November 2011
59 posts
D300 deal with Sears, Hoffman Estates remains... →
…And with that, the Illinois House adjourns. #SearsEDA
Healthier menu salute (Sun-Times Media) →
D300 satisfied with Sears incentive bill change... →
Community Unit School District 300 Superintendent Michael Bregy said Monday he is “reluctantly satisfied” with yet another amendment, filed the day before, to state legislation that would affect funding for the Carpentersville-area school district.
That came after changes were made to the amendment to Senate Bill 397, which Bregy had characterized as a “money grab for Hoffman Estates,” this...
Salvation Army in need of volunteers (Sun-Times... →
Turkeys fly through Fox Valley (Sun-Times Media) →
Modern twist on an old school program (Sun-Times... →
CARPENTERSVILLE — Clarissa Johnson admits she “kind of screwed” up her sophomore and junior year of high school.
Johnson now is a senior at Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville. She is 18 years old, and she is about to have a baby — “the slap in the face I needed to grow up,” she said.
Thanks to Community Unit School District 300’s i-Learn Night Education Program, she also is only seven...
Classing up Thanksgiving weekend with #BorisGodunov. (@ Civic Opera House w/ @joelemiller) http://t.co/IPM0kNjX
Here it is, in real life: S’mores pumpkin pie in Mason jars! CC: @felska @cheekychicago @emilymonacelli @iamk_lee http://t.co/Ospywf3v
Minorities' ISAT scores on rise in D300 (Sun-Times... →
Native American Heritage Month →
I mentioned in my Thanksgiving article in The Courier-News that November is Native American Heritage Month. Here’s where you can learn more about that.
Museum shares what your teacher didn’t tell you... →
Happy Thanksgiving! I was very thankful to get to tell this story this year…
ELGIN — Most people learn the story of the first Thanksgiving in the first, second and third grades, according to Sarah Russell, an education coordinator at the Elgin Public Museum.
Russell should know. She does many of those programs at area schools throughout November, which is Native American Heritage Month, she...
From school cafeteria to the White House... →
WHOA, WHOA, WHOA! YOU GUYS! I just stumbled across a recipe for S’MORES PUMPKIN PIE. IN MASON JARS. http://t.co/dM6Ewu9H via @CheekyChicago
Elgin High student-run restaurant again serves up... →
D300 one step away from wind power pact (Sun-Times... →
D300 sees key points in EDA bill (Sun-Times Media) →
There was no repeat of Wednesday’s tax break negotiations among Community Unit School District 300, Sears and Hoffman Estates during Friday afternoon’s session of the Illinois House Revenue & Finance Committee in Springfield.
Instead, District 300 Superintendent Michael Bregy said, he walked away from that meeting with 39 pages of drafted legislation based on the key points the three had...
The Mag Mile Parade! That makes today my five-year anniversary living in #Chicago! #fb
Here to learn what my teacher didn’t tell me about Thanksgiving! http://t.co/bc7QZD7g
D300 sees key points in EDA bill (Sun-Times Media) →
There was no repeat of Wednesday’s tax break negotiations among Community Unit School District 300, Sears and Hoffman Estates during Friday afternoon’s session of the Illinois House Revenue & Finance Committee in Springfield.
Instead, District 300 Superintendent Michael Bregy said, he walked away from that meeting with 39 pages of drafted legislation based on the key points the three had...
D300 still at the table with Sears, HE over EDA... →
The fight over extending property tax breaks to Sears is not over, as Community Unit School District 300 Superintendent Michael Bregy put it in a message Thursday to district families, staff and community members.
But, Bregy said, “We’re much closer today than we have been in weeks. We are not going quietly into the night.”
The superintendent’s message came after several hours of what he called...
ECC weighs in on EDA bills; D300, HE, Sears... →
It came as no surprise that representatives of Community Unit School District 300 appeared at Wednesday’s House Revenue & Finance Committee meeting at the State Capitol in Springfield.
During the veto session that ended last week, administrators, parents and students had testified several times against legislation that would extend the economic development area around Sears Holdings Corp.’s...
U46 pre-schoolers learn early to help them later... →
BARTLETT — In Jill Gowitzer’s preschool classroom Wednesday at the Independence Center for Early Learning, Demetrius Jacks popped the pink Play-Doh out if its tub. The 4-year-old carefully chose a handful of Mr. Potato Head-like plastic pieces scattered on a table and pushed them into the ball of dough.
Finished, he announced, “I made an alien. I made it with Play-Doh. It was so smooth! I put a...
