Jacobs High School prepares for 'Guys and Dolls' show

When you meet a gent paying all kinds of rent

For a flat that could flatten the Taj Mahal,

Call it sad, call it funny,

But it's better than even money

That the guy's only doing it for some doll.

That old mainstay of high school musicals, Frank Loesser's "Guys and Dolls," is coming soon to Algonquin's Jacobs High School.

The Jacobs Drama Club and Music Department are staging the show at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 4 and 5 and at 2 p.m. on April 6.

Tickets are $8 for students, children and seniors and $9 for adults. To buy tickets, call Jacobs at (847) 658-2500.

To promote the show, Algonquin's Colonial Cafe is sponsoring a raffle that will have you wishing luck is a lady (if it ever was to begin with). Ticket holders will be entered in a raffle to win a dinner for two or four at the Randall Road restaurant.

Any questions? Contact Ben Schillmoeller at (847) 809-7990 or schill637@sbcglobal.net.

Where did our money go?

That's the question a small group of parents at the Cambridge Lakes Charter School is asking.

The parents paid $250 to become voting members of the Northern Kane Education al Corp., the nonprofit organization that runs the charter school.

The $250 "gift," as it was called, entitles these parents to vote at an annual meeting of voting members.

So far, that meeting hasn't taken place.

Northern Kane Executive Director Larry Fuhrer said at a recent board meeting that the annual meeting will take place after an audit of the charter school has been completed.

The audit, Fuhrer said, was supposed to be done in November 2007, but hasn't yet been completed.

Other Northern Kane board members suggested the $250 "gift" was too steep a price to pay for parents to have a say in the school.

"Does it make any sense to revisit that money?" asked Northern Kane board President Jerry Conrad, also the vice president of Cambridge Homes.

Northern Kane officials estimated that there are only about 11 voting members.

"I would certainly like to see a greater participation at the annual meeting," Conrad said.

Northern Kane board member and Westfield Community School Principal Bill Doran made a suggestion that would make a lot of parents happy.

"Is $25 better?" he asked.

But the Northern Kane board wasn't able to address the question this month.

Fuhrer set the matter aside, calling a point of order because the issue was not on the agenda.

Should a small group of parents make decisions for a school of more than 500 kids?

I think not, nor do I think the parents who paid the $250 would disagree.

Northern Kane should either refund the money or lower the bar so more parents can have a say.

Let's hope this issue is on the agenda next month.