of the veto session in the Illinois Senate ended Thursday without a vote on Senate Bill 540 and with a promise for when that session resumes next month from Community Unit School District 300 Superintendent Michael Bregy.
“We will have a bigger and more productive presence than we had this week. We’re working out those details as I speak,” Bregy said.
“It’s our last hope.”
For the...
Special-needs child left off alone at bus stop... →
“Almost try and consider it a break.” Nine steps to cope with a long commute (like mine, from #Chicago to #Elgin): http://t.co/I4vzZVMC
Soldier stationed overseas gives daughter a... →
This one will give you goosebumps.
ALGONQUIN — Pheonyx Simmons hadn’t yet circled any words on the word search about energy that she and her classmates were working on when their second-grade teacher interrupted to announce a special guest.
She didn’t recognize him at first, her expression blank for a moment after she turned away from her desk, according to her teacher, Wendy Gentile.
Then:...
D300, bus company sued by family of injured girl... →
D300, senator propose compromises on Sears tax... →
Emily + Joel, 5.22.11 (sweet pea wedding blog) →
Hey, remember the part when Joel and I got married this summer? Our wedding coordinator, Kristin “K. Pea” Cavarretta of Sweet Pea Wedding Studio in Chicago, just posted some sweet words about it on her blog. Check it out!
D300 goes to Springfield (Sun-Times Media) →
SPRINGFIELD — Anna Augustyn, 15, of Algonquin said she’s been learning about Senate Bill 540 in her sophomore AP Government class at Jacobs High School in Algonquin.
An amendment to that bill would extend tax breaks for the economic development area surrounding Sears corporate headquarters in Hoffman Estates for another 15 years. And that could cost her school district, Community Unit School...
D300 goes to Springfield -- Photo Gallery... →
Featuring photos, like this one, by yours truly.
Businesses find focus, resources at Elgin summit... →
9 tags
picked up “Thief in the Night,” a rapture movie that came highly recommended… (@ Odd Obsession) http://t.co/dNAv7Mwj
Trespassers spark Elgin High School parking ban... →
ELGIN — Alex Rodriguez parked his car just after 7 a.m. last Friday on Maroon Drive, across the street from Elgin High School.
It was the first time the 18-year-old had driven a trio of friends from down the street to school at 1200 Maroon Drive, including junior Kimberly Perez. Although, at 16, Kimberly is just old enough to drive herself, she said, the thrill of the privilege already has worn...
Judge orders another pause in racial bias trial... →
CHICAGO — After four days of testimony in the racial discrimination trial against Elgin School District U46 this week, Judge Robert W. Gettleman said Thursday, “I’m trying to understand how this three-year exit plan would ever succeed at all.”
That plan to remove all English Language Learners students from the program after three years was at the center of witnesses’ testimony as plaintiffs...
Two parking tickets in one day?! How does that even happen? #fb
Consultants’ testimony differs over U46 stance on... →
CHICAGO — Alba Ortiz said she’d thought about Elgin School District’s SET SWAS program a lot since she was asked to audit the district’s English Language Learners program in October 2008.
“And I’ve tried to figure out, ‘What sense does it make?’ ” Ortiz said.
Ortiz is one of two consultants who came to different conclusions after auditing the Elgin school district’s ELL program. Both presented...
#nowreading “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” by Ransom Riggs, this year’s #Halloween book from my mom.
U46 trial eyes limits on English Learners... →
CHICAGO — “Student X” was about two grade levels behind in reading when she was forced to exit School District U46’s English Language Learners program, according to Dawn McCusker, the student’s fifth-grade bilingual teacher at Illinois Park Elementary School in Elgin.
When McCusker encountered Student X two years later at Lincoln Elementary School in Hoffman Estates, the girl still was...
just finished “The Deal From Hell” by @jameso43—reminded me why I work so hard again, just to be part of this industry. ;) #nowreading
U46 trial resumes, claims district pushed English... →
Guess what I’ll be covering all week?
CHICAGO — Dionnes Rivera, then director of bilingual education in School District U46, had one meeting with Superintendent Connie Neale shortly after Neale joined the Elgin school district in 2002.
“I went home crying. I could imagine the impact on the kids’ lives,” Rivera said.
Rivera said Monday the former superintendent had directed her to remove...
is glad that was such a good game, as it’s probably the only #Bears game I’ll see all season! #justnotahugesportsfan
'I always want to learn' (Sun-Times Media) →
ELGIN — Betty Solyom of Elgin loves students.
She’s never been happy without students, she said. And she’s never been far from them, either, in her 99 years.
When Solyom wasn’t a student herself, putting herself through college teaching French, she was a teacher at Abbott, Ellis and Larsen middle schools in Elgin and Central High School in Burlington. She even tutored and audited courses at...
Look for my #MungerRoad story with @elginparanormal in @couriernews and on http://t.co/e4j0BAYc! http://t.co/zKtsfjBe
Those protests continued inside: Check this video out — D300 students: ‘Schools over profit.’ http://t.co/HG6VLfn6 via @youtube #D300rally
Rally emboldens D300 in battle over Sears EDA... →
ALGONQUIN — More than half an hour before Community Unit School District 300’s informational meeting about Senate Bill 540 Thursday night, hundreds of students already were marching around the Jacobs High School parking lot.
They chanted, “No way, EDA!” and “Schools over profit. Stop it!” They wore T-shirts that read “D300 wants EDAs, too: Education Development Areas. They’re called schools,”...
D300's plan to build wind farm gone with the wind... →
ALGONQUIN — It wasn’t supposed to be complicated once it got going. At least, that’s what Community Unit School District 300 CFO Cheryl Crates said more than a year ago.
But then, the Carpentersville-area school district also was supposed to own 13 wind turbines — enough to operate a 19.5-megawatt wind farm — by the end of last year.
The District 300 Board of Education discussed a resolution...
I've been Twitterized
Does the fact this generator wrongly thinks I am a gamer mean it also is wrong to think I am 100 percent interesting?
still is waiting for The Call… October 10, 2011: Bill Adee (@bill80) http://t.co/7uYI9pU7 via @the3six5
““It is the first, in my opinion, that is fair and balanced.”
...”
– Always good things to read in your email. Thanks, Anonymous.
ECC’s Multipurpose Classroom Building garners... →
Uh oh, @ApplePieContest, @iamk_lee, @joelemiller! #ClashofthePieTins really did unleash the Kraken: http://t.co/IJ3V4iiV via @huffpost
Everybody here is sitting alone, working on a laptop. Everybody here also is a man. #perilsofmobilejournalism http://t.co/Z9slrlNW
Elgin teacher gets surprise school supplies... →
How tax breaks for Sears EDA would affect Sears,... →
Community Unit School District 300 has crashed a Hoffman Estates Village Board meeting with signs and T-shirts protesting the possible extension of tax breaks for the economic development area surrounding Sears Holdings Corp.’s corporate headquarters in the village.
The Carpentersville-area school district also has passed a resolution against an amendment to Senate Bill 540 that would do that;...
