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Wednesday, August 21, 2013
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Supporters rally for D-428 teachers Board members tight-lipped about negotiations By CHRIS BURROWS cburrows@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Many more than 100 supporters of the DeKalb County Teachers Association packed the Forum room at DeKalb High School in a show of support for DeKalb School District 428 teachers and their ongoing contract negotiations with the school board at its Tuesday meeting. Teachers, their families and friends, parents and community members lined
the walls and stairways and took all available seats in the room. Many wore DCTA T-shirts and some carried signs calling for a fair teacher’s contract, but those at the center of the negations stayed tight-lipped on the talks despite the approaching start of the school year. “We are still working along right here,” DCTA spokesman T.J. Fontana said. “We’ve been negotiating with them … really since January, and we’re still looking to get a deal
done, but nothing yet.” The school board designated Vice President Tracy Williams as its spokesman. He couldn’t say whether or not a deal would get done before the start of the school year Aug. 28. “That’s everyone’s goal,” Williams said after the meeting. “I don’t want to speculate as to the chances of something working or not, but it’s certainly everyone’s goal. It’s our goal. It’s the goal of everyone in this room, and I like our
chances as long as that’s the case.” Fontana refused to comment on the likelihood of a strike or the negotiation schedule, but said that several meetings still were planned between the union, the board and District 428 administrators between Tuesday and the start of the school year. “We are still working really hard right now, and we’re really optimistic that we’re
See D-428, page A5
Chris Burrows – cburrows@shawmedia.com
Camyle Tate (right), a parent with students in DeKalb School District 428, addresses the school board Tuesday at its meeting, in support of the DeKalb Classroom Teachers Association, which is in negotiations for a new contract.
KISHWAUKEE COMMUNITY HOSPITAL SIMULATION LAB REACHES MILESTONE
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
Slow rollout for new teacher grading system State providing little guidance By KERRY LESTER The Associated Press
Photos by Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
DurRay Sanchez-Torres (left), manager of the simulation lab, and Glenn Podzimek, cardiopulmonary manager for Valley West Community Hospital, demonstrate resuscitation on a baby simulator Friday in the simulation lab at Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb. BELOW: Sanchez-Torres checks the pulse on the baby simulator.
Baby simulator gives staff leg up on medical emergencies By FELIX SARVER fsarver@shawmedia.com DeKALB – There’s a baby at Kishwaukee Community Hospital that’s unlike any other. The baby can breathe, sweat, cry and urinate. However, the baby is powered by electricity and feels rather rubbery. The baby simulator is among the three humanoid machines owned and operated by KishHealth System to improve the medical skills of its staff, from doctors to housekeepers. The hospital’s simulation lab celebrated its first anniversary Sunday. Hospital staff has used the adolescent and adult simulators, along with the baby simulator that was added in April, for 120 lab practices. Everything from pharmacy to nursing to respiratory procedures are practiced on the simulators. Hospital officials
use the simulators to prepare for the worst-case scenario in medical emergencies and training their staff. DurRay Sanchez-Torres, manager of the simulation lab, likened the experience to football players doing drills before a game. The lab is all about helping the staff be proactive
with medical emergencies. The baby, which can be a boy or a girl, doesn’t yet have a name, but staff members can choose among 90 names for a naming contest that ends this month, Sanchez-Torres said. The older simulators are named Willy and May. In one simulation, the med-
ical team had to go through its own drills to help the baby simulator based on a real-life situation. A baby was found in a church by a police officer and had to be put into a mechanical ventilator and given respiratory therapy. The same scenario was used on the baby simulator, where the doctors had to insert a tube down its throat, a procedure known as intubation. During an exercises, the team, which could be doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists, works as its colleagues monitor it behind a two-way window with computers reading life signals from the simulators. “Here’s the baby, show us what you’re going to do,” Sanchez-Torres said. “It’s the hands-on experience. “ The simulation lab is not
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois’ slow implementation of a teacher evaluation program aimed at grading teachers partly on whether their students’ test scores are improving is creating problems for statewide school districts that for the first time will be using the groundbreaking reforms beyond Chicago. Problems include the state’s inability so far to obtain a waiver from some of the more punitive tenets of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, including requiring 100 percent of students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014. The 34 individual districts making evaluation changes this year also say they’re not getting help in preparing to implement them. “The state board has not given much guidance with incorporating the student growth,” Tim Buss, superintendent of Wabash District 348 in downstate Mt. Carmel said, where his 1,600-student district this fall will begin tying student performance to evaluations for its 125 teachers. “They talked about coming out with a template, we have yet to see that.” As districts change how they judge teachers, there is little state support available, Eastern Illinois University education chairwoman Marleis Trover said, particularly for districts which don’t have a large administrative staff or can’t afford to hire outside help. “The whole idea is a good idea,” Trover said of the reforms. “But it’s implementation.” Illinois’ 2009 Performance Evaluation Reform Act requires districts to design and implement evaluation systems that assess teachers’ and principals’ professional skills. By 2016, 70 percent of a teacher’s evaluation will be based on observations of classroom performance. The other 30 percent will be based on “student growth” – students’
“The state board has not given much guidance with incorporating the student growth. They talked about coming out with a template, we have yet to see that.” Tim Buss Superintendent of Wabash District 348 in downstate Mt. Carmel
See SIMULATOR, page A5 See EVALUATIONS, page A5
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