Details on House Finance & Revenue Committee meeting, as promised: @ElginCommColl weighs in on #SearsEDA legislation http://t.co/SXQU5LO2
D300 superintendent recounts week in Springfield... →
ALGONQUIN — Last week was a “historic moment” for Community Unit School District 300. It was a “whirlwind,” “a new direction for the district” and a “risk,” according to Superintendent Michael Bregy.
That’s because representatives of the Carpentersville-area school district spent Tuesday through Thursday — the last three days the Illinois General Assembly had been scheduled to convene this...
RT @CUSD300: Please take five minutes to read a message that Superintendent Bregy published on our website about American… http://t.co …
…Also on #ISAT, eighth-graders who are black scored 13 percent higher in math this year than last year. #D300mtg
Home from the front (Sun-Times Media) →
Every morning, Army Sgt. Manuel Villarreal of Bartlett wakes up and is reminded he paid for his education.
“Believe you me, I paid for this,” Villarreal said. “Everything hurts nowadays. I feel like I’m 35 going on 70, physically.”
That comes from two deployments to Iraq, the most recent in 2010, cut short by the recent troop drawdown.
His first deployment, during 2006-07, left him really whacked...
The article about the date on the front page of @nytimes on 11-11-11 (that’s 1911) is all kinds of great: http://t.co/5LkxNXnO CC: @iamk_lee
Missed @chifilmfest, but made it to @elgincommcoll’s fest tonight! (@ Elgin Community College) http://t.co/e6auaye4
U46 schools save energy, money (Sun-Times Media) →
Votes on Sears EDA bills delayed again (Sun-Times... →
Riley Bernardi, a freshman at Jacobs High School in Algonquin, was born in China and adopted later in the U.S.
In China, Riley said, families collect money, even sacrifice food to send one child to the U.S. to get educated in hopes of a better future.
“China is willing to sacrifice anything for education,” she said.
But, she said, she wasn’t so sure Illinois lawmakers are so willing.
Riley was...
Colleges celebrate vets with special programs... →
Happy Veterans Day to all our warriors (past and present). Thank you. Miigwech. And welcome home.
State @SenatorNoland on #SearsEDA: “We’re in overtime.”
Why no lockdown at Elgin High School? (Between the... →
Secure schools: Lockdowns just one way to make... →
When a man called police Friday to report he was at South Elgin High School with a gun, the school went into lockdown.
The school had done lockdown drills before — it’s required at least once a year by state law — but this time it was the real thing.
Principal Melanie Meidel’s voice was different, stressed, as she repeated over the loudspeaker, “This is not a drill. This is not a drill,”...
District 300’s still in the game over fate of... →
If the Illinois General Assembly’s veto session were a football game, state Sen. Michael Noland, D-Elgin, said, then Community Unit School District 300 won the first half.
That’s because during the first three days of the session last month, the Carpentersville-area school district managed to stop a vote on legislation to extend tax breaks for the economic development area around Sears’...
School tax limit nixed; D300 keeps eye on Sears... →
SPRINGFIELD — State lawmakers have rejected a measure that would have prevented school districts in tax-capped counties, including Kane and all Chicago’s collar counties, from raising their tax rates if their property values dropped.
House Bill 3793 was voted down in the Illinois House when lawmakers reconvened Tuesday for the veto session in Springfield, according to the Illinois General Assembly...
…Meantime, here’s the full text of amendment to HB1883—similar to SB397, but with requirement to audit #SearsEDA: http://t.co/dsWLQlSe
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these word… http://t.co/VdBV9HPk
What about House Bill 3793? (Between the Bylines) →
D300 to fight against latest, ‘horrible’ Sears tax... →
Community Unit School District 300 will be back in Springfield today when the Illinois General Assembly’s veto session resumes, this time “in the red” — literally, wearing red T-shirts — as the district’s budget will be “if we’re not successful this week.”
That’s according to District 300 spokeswoman Allison Strupeck, one of about 20 district, parent and community leaders who are in Springfield...
…Read the full text of the amendment to Senate Bill 397, meant to keep businesses like Sears in Illinois: http://t.co/mQ1aLuqd #SearsEDA
Truancy rates at U46, D300, Top 10 most truant... →
Dundee-Crown in top 10 for high school truancy... →
They’re mostly teenagers, mostly male and mostly under the assumption they have something better to do with their days than listen to a teacher drone on about algebra or British literature.
That’s the conception most people have of students who are chronically truant from school.
But that’s not accurate, according to Pat Dal Santo, director of alternative programs for the Kane County Regional...
Mexican tradition shared at ECC's altar contest... →
Suspect in custody after South Elgin High lockdown... →
