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Saturday, April 26, 2014
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Clearing the air Hermes sets rumors straight By Goldie Currie gcurrie@bcrnews.com
SPRING VALLEY — At Wednesday’s Spring Valley Elementary School Board meeting, Superintendent Jim Hermes cleared the air about
rumors of residents’ property taxes “going through the roof” now that the John F. Kennedy’s new building addition is nearing completion. Hermes assured there will not be a jump in taxes due to JFK.
“Actually people have been paying for our building for the past five years,” he said. “I think that’s kind of been the misconception, because you didn’t see any progress for several years, then all of a sudden, you see the walls go up and the building is here.
“If anything, our tax rate will stay the same. Some years it drops and other years it bumps up by minimal pennies,” he continued. Hermes also reminded people that 75 percent of the addition project was funded by the state.
Board member Tom Vallero pointed out that Spring Valley residents will most likely see a tax increase, but it would not be from the SVE School District. “Not to point fingers,” he said. “They might be going up, but don’t blame the people at JFK. This has been in the process for years.”
Board President Ray Nolasco assured residents the school board had planned for the addition project and saved money knowing that it would go into the building project, so there would not have to be money borrowed
See SVE Page 4
PHS board hears from parent Graduation date debated By Donna Barker dbarker@bcrnews.com
PRINCETON — Concerns have been expressed to the Princeton High School Board of Education about this year’s PHS’s graduation date as well as the board’s decision to not rehire a certain teacher. At Wednesday’s meeting, parent Julia Mead said she wanted to speak to the board about a disappointment which could potentially impact her family for the second time, specifically the conflict with having PHS graduation on the same day as the state track meet. Her older son graduated from PHS three years ago and was unable to attend his graduation because he was part of a relay team that made it to the state track meet. This year, her daughter Zoe is a senior and has a good possibility of also making to the state track meet this May 24, which is the PHS graduation date, she said. Since the Illinois High School Association posts its schedule for the state track meets five years in advance, her recommendation would be to move the PHS graduation until the first Saturday in June, Mead said. She understands there are others who do not see the need to switch the graduation date, Mead said. Many people have
See PHS Page 4
BCR photo/Donna Barker
Bureau Valley School District library director Sharon Peterson reshelves books in the high school’s media center/library in Manlius. Bureau Valley was one of several area public school libraries receiving state grants as announced last week by Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White. The grants can be used to buy fiction and/or non-fiction books, educational CDs and DVDs, library subscriptions to electronic resources, and to improve technology by purchasing new computers or improving Wi-Fi connectivity, White said.
Library grants headed to local schools By Donna Barker dbarker@bcrnews.com
Several Bureau County public schools have been awarded state grants for their libraries. As announced April 17 by Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White, the DePue School District, Ohio High School, Ohio Grade School and Spring Valley Elementary School districts each received $750. The Bureau Valley School District received $807. Princeton Elementary received $812. The local schools are among the 656 public school districts statewide receiving the grants, which totaled nearly $1.4 million this year and will help libraries serving about 1.7 million students, White said.
On Tuesday, Ohio Grade and Ohio High schools library director Karla Norden said this grant is a yearly grant based on the number of students in the district. She has earmarked this year’s grant money for educational videos for classrooms and for eBooks in both the grade and high school buildings. Those videos and eBooks will cover a variety of topics, depending on the teachers’ needs and requests, she said. Looking at the value of a strong library, Norden said it’s important for a school to have a strong library to add to what the teachers are teaching in the classrooms and also to provide enjoyment reading for the students.
At the Princeton Elementary School District, library director Amy Haring said she divides the grant money between the district’s four media centers and has instructed the media center clerks to spend the money on non-fiction materials for student research. Also, she and the media clerks will try to find where the centers are lacking in non-fiction to help support the teachers in their classroom work. The big push with school libraries/media centers is for information literacy and to provide the ever-changing ability to collect and gather information to help guide students and staff, she said.
See Grants Page 3
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