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Serving DeKalb County since 1879 Adam Joyner (left)
CORN FEST • MARKETPLACE, A8
Downtown businesses hope festival a boon
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
PREP BOYS SOCCER PREVIEW • SPORTS, B1
Tom Sanders
H-BR looks for another long postseason run
DeKalb program’s role debated By CHRIS BURROWS cburrows@shawmedia.com DeKALB – The plan for DeKalb’s fledgling Crime Free Housing Program to hire three part-time property inspectors remains intact, at least for now. Sixth Ward Alderman
D-428 officials to vote on labor deal
just on crime. “If I’m a homeowner in DeKalb, and I look across the street and there’s abandoned cars, the grass is tall, there’s trash in the yard, who do you call?” William Heinisch, the president of the DeKalb Area
Some want housing effort to focus on crime; others urge patience Dave Baker brought the issue before the City Council at Monday’s meeting, but moved to successfully postpone action until the next meeting citing the absence of Aldermen David Jacobson and Kristen
Lash. Changes to the city budget require six yes votes to pass. In the works for years, the Crime Free Housing Program, which aims to fight crime in and around DeKalb’s approxi-
mately 9,000 rental properties, currently counts Coordinator Carl Leoni as its only employee but has approval to hire three sidewalk inspectors. These proposed inspectors would observe – from the side-
First-name basis
walk – exterior problems with rental properties and then work with landlords to bring residences up to city code. But Baker and some DeKalb landlords would prefer that the department focus
See COUNCIL, page A7
Former students now teach alongside their role models
By CHRIS BURROWS cburrows@shawmedia.com DeKALB – The union that represents DeKalb School District 428 teachers expects the approval of its new contract with the school board to go smoothly today. Negotiators representing the DeKalb Classroom Teachers Association reached a tentative deal with board negotiators Saturday, and teachers ratified the new three-year pact Sunday. But it won’t become official until a vote by the board in a special meeting at 7:30 a.m. today at the District’s Education Center, 901 S. Fourth St. Union spokesman T.J. Fontana said the DCTA expects an uneventful approval. “It seems like in talking to the two board members that we’ve been dealing with – [school board President] Tom Matya and [Vice PresTom Matya ident] Tracy District 428 school board Williams – this [deal] has the president support of the board,” Fontana said. “We’re hoping that this is going to be a quick meeting.” The agenda for the meeting doesn’t make note of an opportunity for public comment, but Fontana said teachers union members and their supporters weren’t planning to speak, anyway. Teachers are expected to be at work this morning in preparation for the start of school Wednesday. “We have to report to work at 8 a.m. [today], so we couldn’t [come out in force] even if we wanted,” Fontana said. “We feel that the board members and the members of the negotiating team are speaking on our behalf at this time.” A message left with Williams, the board’s spokesman, was not immediately returned Monday.
Photos by Rob Winner – rwinner@shawmedia.com
Ben Doty (left), former Sycamore High School student and now an English teacher, works alongside his former teacher Rich Majerus on Aug. 8 at the school. Doty graduated from Sycamore High in 2001 and is beginning his fifth year as an English teacher. Majerus has been teaching at the school for 18 years.
By FELIX SARVER
Voice your opinion
fsarver@shawmedia.com Andy Jordan likes to joke that he’s spent 21 of his 26 years at Sycamore School District 427. He attended school in the district and then returned to teach high school social studies after graduating from Northern Illinois University. When he started teaching, he saw lots of familiar faces, including Brian Koehne, who taught Jordan in both middle school and high school. Koehne has to remind Jordan that he’s old enough to call him by his first name now. “It’s kind of interesting not calling teachers ‘mister’ or ‘missus’ because that’s
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On the Web To view video with Rich Majerus and Ben Doty at Sycamore High School discussing what it’s like to be colleagues with the people former students looked up to and learned from, visit Daily-Chronicle.com.
Ben Doty organizes his classroom after the summer break Aug. 8 at Sycamore High School. Doty is a former student at the school and now works alongside his former English teacher Rich Majerus. how I knew them,” Jordan said. It’s not an uncommon phe-
nomenon throughout DeKalb County, but experienced teachers said watching their
students grow into teachers who work alongside them can be a rare pleasure. “It’s kind of fun to see those kids come back and doing the profession that I love to do,” Koehne said. For Jill Nicholson, returning to teach at Genoa-Kingston High School was her way of giving back to her community. Nicholson said several longtime Genoa-Kingston teachers inspired her to become a special education teacher before she graduated high school in 1980. Nicholson and her daughter had the same English teacher, Carol Smith, who knew how to handle their attitudes, she said.
See COLLEAGUES, page A7
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BACK IN DOWNTOWN DEKALB – Lincoln Highway g y between 1st and 4th St. – 9:00–11:00
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