DAILY CHRONICLE
November 21-22, 2015 • $1.50
WEEKEND SERVING DEKALB COUNTY SINCE 1879
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Alderman seeks council pay raise DeKalb city staff collected data comparing salaries with 12 similar municipalities By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com
and BRETT ROWLAND browland@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Dave Baker, 6th Ward alderman, wants to more than double the pay of DeKalb City Council members to encourage more candidates to run for elected positions, but his push for a pay hike comes as the city struggles to find money for everything from
pension payments to road repairs. “Five-thousand dollars is ridiculously low,” Baker said of the $5,400 a year paid to members of the City Council. “It should be at least $12,000.” The council is set to discuss the pay issue at its meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the DeKalb Municipal Center, 200 S. Fourth St. At Baker’s request, city staff compiled pay data for
elected officials in other municipalities for the council members to use in reviewing pay for elected officials including the mayor, aldermen and city clerk. Baker said council members who are better paid will perform better. “I see a degradation to the integrity of the council,” he said. “We let things go by that we know are wrong because no one has the energy or incen-
Sex education expanded to lower grades
tive to delve in and stop it.” City Council members are paid $5,400 a year. City staff compiled compensation data for 12 comparable municipalities with council salaries ranging from $1,400 a year in Streamwood to $16,423 a year in Romeoville. The median pay for those 13 municipalities was $5,400. Romeoville’s council pay was more than double the second highest on the list, Hoffmann Estates ($7,400).
DeKalb’s $5,400 was above the median of $5,000 in a comparison with four other college towns, including Champaign ($5,000) and Carbondale ($4,200). DeKalb’s pay also is above the median of $4,800 on a list of other nearby communities, including Cortland ($2,400) and Rochelle ($5,000). Bob Snow, 4th Ward alderman, said that although there was never a good time to look at pay for elected officials,
he felt it was appropriate to review the data on a regular basis. City code calls for reviewing the compensation each June before a municipal election, according to a staff memo. “I have no strong feelings one way or another, but [pay] hasn’t changed in several years,” he said. “It should be reviewed.”
See RAISE, page A7
SEASON OF CELEBRATION UNDERWAY
Teachers hope to educate students to prevent assault By LISA LEFF and JENNIFER C. KERR The Associated Press BELMONT, Calif. – This is the new look of high school sex ed: A roomful of teens, 14-yearolds mostly, is told that a girl and boy meet at a school dance. The boy drives her home. They kiss. What happens next, over the girl’s protests, leaves him confused and her crying, no longer a virgin. “Raise your hands if you think this was rape,” health educator Justin Balido asks the Carlmont High School freshmen, drawing them into a debate that has preoccupied college administrators, lawmakers and the courts. Sex education in American schools is evolving beyond slideshows on reproductive biology and lectures on avoiding pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The new focus: teaching students communication skills, such as the “yes means yes” standard for seeking and giving consent during intimate encounters. After taking hold on college campuses, “yes means yes,” also known as affirmative consent, is trickling down to high schools and even some middle schools, as educators seek to give students tools to combat sexual violence. “Yes means yes” means sex is consensual only when both partners are sober and clearly state their willingness to participate through “affirmative, conscious and voluntary agreement,” every step of the way. Are high schoolers ready for this? Many groups that promote an abstinence approach to sex education think not. They worry that the effort to prevent sexual assaults is giving too many teenagers the idea that sex is OK. “In the midst of this conversation, are the root causes being addressed? I would argue that they really aren’t,” Valerie Huber, president of Ascend, formerly called the National Abstinence Education Association, said. “This discussion is getting reduced to a palliation rather than a solution.”
See EDUCATION, page A7
AP file photo
Nathan Zanecki (right) speaks next to Marta Baumann during a ninth-grade Teen Talk High School class Oct. 8 at Carlmont High School in Belmont, Calif. Sex education in some American high schools is evolving beyond pregnancy and disease prevention to include lessons aimed at curbing sexual assaults.
Photos by Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Amanda Veldhuizen, dressed as the Snow Queen from “The Nutcracker,” dances in the window of the Allstate Insurance storefront Fridayas part of the annual Moonlight Madness in downtown Sycamore. Veldhuizen is a dance student at Beth Fowler School of Dance.
Festive Friday gathering Sycamore kicks off holiday season with Moonlight Madness By KATIE SMITH ksmith@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Children pressed their faces against the glass of a local shop window Friday to stand nose-to-nose with the group of puppies on display during Sycamore’s Moonlight Madness. Sycamore kicked off its winter shopping season Friday with live window displays and special sales. From carolers on the sidewalk during the year’s first snowfall, to the Ebenezer Scrooge hard at work at the National Bank and Trust, the city’s downtown was prepared to ring in the holiday season, said Sycamore Chamber of Commerce Events and Marketing Assistant Amber Gerardy-Robinson. “It’s an evening dedicated to shopping, eating, live window displays and fun for the family,” she said. Displays included Beth Fowler School of Dance’s scenes from “The Nutcracker,” as well as drum performances by the Friends of Jane Adeny Memorial School. One of the most popular displays, however, didn’t need any
Barb and Randy Spears brave the first snow of the season Friday for the annual Moonlight Madness in downtown Sycamore. theatrics to draw a crowd in. The wet noses and wagging tails of adoptable TAILS Humane Society puppies was enough bring people to D&D Jewelers, 303 W. State St. The shop’s owner, Dawn Sukach, has been bringing her dog to
work for the past year, but decided to invite five more for Friday’s event. “We always try to do something with TAILS,” Sukach said. “I wanted to do something a little bit more for the holidays. “
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Gerardy-Robinson was hoping the snow would help set the evening’s tone, but some businesses such as Shop in Style, 308 W. State St., noticed fewer shoppers.
See MOONLIGHT, page A7
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