Saturday Soapbox: You did your best, Hersey parents
So now it's time to watch what happens. As many parents, students and even former students objected, the District 214 school board on Thursday reduced the orchestra program at Hersey High School to part-time status (for the teacher, who also will teach history part time.) Music professionals will tell you that kids get an awful lot from playing instruments -- music appreciation for sure, but also enhanced motor skill development. So, keep an eye on it. If the program seems to be slipping, offer to help out somewhere. It might require some effort, but with the right dedication from everybody involved, the program can stay strong.
Local boy makes good
It'll be interesting to see where Ryan Dietz turns up eventually -- once he's done with Northwestern University. Last month the Schaumburg High School grad snagged a share of the College Emmy for outstanding newscast from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in Los Angeles. He and Patrick Lester picked up the Emmy for "SportsNight," their weekly recap and highlight show about the Northwestern Wildcats and the Big Ten Conference.
Missing minutes to remain mystery
Everything about the case of the missing minutes in Hoffman Estates is odd. It's not just the questions about where 30 years of village board closed-session minutes went and when exactly they disappeared -- but also why this is just coming to light now. The missing minutes span from 1959 to 1990 and seem to have been lost during village hall's 1991 move to its current home from what is now the police station. One thing that's unclear is when they were discovered missing. Virginia Hayter, first elected village clerk in 1989 after serving three earlier terms as mayor, apparently placed a statement into the record books -- signed on May 25, 2007, the date she retired -- attesting to the fact that the minutes were gone. Mayor Bill McLeod said he was unaware of this until last October, when staff members discovered Hayter's note while attempting to fulfill a request for public records. We wonder why McLeod waited several months to announce this, though he said the village staff sought to find the records before publicly declaring them gone forever. It's a shame that they apparently are.
Doubling the defense
Some Elgin Area School District U-46 teachers will do double duty later today when they participate in a martial arts self-defense course at Eastview Middle School in Bartlett. The $20 they kick in for the lessons provided by Kim's Black Belt Academy in Elgin will go to benefit Carolyn Gilbert, the Elgin High School teacher who lost an eye when a student attacked her with a knife in January. So the class is a bit of a fund-raiser and a bit of confidence booster in that it will provide participants with some of the skills that can help individuals defend themselves. Not a comforting thought maybe, but a sensible and helpful response to such a traumatic experience.
More on the cougar
This week's shooting of a cougar by Chicago police raises more even more questions about the reports of the large cats prowling around Lake County. Now we know that yes, there really was a cougar in the area. But is the one killed in Chicago the same animal seen in the North suburbs? No one is positive, but experts are reasonably sure it is, since there is no evidence of any breeding in the area. And having one cougar in Illinois is rare; the odds of having two are infinitesimal. Experts have begun the process of examining the cougar and running DNA and other tests. This should help answer another question: Where did he come from in the first place?