Community Unit District 300 notes

Boundary proposals: The Community Unit District 300 Attendance Boundary Committee has voted to send three proposals to the public and the school board for changing middle and high school boundaries.

During a public meeting on Nov. 28, 43 committee members cast votes to select the group's three favorite proposals from among the 10 scenarios they had developed this fall. The three proposals are only recommendations. No decision has been made about new boundaries. That decision rests solely with the school board. Among the three different proposals, a total of about 1,400 households are being considered for possible changes.

Detailed maps of the three proposals are available for public viewing:

• Online: Go to www.d300.org and click on the "Attendance Boundary Committee" resource button on the right.

• In person: Maps will be displayed in the lobbies of the District 300 Central Office and Algonquin Middle School, Dundee-Crown High School, Dundee Middle School, Hampshire Middle/High School, Jacobs High School, and Westfield Community School.

The school board will welcome comments from the public about the proposed changes. At the public hearing, residents may have their comments tape-recorded, with an official transcript of the comments to be provided to all school board members before the board votes on new boundaries. District 300 officials will be available at the hearings to try to answer individual questions.

The next hearing will be from 9 a.m. to noon Jan. 12 at Jacobs High School media center, 2601 Bunker Hill Drive, Algonquin. No appointment is necessary. Drop-ins are welcome.

The board will vote on which proposal to adopt (as a whole or modified) in late January. The deadline for the board vote is the board's regularly scheduled meeting at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28 in the Carpentersville Middle School auditorium. The new boundaries will go into effect in July 2008.

For details, visit www.d300.org or call David Scarpino, associate superintendent, at (847) 426-1300, ext. 310.

Book drive: With the holiday gifts now put away and mountains of ribbon and paper but a memory, the Jacobs High School French Club hopes the Community Unit District 300 community will turn its sights overseas.

Studying Africa is part of the school's French language curriculum, as the western portion of the continent speaks French. Each year, the Jacobs French Club chooses a service project. Last year, the club collected care packages for American soldiers. This year, the students' efforts are focused on the Minnesota-based Books for Africa program.

Through Jan. 22, community members are asked to bring new or gently used books to the school's Student Services Office.

The French Club also seeks donations toward the $2,000 in postage needed to ship the club's goal of 50, 50-pound boxes of books.

Bethany Biallis, a French teacher at Jacobs, said the club recently held a competition among math, science, social studies, English, and foreign language classes. That contest brought in more than 350 texts totaling about a half-ton in weight. Steven Shadel's math class collected the most books and earned freshly made breakfast crepes, prepared with care by the French Club. The second round of competition runs through Jan. 22 among other classes.

"We have been fundraising all year for postage to send these boxes of books to the clearinghouse in Minnesota," she said, "which in turn sends them to communities needing these books in Africa."

Books for both children and adults are needed. The clearinghouse will gratefully accept most items, except those which are in Spanish, German, are religious in nature, or focus on American history.

Drop off items at the school, 2601 Bunker Hill Drive, Algonquin. Or donors may drop off their books at the District 300 Central Office, 300 Cleveland Ave., Carpentersville, and the Communication Services Department will deliver the books to Jacobs High School.

Teacher invited to Kentucky: An award-winning District 300 teacher has accepted an invitation by the national College Board to grade Advance Placement history exams in Kentucky this June.

Social studies teacher Dennis Maher has served District 300 for 23 years -- the first 19 of which were at Dundee-Crown High School and the last four at Hampshire High School.

The Sycamore resident is among 200 stand-out high school and college instructors from across the country who will trek to Louisville, Ky., to grade AP exams from June 5-11, 2008. Both the trip and the extensive professional development provided to the graders while there will be provided by the College Board.

"This experience will no doubt help me to become a better teacher, which is something that we all strive to achieve," Maher said.

Striving for excellence is nothing new for the acclaimed educator. In 2004, he reaped two major titles -- Kane County Secondary Teacher of the Year, and the State of Illinois VFW Voice of Democracy Award. He also leads a course at Judson College in preparing new teachers for the classroom experience.

Hampshire Principal Chuck Bumbales said that Maher, who has taught AP classes for many years, represents the best that the District 300 teaching staff has to offer. He is beloved by his students, who feed off of his enthusiasm for teaching them about U.S. history and especially the Civil War.

"Dennis is extremely interactive with his students in the classrooms," Bumbales said. "He has very excellent resources that he has accumulated over the years which enhance the teaching and learning environment of his classroom."

According to the College Board, Maher will be able to enjoy the following professional development while in Kentucky:

• Receive training in consistent application of the AP scoring standards, and use those standards to score student responses;

• Interact with members of the AP Development Committee responsible for revising the AP Course Description and developing the exam, giving and receiving information about the current state of teaching and learning in their discipline;

• Discuss achievement, assessment, and teaching strategies with other college and AP high school faculty; and

• Develop a network of professionals in their discipline that will last a lifetime.