Soapbox: Making amends
Congratulations to the four-member majority of the Grayslake Elementary District 46 board that voted this week to reduce debt interest payments in order to save taxpayers money -- in essence to make up for the $6.9 million that the district collected in excess of the amount voters approved in a 1999 referendum. Three board members voted against this, with one saying she'd rather put the money toward school repairs. Look, this was not a close call. A previous board voted to rebate the $6.9 million to taxpayers and then, in a public relations debacle, reversed itself. For this district to A) do the right thing by taxpayers and B) have a chance of ever staging another successful referendum, it needed to adjust its interest payments to give taxpayers a break to which they're entitled.
Stevenson green
Being green at Stevenson High School goes beyond the school's colors. Administrators, teachers and students alike have been looking for ways to reduce energy usage and costs. One innovative notion comes from environmental science teacher Ron Carmichael, who has received a $10,000 grant to implement -- with a big assist from his students and other environmental science teachers -- his plan to convert a room over his classroom to a "green" rooftop. Carefully chosen plants will absorb sunlight to help naturally cool that portion of the building. Good idea.
Silly law, silly lawsuit
It takes a highly elastic imagination to fathom just how the constitutional rights of Buffalo Grove atheist Robert Sherman or his daughter might be harmed by a newly required moment of silence in Illinois public schools. Nonetheless, if those who sponsored or voted for this pointless law claim that they never envisioned legal tests, then they really should not be allowed anywhere near a statehouse voting button again. The law and the Shermans' lawsuit compel High School District 214 to waste time and money to defend a law it didn't even seek. One more bit of evidence that state lawmakers really botched matters by refusing to be satisfied with an existing law that allowed, but did not require, a moment of silence to start the school day.
Dance gone, image remains
And speaking of legal challenges, University of Illinois officials were smart to reverse a previous ruling and allow images of Chief Illiniwek to be included on University of Illinois homecoming floats this week. News reports did not state whether any lawsuits had been threatened, but university officials said they concluded that the ban on the chief's image would have unduly restricted students' speech. Good thinking. University officials showed cultural sensitivity by eliminating Chief Illiniwek's dances, but it's hard to see the school successfully defending a ban on students' use of the Chief's image.
Keeping everyone in the loop
The wisest and most responsive school districts solicit community opinion before getting too deeply into potentially controversial issues. For that reason, it was good to see Barrington Area Unit District 220 first set up a community committee to make boundary recommendations and now share that panel's work results with the public at large.
Lattes, yes; laptops, no
The Illinois Department of Transportation has been forced to again postpone its plans to bring Internet service to Interstate highway rest stops. IDOT officials said last week that no vendors submitted bids to provide the service. Which means that drivers with coffee can still pull over to get wired -- but not to go wireless.