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Saturday-Sunday, June 8-9, 2013
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Schools: Holding line insufficient State’s funding level for education leads to local deficits, say officials By DAVID THOMAS dthomas@shawmedia.com Local school officials are pleased that the state is not cutting education funding any further for the next school year, but they say simply holding the line is not sufficient. After years of reduced
education spending, many school officials had expected the state to make deeper cuts in general aid for the 2013-14 school year. But lawmakers added another $150 million to general state aid, allowing them to maintain last year’s level of funding – 89 percent of the foundation it sets for per-stu-
dent spending. All it needs is Gov. Pat Quinn’s signature. Abdon Pallasch, the assistant budget director for the state, said he Pat Quinn expects the various budget bills to be signed
within weeks. “I would see no reason why the governor would change the funding,” Pallasch said. But Luke Glowiak, assistant superintendent for business at Sycamore School District 427, said the roughly $5,445 the state will pay for each student is not enough. “It’s far less money than
what we’ve received, in terms of general state aid and general state support,” Glowiak said. “We’ve made the point to the board on a number of occasions: It’s going to be a deficit budget, and part of the reason for it is the projections of general state aid.” General state aid is a formula for education funding
that takes into account local wealth and student attendance. It is based on the foundation level for how much state funding students are supposed to receive, which is $6,119 per student. In the county, the school districts’ dependence on state
See SCHOOLS, page A7
County sees gas prices spike
Program pairs special needs employees with local jobs
Refinery issues blamed by some By JIM DALLKE jdallke@shawmedia.com
and FELIX SARVER fsarver@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Sam Morreale feels lucky he has a solid job to pay for his rising gasoline tab. The Sycamore resident paid $63.82 to fill up the tank of his Ford Ranger at the Road Ranger in DeKalb on Friday, which was the most he has had to pay for gas. The $4.19 per gallon price was new for him. While the price might seem unfairly high, he said people have to budget because they don’t have any other options. “You’ll almost have to grin and bear it,” Morreale said. Gas prices seem to be increasing by about 10 cents every day, said DeKalb resident Miriam Horton. She said the gas price used to be $3.25, until it became $3.30 and then $4.09 on Thursday. She and her husband own two vehicles, and it costs nearly $90 to fill up the tank in each of them. “You really can’t budget because you got to get to places,” Horton said. The rising gas prices come from five Great Lakes region refineries operating at less than capacity, said Gregg
Monica Maschak – mmaschak@shawmedia.com
David Roberts, 27, returns to the restaurant Thursday after running an order to a customer at Culver’s in Sycamore. Roberts, who is developmentally disabled, has been running food to Culver’s indoor and outdoor customers for nine years. Rain or shine, “he never complains,” Culver’s manager Amanda Corona said. By STEPHANIE HICKMAN shickman@shawmedia.com David Roberts rarely stops smiling while he works. As a food runner at Culver’s in
Sycamore, he swiftly delivers orders to customers’ tables and cars without letting his enthusiasm fade. Roberts, 27, is developmentally disabled, but that doesn’t make him
less of an asset to the Culver’s team, said Amanda Corona, manager of the restaurant at 1200 DeKalb Ave. in Sycamore. He is the ideal employee. He works hard, never complains and
does what he’s asked, she said. “It’s wonderful working with David,” she said. “I’ve never seen him have a bad day.”
See JOBS, page A7
See GAS, page A7
Obama: Surveillance program a ‘trade-off’ for national security By DARLENE SUPERVILLE and LARA JAKES The Associated Press WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama declared Friday that America is “going to have to make some choices” balancing privacy and security, launching a vigorous defense of formerly secret programs that sweep up an estimated 3 billion phone calls a day and amass Internet data
from U.S. providers in an attempt to thwart terror attacks. He warned that it will be harder to detect threats against the U.S. now that the two top-secret tools to target terrorists have been so thoroughly publicized. At turns defensive and defiant, Obama stood by the spy programs revealed this week. The National Security Agency has been collecting the phone records of hun-
dreds of millions of Americans each day, creating a database through which it can learn whether terror suspects have been in contact with people in the U.S. It also was disclosed this week that the NSA has been gathering all Internet usage – audio, video, photographs, emails and searches – from nine major U.S. Internet providers, including Microsoft
See NSA, page A7
Highest regular gas prices in DeKalb County by city n DeKalb: $4.39 n Sycamore: $4.19 n Waterman: $4.09 n Somonauk: $4.09 n Shabbona: $4.19 n Sandwich: $4.19 n Kirkland: $4.19 n Kingston: $4.19 n Genoa: $4.19 n Malta: $4.07 n Cortland: $4.19 n Hinckley: $4.21
AP photo
President Barack Obama gestures while speaking Friday in San Jose, Calif. The president defended his government’s secret surveillance, saying Congress has repeatedly authorized the collection of America’s phone records and U.S. Internet use.
Source: Illinois Gas Prices website
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