Soapbox: District earns national recognition
Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 definitely deserves a gold star. For the second straight year, one of the district's schools was named a No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon School. Longfellow Elementary School won the award this year for its high state test scores and incremental improvements. Last year, District 200's Pleasant Hill Elementary in Winfield received the honor. It's an impressive achievement that should make all of the district's students and parents proud.
Conflicting duties?
Glen Ellyn Elementary District 89 has Cheryl Meyer on staff as a part-time communications assistant. In past work, Meyer has advised local school districts on how to pass tax increases. And District 89 just happens to be seeking a tax hike on the February ballot. School districts can't directly promote referendums, so District 89 can't use Meyer for this purpose, and has said it won't. And Meyer says she isn't going to be a referendum advocate. But she has a background as such, which raises the question of why the school district set up a situation that invites its own questions about a potential conflict in duties?
Seasonal depression
Finally, it's that time of year when the gardening-challenged can enjoy a respite from the repetitive lawn-mowing, watering and replacing dead flowers to avoid neighborhood scorn. Wait! What's that across the street? Is that a scarecrow coyly perched on a hay bale? And up the block -- is that a Halloween display complete with sound effects? If erecting holiday lights in freezing conditions at the risk of electrocuting oneself isn't bad enough, now here comes autumn with new decorating demands. It's enough to make one welcome January where snow shoveling is required but not a course in Martha Stewart.
Linking the past to the present:
White House hopeful Barack Obama wasn't the only high-profile guest Tuesday at DePaul University. The man who introduced Obama nearly stole the show. Ted Sorensen was a top adviser for President John F. Kennedy. The legendary speechwriter wrote for the president's inauguration: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." Sorensen also helped draft Kennedy's Pulitzer-Prize winning book, "Profiles in Courage." At 79, Sorensen's vision is nearly gone, but his mind is sharp as ever. "I've never been a subscriber to the myth of Camelot," he said. "We were a group of dedicated, hardworking people, but we didn't have magic and it wasn't perfect." Sorensen was his generation's poet laureate who captured the time's idealism so eloquently.
Scary answer
U-46 school board President Ken Kaczynski's reaction to parent complaints about the board's unresponsiveness at meetings might have been more scary than the contract it approved for a superintendent now living out of state on the public's dime. "There's a certain danger into entering into a dialogue with the public" during meetings, said Kaczynski in published reports. Indeed there is. Like board members might be reminded it's that "dangerous" public they are supposed to be representing.
Cubs' mantra…
…heading into today's game has to be: "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…" Just remember guys, there's still time to turn this series around. And nary a goat or fan leaning over the rail in sight.