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Thursday, April 3, 2014
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Moffitt, LaHood address PES Board School safety, Common Core, finances top the discussion By Donna Barker dbarker@bcrnews.com
PRINCETON – The new Common Core learning standards, finances and school safety were three of the topics discussed during a special joint meeting Monday between
the Princeton Elementary School Board, State Sen. Darin LaHood and State Rep. Don Moffitt. School safety plans Board member Terry O’Neill brought up the issue of school safety, saying he would like to see boards allowed to dis-
cuss school safety plans in closed session. There are currently about 20 reasons allowing a board to go into closed session, but school safety and security isn’t one of them. The details of a school safety plan is something that might not want to be made public because there could be a risk in making those details public, he said.
LaHood said he’s not aware of any current discussion about school safety discussions to be held in closed session. The current trend is for more transparency and for more to be done in open meetings. Unfortunately, if a tragedy does happen because school safety information has been put out there, then that defeats the purpose of the safety plan.
However, the Attorney General’s office is very strict about the Open Meetings Act, and school districts would have to justify the need, a potential harm or threat to students or staff, in order to move into closed session to discuss school safety, LaHood said. Moffitt said he also hasn’t heard of any current discussion on allow-
ing school safety plans as an exemption to the Open Meetings Act, but he sees the board’s concern. Obviously, there are things that protect students which should only be known to emergency personnel and administration. There is a need for more discussion on the issue, he said.
See PES Page 2
Gearing up for Easter Western Bureau County Food Pantry to distribute hams By Donna Barker dbarker@bcrnews.com
SHEFFIELD — The Western Bureau County Food Pantry in Sheffield is gearing up for the Easter season with a planned distribution of hams for its patrons. On Tuesday, pantry codirector Mary Lanham said she has ordered 80 hams which will be distributed April 16 to patrons, during the regular distribution hours of 9-11 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. People have been preregistering for the hams for about five weeks now. The food pantry serves about 80-90 families a month, and more hams can be gotten if needed, she said. Financial donations are always greatly appreciated to help cover the costs of the Easter hams, Lanham said. As another special outreach, the food pantry also recently gave out spring cleaning buckets to its patrons, which included seven different cleaning products, Lanham said. The last time the food pantry was able to distribute spring cleaning buckets was four years ago, thanks to a United Way grant. Cleaning products can be expensive, and if a family has to choose between milk or Mr. Clean, they will choose the milk, she said.
See Pantry Page 4
BCR photo/Goldie Currie
Christian Mendez (from left), Isaac Reyes, James Yundt and Carlos “Alex” Acosta address the DePue School Board Tuesday evening. The students were among several other people who spoke to the board in hopes of changing the graduation date back to its traditional Friday.
‘Bleeding orange and blue ...’ Graduation is back on a Friday By Goldie Currie gcurrie@bcrnews.com
DEPUE — DePue students spoke, and their voices were heard at a special school board meeting on Tuesday evening. The meeting was held at the request of the seniors and eighth-graders who were disappointed at the board’s decision to keep graduation on a Sunday, as opposed to moving it back to the traditional Friday. In March, the option to move graduation was voted down by board members Nickole Barto, Paul Bosnich, Karen Miranda and Juan Ruiz. Their reasoning was that stu-
dents had not presented enough evidence that proved holding graduation on a Sunday would interfere with celebrations and families traveling to DePue for the ceremony. The decision didn’t set well with students, and they refused to accept the board’s decision. Instead, they gathered after school, did their research and collected evidence that would prove to school board members that moving graduation back to Friday would be the best option. At the special meeting, students approached the board with research findings, surveys they had performed with teachers, staff and community members, and letters they had collected from alumni students who also sided with a Friday ceremony.
Senior James Yundt shared the top circumstances that he said were overlooked when the board decided to set graduation on a Sunday. “Not many places deliver flowers on a Sunday, so that would be an issue. Finding a photographer to work on a Sunday might be an issue; and no janitor works on Sunday night, so you’re going to leave (the mess) sitting around for Monday morning,” he said. Senior Christian Mendez brought up tradition. “We want to try to keep as many things as we can a tradition,” he said, adding
See DePue Page 4
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