Light posting

Sorry posting’s been light recently.

We’ve had some flooding and a three-day boil order around here, so I spent two entire days out in the sun working on flood stories.

Not a whole lot going on with the education beat recently, either. Summer gets pretty slow, minus construction and upgrade projects.

Summer lunch program

The State of Illinois passed a law in February saying that all school districts hosting a summer school program and who have at least half their students qualifying for free or reduced lunches must provide free lunches for all community members under the age of 18. Here in the local district, summer school started today and so did the program.

Back when the program was announced, administrators around here had several concerns. One was, obviously — and especially in a state which can’t pay its bills on time — funding of the program. In talking to the assistant superintendent for finance on Friday, he said that the intent of the program was to be fully-funded, especially if the district sticks with a fairly modest cold lunch, so that’s looking as if it was settled.

Another concern was logistics in feeding both the students at summer school (which serves kids from first through fifth grades who are in danger of not meeting grade equivalency) and members of the general community. Administrators worried about mixing the younger students (and the younger members of the general public) with the older kids, who could get rowdy. So, the solution was to give the summer school students their lunches in the classroom (making it a working lunch so as not to lose instruction time) and give the general public the multi-purpose room. I’ll check up on how this is going in a week or so, once people settle into a routine.

I believe in this program, because kids shouldn’t have to suffer if their parents can’t provide, and anything is better than the McDonald’s processed food they can pick up within walking distance of almost any home in this city. But, I also think it puts an unfair burden on our schools to provide extra services on their already strapped budgets. Luckily, it’s looking as if this will be fully-funded, but that has yet to be seen.

I just hope this can remain under the control of state funding and the state doesn’t dump any more of its financial problems on the districts.

Give up the fight?

There is a small group of people in this community (quietly) trying to save an 80-odd-year-old gymnasium located next to the middle school here in town. This building is in pretty bad shape and would take A LOT of money (which the district does not have) to renovate to get it simply back up to codes, let alone making it nice and shiny.

Therefore, the district has received permission from the state to use life-safety funds to re-build the functionality of the building. In other words, since the building was used as a locker room, the district can use its life-safety funding to re-build locker rooms on the middle school campus. As a result, the district can no longer, in any way, shape or form, use the building for any purpose whatsoever. It will just sit there.

Enter regional superintendent. She was asked to write a letter of condemnation to the state board of education allowing the district to use funds to knock down the current building. She stalled and stalled, eventually only sending in a two-line letter saying she wasn’t going to give her permission. She says it’s because the district could have done more to preserve the building in the past.

That all touched off a slight uproar in the community, of people wanting to save the building. That’s all well and good, if the building weren’t about 100 feet from the school building. That means there is NO WAY, from a liability standpoint, that the district can legally share use of the building with the community at large. It’s just too much of a potential problem for them to incur.

While this has been explained over and over again, there is still a small group fighting for this building. Now, I’m all for community activism, but community activism with a potential return. There’s no point in fighting for something if it’s never going to happen.

What’s even worse, though, is the fact that the person spearheading the campaign is employed by a newspaper in a town about 50 miles away. He’s the correspondent for this county to that newspaper. That means he covers school board issues in that newspaper. That creates a conflict of interest, especially when he writes letters to the editor in a local weekly newspaper on this issue and, as he just did, speak at the school board meeting while he’s technically covering it for the newspaper.

Again, I’m all for saving historic buildings and this one’s pretty cool from the outside (the inside’s pretty bad), but not at the cost of compromising journalistic integrity.

UPDATE: One of the board members mentioned — for the umpteenth time since I took over the beat — that this building was slated for demolition nearly 10 years ago and, up until a few months ago, no one had come forward with a workable solution. He referenced window replacements in a 50-year-old junior high building this summer, saying he would much rather see district money put into buildings which are still being used by students than go toward buildings which are not used and cannot be used for their intended purposes.

The board is currently (at 9:27 p.m.) in executive session to discuss real estate sale or purchase. This could (not likely, though) relate to this particular building. I will update this if anything happens.

UPDATE 2 (6/10/08, 7:15 p.m.): The assistant superintendent told me today that the district will form a task force (headed by previously-mentioned correspondent) for the purpose of “finding a use and the financial support for that use” of the old gym. The committee will have six months to come up with a solution, if there’s one out there.

Campaign 2008 and education?

One thing which has been conspicuously absent from the presidential campaign thus far has been discussion of education issues.

Sure, there’s been the occasional comment slung around about NCLB, but nothing has been gone into in-depth. I hope that, since both major parties have their presumptive nominees, the voters can begin to hear about more than the “major” issues.

Just so you can all educate yourselves, here are the campaign website links for Obama and McCain.

I will discuss them in more detail in later posts, especially as the campaign heats up, but a lack of time at the moment prevents me from doing so.

Moment of silence banned

I’m about a week late on this one, but graduation season keeps this education reporter hopping. That, and preparing for all the extra stories I’m trying to bank for summer when schools aren’t in session.

Last Thursday, a federal judge declared Illinois’ mandatory moment of silence unconstitutional. That means schools no longer have to have a moment of silent reflection.

The legislation has been really controversial since it was passed last spring and implemented in April. It was brought before the courts by an atheist radio announcer in Buffalo Grove. Not only was it challenged in court, but it’s also gone through several revisions, including striking the word “prayer” from the language.

I really have no opinion either way on this issue. I can see both sides. Those who are pro-religion in schools think it’s nice to have the time to allow kids to reflect on their day. Those who are anti-religion in schools think the silent reflection time opens up a religious can of worms.

It’s probably best that it’s no longer mandatory. That way, there’s less possibility for a teacher to be accused of pushing religion on kids.