Briefs: $10 million for schools

Three underperforming Chicago high schools are expected to benefit from a little more than $10 million to be donated by the Gates Foundation to help convert them into teacher training centers. The money will be given to the Academy for Urban School Leadership. Executive Director Don Feinstein said the academy has partnered with the Chicago Public Schools to manage eight schools, five of which also are training sites for teachers entering struggling schools.

Family increases reward

Family and friends of slain teenager Willie Williams III, a former member of the Jesse White Tumblers, have increased their reward to $7,000 for information leading to the arrest of whoever shot him nearly two years ago. Williams, 17, was leaving a movie early on April 1, 2006, when he and his friends got into a pushing match with another group outside a Southwest Side mall. During the fight, someone shot Williams once in the head.

College president resigns

After a year of criticism of her leadership and spending practices, the beleaguered president of Chicago State University has told her colleagues she plans to step down. Elnora Daniel will leave the post on June 30, the day her contract is set to expire, but she will continue to collect her $241,025 salary and other benefits until June 30, 2009, as an "educational leave" clause in her contract allows.

Remains identified

A body found frozen to the ground on Chicago's Southwest Side has been identified as a 41-year-old suburban woman who had been missing since October, authorities said. Carolyn Jean Schranz's badly decomposed remains were found last week, about 100 feet from train tracks just south of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. She'd been stabbed to death, according to an autopsy by the Cook County medical examiner's office.