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ShoDeen to propose development plan Project would include apartment complex, hotel along Lincoln Highway on property it owns along Lincoln Highway, Pearl Street and Anne Street and wants to build DeKALB – ShoDeen is once a 187-unit, five-story apartagain proposing an apartment ment complex and a 128-room, complex and hotel along Lin- four-story Marriott Spring Hill coln Highway. Suites hotel on its 4.5-acre site. The company plans to deBoth buildings would front molish its 13 vacant houses Lincoln Highway, with the
By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN
bkeeperman@shawmedia.com
apartments directly east of Pearl Street and the hotel next to those, said Dave Patzelt, ShoDeen construction president. “The plan coming forward is a mixed-used development,” he said. “The hotel would bring visitors to downtown DeKalb.” He added that having the
apartments close to the downtown area also would bring residential support to the retail, restaurant and entertainment venues in DeKalb’s downtown area. ShoDeen brought forward similar development plans in 2008 and 2014, but nothing has
materialized thus far. The hotel conference center proposed in 2014 would cost up to $36 million to build, which seemed unfeasible to city staff. Patzelt declined to give an estimate of what this project would cost, but said ShoDeen would again be seeking to dis-
cuss potential financial assistance with the city. The property is located in the city’s central area tax increment financing district, but no economic incentive agreements have been proposed so far.
See SHODEEN, page A6
Climate negotiators say global deal is close
ILLINOIS STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION RELEASES PARCC RESULTS
By KARL RITTER and ANGELA CHARLTON The Associated Press
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Littlejohn fourth-grade teacher Erin Lind helps a group of students with a lesson on their Chromebooks on Friday in her classroom. Littlejohn Elementary School scored among the highest in DeKalb District 428 on its Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers results.
Setting a benchmark School officials work to put PARCC results in context By RHONDA GILLESPIE rgillespie@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Some DeKalb County-area school superintendents aren’t putting much stock in their districts’ latest standardized test scores, saying the numbers don’t tell the full story of their students’ academic success. On Friday, the Illinois State Board of Education released Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers PARCC for individual students, schools and school districts. School leaders are now working to process the results and put them in context. “Right now, this being the first time that this test is being given, we don’t even know what it’s really assessing, and the degree to which the assessment is correlated to the Common Core state standards, which we are continuing to move our curriculum to,” DeKalb School District 428 Superintendent Doug Moeller said. Statewide, students in third through 11th grade took the PARCC test last spring. The test is a switch from the Illinois State Achievement Test and Prairie State Achievement Examination that had been administered for years. PARCC came about as the nation moved to the Common Core curriculum for public school chil-
Smith said. Students fell into one of five levels, with Level 1 being “did not yet meet expectations” and Level 5 showing “exceeded expectations.” Many local school officials said the scores might have been lower because it was a new test, and said this year’s data would have to be used as a starting point to judge future progress. DeKalb County’s smaller school districts were more likely, on average, to meet or exceed expectations – as indicated by scoring at Level 4 or 5. Among them, Somonauk District 432 led the way with 62.4 percent of elementary to high school students in the district meeting or Fourth-graders Shayden McNew (left), 9, and Jack Ager, 8, take turns reading besting state ELA expectations. The paragraphs from “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School” on Friday in Erin Lind’s district also was tops in the county classroom at Littlejohn Elementary School in DeKalb. in math, with nearly half (47.5) of students scoring higher than Level dren. Ten other states and the Dis- Tony Smith said. 3. The district has 795 students attrict of Columbia administered PARCC tested students in En- tending one of three schools there, the PARCC test last school year. glish language arts and literacy an elementary, middle and high It is said to be a better indicator of (ELA) and math. The state released school. what students know academically, its benchmark numbers last month. Somonauk was followed closely whether grade-schoolers are ready Smith said then that the baseline by Hinckley-Big Rock District 429. for high school, and more telltale numbers were lower than expect- The 692 students who attend one of about high-schoolers being ade- ed. The release of individual scores three schools there outperformed quately prepared to go on to college Friday show that some districts, state metrics. More than half of stuor start a career. schools and grade levels fall below dents (58 percent) met or exceeded “The PARCC results, for the the state’s numbers. expectations in ELA, with 43.8 perfirst time, ask a new question: ‘How “It is true, our kids are not where cent making the grade in math. ready are our children for what’s we need them to be. … What we coming?’ ” state Superintendent currently have is not acceptable,” See PARCC, page A9
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Study: NIU’s value to regional economy almost $900M a year / A3
Advice ................................ C4 Classified........................D1-4 Comics ............................... C5 Local News........................ A3 Lottery................................ A2 Nation&World.......... A2, 4-6
LE BOURGET, France – Talks on a global pact to fight global warming appeared to make progress late Friday, with some negotiators telling The Associated Press a deal was close. Negotiators emerged from meetings with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, the host of the talks, amid an air of optimism that had been lacking just hours earlier. Fabius was expected to present a new, potentially final draft of the elusive accord at 9 a.m. Saturday. “We are pretty much there,” Egyptian Environment Minister Khaled Fahmy, the chairman of a bloc of African countries, told the AP late Friday. “There have been tremendous developments in the last hours. We are very close.” A negotiator from a developed country was equally positive. “I think we got it,” said the negotiator, who was not authorized to speak publicly as the talks were not over yet. Negotiators from more than 190 countries in Paris are aiming to create something that’s never been done before: an agreement for all countries to reduce man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and help the poorest adapt to rising seas, fiercer weather and other impacts of global warming. This accord is the first time all countries are expected to pitch in – the previous emissions treaty, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, only included rich countries. The talks, originally scheduled to end Friday, dragged into an extra day as the French hosts said they needed more time to overcome disputes. A French official expressed confidence the draft to be presented Saturday would be the final one. The official was not authorized to speak publicly because the negotiations were ongoing. Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga of the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu also was upbeat. “The signals that have come to me give me encouragement that we are going to have a very ... comprehensive and strong agreement in Paris,” Sopoaga told the AP.
See CLIMATE, page A6
AP photo
Yellow paint is poured on the street Friday during a protest by activists from environmental group Greenpeace on the Champs-Elysee in Paris.
Obituaries .........................A4 Opinion..............................A11 Puzzles ............................... C4 Sports..............................B1-4 State .............................. A4, 9 Weather ........................... A10