Soapbox: Shouldn't have come to this

A judge should not have been required to referee a dispute between two organizations that should be working together, not acting like children. Judge Gene Nottolini ordered the Dundee Township Library District to allow Dundee Township offices to remain in the library building. He based that ruling on a 1975 lease arrangement put in place when the township donated a hefty sum for library construction. The ruling rightly ignored the library's deliberate amnesia over that past support and ended its embarrassing attempt to evict the township.

Loss of a leader, legend

There may be no name more synonymous with Community School District 300 than that of Dorothy deLacey, who died this week at 95. She worked in the district for years, then sat on the school board. But she will be remembered as the woman who created a home for the district's at-risk preschoolers. "She was instrumental in seeing it actually got done," said Superintendent Ken Arndt, who arrived well after deLacey departed active participation. "She was the one that said, 'No more excuses,' it's time to serve these students." It is more than appropriate, then, that such preschoolers today are served at the deLacey Family Education Center.

Techno-cheating

It might be seen as just more proof that old-timers were right when they saw the advent of the calculator as the end to a math-capable population if not civilization. The modern version of the calculator is being used not just to help with mathematical calculations, but to cheat. Several Glenbard West High School honors math students got zeroes on a test after the test questions and answers were found stored on their calculators. The student who sold the test was suspended. Maybe these kids need more vocabulary training so they might learn the meaning of "honor." And it makes one wonder how they'd do if they had to take a 1950s math exam with nothing but a pencil.

Maybe this time

An apology from the city of Elgin for its poor leaf pickup performance is nice, but mostly because it constitutes officials finally acknowledging there's a problem. You're not likely to attempt to fix a problem you don't think you have, are you? But residents are tired of words. And promises. And the same problems persisting year after year. They want their streets fixed, their leaves picked up and their traffic lights timed better. They want action. Maybe, just maybe, the city is serious this time about providing it. Let us hope.

Forced furloughs

Tough days lie ahead for employees at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, where funding cuts have forced the research agency to impose mandatory unpaid furloughs on about 1,900 workers beginning next month. Salaried works have to take a week off every two months. Hourly workers will lose two days per month. Worse, layoffs are not out of the question. Unhappy where you work? Good time to remember things could be worse.

An odd complaint

It isn't often you hear teachers complaining when administrative positions are cut in order to add union teaching positions. But that's the rather bizarre scenario playing out in St. Charles School District 303. The district plans to cut 10 instructional coordinators and replace them with "master teacher" jobs, ostensibly to shift more resources to the classroom. But teachers are complaining they weren't part of the discussion and that the plan could become a "nightmare for administrative and managerial functions at our high schools." Stay tuned. The arguments here are novel enough to entertain.