75 cents
Breaking news at Daily-Chronicle.com
Serving DeKalb County since 1879
Friday, October 11, 2013
HOLIDAYS • FAITH, C1
PREP GIRLS VOLLEYBALL • SPORTS, B1
Thanksgivukkah combines multiple celebrations
DeKalb, Sycamore ‘Volley for the Cure’
Park board creates pool committee New members to look at options to repair or replace Hopkins Pool in DeKalb By JILLIAN DUCHNOWSKI jduchnowski@shawmedia.com DeKALB – DeKalb Park District Vice President Per Faivre is leading a new committee to explore options for repairing or replacing Hopkins Pool. Park commissioners voted, 4-0, to create the committee, whose members will analyze data and compile a report with recommendations over the next six months. Faivre and park board Secretary
Keith Nyquist will serve on the committee and decide its makeup and schedule. Park board Treasurer Don Irving was absent from the vote. “My suggestion is we don’t have Phil Young 40 people on it, but let’s do our best to get good representation,” board President Phil Young said. DeKalb park leaders have ad-
opted a few different approaches for the 39-year-old pool in the past six months or so. The DeKalb Park District has until 2015 to submit to the state a plan to make Hopkins Pool, especially its locker rooms and entrances, comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Leaders had been planning to spend $5 million replacing the pool within its current footprint, but abandoned those plans shortly after three new commissioners were
Voice your opinion Do you use a public swimming pool during the summer months? Go to Daily-Chronicle.com to vote.
elected to the five-member board. Executive Director Cindy Capek also resigned in May after leaders negotiated a separation agreement in which the park district would continue to pay her salary for six
District 428 transition underway
months. DeKalb leaders briefly dis cussed partnering with the Sycamore Park District on a new pool. They abandoned those efforts last month, because DeKalb park leaders did not want to spend money on land for a joint facility. So this new committee will work to gather information and various viewpoints about the community’s needs for a public pool.
See POOL, page A4
Shutdown debates continue By DAVID ESPO The Associated Press
Monica Maschak – mmaschak@shawmedia.com
Doug Moeller shares his thoughts Wednesday during a meeting with DeKalb School District 428 principals and administrators. Moeller is the district’s next superintendent.
Next superintendent, who assumes role in June, already exercising influence By JILLIAN DUCHNOWSKI jduchnowski@shawmedia.com
D
eKALB – Doug Moeller kicked off each year he was principal of DeKalb High School by giving students his cellphone number over the intercom. “I said: ‘Please text; I’d prefer you text. If you call with a blocked number, I won’t respond to you,’ ”said Moeller, who was principal from 2009 to 2012. “It really helped a lot of students who maybe felt marginalized that they knew they could go directly to the principal if they had an issue.” He wanted to be accessible to students, and it’s a value he plans to carry on in his future role as superin-
tendent at DeKalb School District 428. After two years as assistant superintendent for curriculum and student services, he’s set to become superintendent when current Superintendent Jim Briscoe retires in June. Briscoe has led the district for six years. Briscoe and Moeller speak highly of each other: Moeller values Briscoe’s legacy of building partnerships with other community entities, from a meeting Tuesday with Northern Illinois University leaders to being a founding member of the local Partnership for Healthy Communities. Meanwhile, Briscoe complimented Moeller’s work shepherding the new DeKalb High School through the
About Doug Moeller Age: 56 Lives in: DeKalb Education: Bachelor’s degree in math and economics from Northern Illinois University, master’s degree from Aurora University and doctorate from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Interesting fact: Moeller served in the U.S. Marine Corps for six years building process, aligning curriculum to the Common Core standards and planning to make technology more prominent in everyday learning. As spring approaches, Briscoe
plans to let Moeller take a more central role to make the transition as smooth as possible. He’ll definitely let him have the final say for decisions about programs and procedures for next year. “Most of the time we’ll agree, but at the end of the day, it will end up in his lap,” Briscoe said. “We work so closely together that that hasn’t been an issue and it probably won’t be for the rest of the year.” Meanwhile, Moeller started the search for his replacement about two days after the school board approved his hire and signed him to a four-year contract Sept. 17.
See TRANSITION, page A4
WASHINGTON – On a day filled with both rising and falling hopes, President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans struggled inconclusively Thursday to find common ground that could avert an economy-tanking default and possibly end the 10-day-old partial government shutdown that has idled 350,000 federal workers. “We expect further conversations tonight,” Majority Lead- More on er Eric Cantor, shutdown R-Va., said cryptically, after he, NIU Antarctic Speaker John researchers affectBoehner and a ed by shutdown. delegation of PAGE A4 House Republicans had met for an hour or so with Obama at the White House. He spoke at dusk, long after Boehner first outlined a compromise proposal that the White House carefully avoided rejecting – only to have Senate Democrats declare it unacceptable. “Not going to happen,” Majority Leader Harry Reid said brusquely. The Republican plan would leave the shutdown in place while raising the nation’s $16.7 trillion debt limit and setting up negotiations between the GOP and Obama over spending cuts and other issues. Heartened by any hint of progress, Wall Street chose to accentuate the positive. After days of decline, the Dow Jones industrial average soared 323 points on hopes that the divided government was taking steps to avoid a default. Reid’s dismissive comments at the White House came at the end of the trading day. Senate Republicans forged ahead on an alternative of their own that would ease both the debt limit and shutdown crises at once. Officials said that it would require Obama to agree to some relatively modest changes to the health care law that stands as his signature domestic achievement.
Inside today’s Daily Chronicle Lottery Local news Obituaries
A2 A3-4 A4
National and world news Opinions Sports
Weather A2 A5 B1-6
Advice Comics Classified
C4 C5 C7-8
High:
76
Low:
53