Fox Valley Soap Box
Help or more bureaucracy?
One can make a plausible argument, as Community School District 300 did, that high school department chairs can provide more hands-on teaching oversight than, say, a principal with a multitude of duties and employees. A department chair likely could better analyze teaching skills, curriculum delivery and classroom performance. But if that "closer look" doesn't lead to more training for struggling teachers or the removal of downright bad ones, or if it isn't reflected in better performance by students, it'll be just another higher-priced layer of education bureaucracy.
Shaping kids up … slowly
The President's Physical Fitness Award guidelines of the 1960s they aren't. But give the Kane County Health Department credit for trying and for starting small, which is probably the wisest place to start when two-thirds of residents are obese. Early Kane efforts to fight childhood obesity include serving fresh fruit and vegetables at a pilot elementary school and getting kids to count the steps they walk per day. If today's couch potato kids had to do push-ups, pull-ups and a long distance run, as was required to win the award back then, they'd probably keel over. Better to start with a few small steps. And better than not starting at all.
Don't wait forever
Given the dysfunction in Springfield, you can't really blame Elgin Community College for grumbling out loud even as it agreed to quit waiting for state funds for its Spartan Drive extension project. The city of Elgin and the college had agreed to split the $3.8 million cost of the project, and the state had agreed to pay the college's share. It never delivered. No surprise there. ECC was left with the choice of dropping the project or ponying up half the cash. It voted to pay the money and build the extension, even as it passed a resolution calling out ECC area legislators and urging them to press for the state funding. Good luck with that, but it was a good decision to solve the problem yourself.
Tops on the rocks
Although McHenry County residents may be more active and leaner than other Illinois residents, it seems they do have a vice: They sometimes tie one on with a vengeance. A recent health survey showed county residents top the state average by several points with 22.4 vs. 19.4 percent of residents sometimes binge drinking. Perhaps the numbers, normally found in a college town, are just be a statistical blip. Still, it seems a good thing more county residents have health insurance than the state average. They might need it.
Talk about cleaning up
Congratulations to the village of Cary, which took top state honors for its Pride Day, the annual spring clean-up project drawing hundreds of volunteers. The 2007 Governor's Home Town Award came after more than 200 elementary- to high school-age volunteers participated in 18 cleanup projects in 2006. Village President Steve Lamal called the effort an "amazing example of volunteerism." No kidding.
A different approach?
Citing high costs and overlapping services by Grafton and Algonquin townships, Lake in the Hills has decided to cut its Dial-a-Ride partnership with Pace for disabled and senior residents for 2008. With about seven daily riders on average, the cost of the program came to about $20 per passenger per month, prompting village administrator Gerald Sagona to wonder what a taxi service would cost. That seems a good question. With the high costs of such programs and a dearth of dollars for public transportation, why not contract for smaller vehicles to give otherwise-stranded residents a way to get to the train, mall and doctor?