A creative solution in troubled times

Layoffs, cutbacks, reductions, consolidation — it’s the language of government today.

The state’s financial problems have all but eliminated funding to municipalities, schools and others while revenue from local taxes and fees is down virtually across the board.

It is an economic crisis that is forcing government to evaluate everything it does from staffing and procedures to the programs and services, with the aim of bringing expenses in line with declining revenues.

Inevitably, some important programs are being eliminated with the cuts, and the result is often a hardship for many in the community.

But maybe there’s also an opportunity for government and the community to be creative and work together — use initiative rather than money to solve a problem or two.

You can find an example of that in Barrington Unit District 220 after the village of Carpentersville cut funding for crossing guards who help children at five schools get to classes safely.

One of those schools is Sunny Hill Elementary, a neighborhood school where most of the 450 students live nearby and walk to class. Doing that without crossing guards to protect them would put the students at risk.

The answer was the creation of the new “Walking School Bus” initiative in which the school will work with parent volunteers to escort children to Sunny Hill.

Mary Anne Wesoloski, a school nurse at Countryside Elementary in Barrington who also travels to Sunny Hill, proposed recruiting about a dozen parent volunteers who will walk throughout the surrounding neighborhoods and pick up students and escort them to school. When the school year begins Aug. 23, the parents will serve as “bus drivers” and have predetermined “bus stops” where students will wait to join the walking school bus.

A creative solution to a critical problem.

Wesoloski applied for and won a grant from the District 220 Education Foundation for $700 that will be used to buy yellow safety vests and durable rain ponchos for the parents.

Some of that money also will fund student incentive awards for children who participate frequently because Wesoloski sees another benefit from the program — exercise.

She said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages children to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity daily. With a 25-minute physical education class every day in Sunny Hill, students are still not receiving the proper amount of activity. “This program is a way to fill the gap from the recommended allowance of exercise,” Wesoloski told the Daily Herald’s Zuzanna Skwiot. “It’s a convenient, free physical activity.”

It’s also the kind of nimble, community-based problem solving we need.