D58 students turned in another stellar performance on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, with 92 percent of third through eighth graders meeting or exceeding 2009 standards in reading and math. The results far surpass the 70 percent meet-or-exceeds standard required to meet 2009 Adequate Yearly Progress, as set by the No Child Left Behind Act. [...]
There have been many articles about the budgetary crisis gripping various states and cities, including our own town. Reading up for a column on the subject, I came across this factoid from SUNY’s Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government: state tax collections plunged an inflation-adjusted average of 9.2 percent in FY 2009. As the village [...]
An article in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune addressed the difficulties even elected board members face in trying to obtain information from local government. Among the several cases cited were those of D99 board member Deborah Boyle, DuPage Water Commissioner Liz Chaplin of Downers Grove, and D58 board member Scott O’Connell. The reporter, Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, had [...]
I’m always on the prowl for the Holy Grail of cookbooks — one with recipes that involve only ingredients I always have on hand, require minimal use of bowls, pots and utensils for their preparation, and can be assembled quickly and easily, preferably with a phone in one hand. Among my favorites are cookbooks — [...]
Found in Trib Local, right next to yet another D99 story about how Boyle is the problem.
Despite the fact I mainly went to tape the meeting, I was also interested in hearing the year end fiscal report; I’m a sucker for that stuff. The tenor of the meeting really blew that part into the weeds attention-wise, but any taxing body with a $73 million budget you should get as complete a [...]
“$10,000 in legal fees to draw up guidelines for a nepotism policy.” Could have saved them a ton of cash. I made up a simple spreadsheet of the policies concerning conflict of interest and ethics, and ran through them to see if there were any common threads that the D99 policies follow. If so, that [...]
Editor’s note: After listening repeatedly to the videotape Thoman and I made of Monday’s D99 school board meeting, I can confirm that there was a motion to adjourn the meeting. I was not able to identify the speakers, but the exchange — which occured as Boltz was making his comments — is as follows: “I [...]
The following does not represent the editorial opinion of DGreport. It represents mine. I’ve written several times here and other places at the dysfunctional nature of the past D58 school board. Of the refusal to share information with, in particular, you, Scott O’Connell, as a sitting school board member; of the need to open the [...]
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) stirred controversy from the start . The NCLB Act mandated that schools improve academic performance of students each year. Response to Intervention (RTI) legislation additionally requires schools to provide a system of interventions to students who are not succeeding. Both of these added cost and complexity to education [...]
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