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Friday, August 23, 2013
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Sycamore looks to reload, not rebuild
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D-428 teachers set strike date By JILLIAN DUCHNOWSKI jduchnowski@shawmedia.com DeKALB – More than 400 DeKalb School District 428 teachers will strike Thursday if they don’t reach an agreement with district leaders by Tuesday night, teachers union leaders said. District and union leaders have scheduled negotiation sessions with a federal mediator today, Saturday and Sunday, said T.J. Fontana, spokesman for the DeKalb Classroom Teachers Association.
Based on legal timeframes, Thursday is the earliest teachers can walk out. Teacher in-service days are scheduled Monday and Tuesday and the first day of school for students is Wednesday, Fontana said. “As educators, parents and community members, the members of the DCTA understand how a strike could impact the families of our school district,” union leaders said in a news release. “This is why we wanted to give the public as much advance notice as possible. We pledge to continue to negotiate in good faith
On the Web Details about both sides’ final offers: www2.illinois.gov/elrb District website: www.dist428.org Union Facebook page: www.facebook. com/DeKalbDCTA
with the board until that time and to do everything possible to avoid this situation altogether.” District leaders echoed the sentiment in a news release of their own.
“The DeKalb Board of Education has been negotiating in good faith with the DeKalb Classroom Teachers Association and will continue to negotiate in good faith until a collective bargaining agreement is reached,” the district’s news release states. “The Board of Education is hopeful and optimistic that an agreement can be reached before the school year begins.” The teachers union members determined the strike timeline Wednesday night, Fontana said. Fontana said leaders for both
STUDENTS RETURN TO NIU
WET, BUT WARM, WELCOME
sides have continued to negotiate since they filed their final offers Aug. 8. In its final offer, the union asked for a 2.12 percent “step” increase in teachers’ salaries for the 2013-14 school year with no increase in the wage scale. In years two and three, teachers want their step increase, plus an increase in the pay scale to be determined by the average of two years’ of the consumer price index.
See STRIKE, page A5
College ratings unveiled President announces rankings related to cost The ASSOCIATED PRESS
have been out here working with the incoming students, welcoming them, showing them the hospitality of the Huskies,” Baker told reporters at Gilbert Hall. “I think it’s a great way to build culture and community.”
BUFFALO, N.Y. – Targeting the soaring cost of higher education, President Barack Obama on Thursday unveiled a broad new government rating system for colleges that would judge schools on their affordability and perhaps be used to allocate federal financial aid. But the proposed overhaul faced immediate skepticism from college leaders who worry the rankings could cost their institutions millions of dollars, as well as from congressional Republicans wary of deepening the government’s role in higher education. The president, speaking to a student-heavy crowd of 7,000 at the University at Buffalo, said he expected pushback from those who have profited from the ballooning cost of college. But he ar- Barack Obama gued that with the nation’s economy still shaky and students facing increasing global competition, making college affordable is “an economic imperative.” “Higher education cannot be a luxury,” Obama said during the first stop on a two-day bus tour through New York and Pennsylvania. “Every American family should be able to get it.” Republicans on Capitol Hill weighed in quickly with criticism. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, cast the proposal as government overreach and suggested a state-by-state approach would be preferable. “Washington needs to be careful about taking a good idea for one state and forcing all 6,000 institutions of higher education to do the exact same thing, turning Washington into a sort of national school board for our colleges and universities,” Alexander said. For colleges and universities, millions of federal aid dollars could be on the line if schools are downgraded under the government rating system. However, if colleges line up against the idea of tying ratings to federal aid, the proposal would face nearly impossible odds.
See MOVE-IN, page A6
See RATINGS, page A5
Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
Students, family and volunteers prepare to enter New Residence Hall East on the Northern Illinois University campus Thursday in DeKalb.
University move-in pushes past rain into residence halls By CHRIS BURROWS
More online
cburrows@shawmedia.com DeKALB – The Mayer family almost couldn’t believe how easy it was. Barbara and Charlie Mayer and their son, Ted, left their home in suburban Oak Park early Thursday so that Ted Mayer could move into his dorm room at Northern Illinois University’s New Residence Hall. They ran into little traffic and found short wait times and plenty of help. “We’ve never seen anything like this before,” Barbara Mayer said. “The signage, the people, there was never a way that you might not find where you’re going.” When NIU acting Police Chief Darren Mitchell said that the school had move-in day down to a science earlier in the week, he wasn’t just boasting. An army of faculty, staff, students and volunteers coordinated to keep DeKalb’s streets clear and make the move-in process fast and easy for about 3,000 dorm-housed students Thursday. The rain canceled the A Taste
Check out Daily-Chronicle.com for more pictures from Northern Illinois University’s move-in day on Thursday.
By the numbers
Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
Tyler Pera (center), of St. Charles, is helped by his mother Joey (left) and father Patric while piecing together his room on the fifth floor at New Residence Hall East on the Northern Illinois University campus Thursday in DeKalb. of Northern event planned for Thursday evening, but welcome events for students continue through Sunday. A total of 4,278 students are settling into campus housing this week, but many arrived earlier in the week. Thousands more are moving into off-campus housing
through the weekend as fall classes start Monday. The university’s new president, Douglas Baker, was on hand visiting with students and volunteers and offering move-in assistance at remodeled Gilbert Hall. “One of the great things is having all the students that
Students who moved into NIU dorms this week: Stevenson Towers: 951 Grant Towers: 619 Douglas Hall: 645 Neptune Hall: 878 Gilbert Hall: 200 New Residence Hall: 985 Total: 4,278
Source: NIU spokesman Paul Palian
Inside today’s Daily Chronicle Lottery Local news Obituaries
A2 A3-4 A4
National and world news Opinions Sports
Weather A2, A5 A7 B1-4
Advice Comics Classifieds
C4 C5 D1-4
High:
80
Low:
55