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Febr uar y 11 , 201 5 • $1 .0 0
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DeKalb grad Brown hits the gridiron early with the Illini / B1 HIGH
LOW
34 6
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D-427 looking at $3.8M in cuts Proposal would take place over 3 years and include staff reductions By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – Sycamore School District 427 has been presented with a plan to cut costs for the district over the next three years, Superintendent Kathy Countryman delivered the plan during Tuesday’s board meeting at West School. The
proposal suggests cuts across several areas, which would reduce or entirely eliminate teaching positions, including special education and English Language Learner positions, realigning student support services such as special education, library and health. The board will vote on the proposal Feb. 24 at Sycamore Middle School, the board’s
next meeting. “Our goal is to provide quality programs for our kids, but we can’t continue to deficit-spend,” Countryman said. “This is an uncomfortable conversation. We’re so focused on the work of it, but there’s still a few people who’s jobs are in limbo.” To keep the district from operating with a deficit, the re-
ductions will take place across three years – $1.6 million worth of cuts in the first year, $1.5 million in the second year, and $700,000 in the third year, totaling $3.8 million. District Director of Finance Services Nicole Stuckert said the district is heading toward operating with a budget
“Our goal is to provide quality programs for our kids, but we can’t continue to deficit-spend. This is an uncomfortable conversation. We’re so focused on the work of it, but there’s still a few people who’s jobs are in limbo.” Kathy Countryman District 427 superintendent
See DISTRICT 427, page A7
Ariz. town mourns American woman held by terror group By FELICIA FONSECA The Associated Press
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Treveda Redmond, an eighth-grade language arts teacher at Clinton Rosette Middle School, laughs as she talks to former student and now Spanish teacher Maurice McDavid, before the screening of “Selma” at the Carmike Market Square 10 on Tuesday in DeKalb. Redmond started the fundraising campaign to pay for the movie tickets and cost of buses for 205 Clinton Rosette eighth-graders to view the movie during Black History Month. Their $2,000 goal was met Saturday.
Screening ‘Selma’ for students Internet fundraising campaign helps students see film By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Casey Yarak had heard mixed reviews about the recent Martin Luther King Jr. biopic “Selma.” “I heard it was really good, but I also heard the guy who played Lyndon B. Johnson wasn’t that good,” said Yarak, an eighth-grader at Clinton Rosette Middle School in DeKalb. Ezequiel Lopez, another Clinton Rosette eighth-grader, heard that the film depicting the King’s leadership of the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to secure voting rights “has some really violent scenes.”
On Tuesday, Lopez and Yarak were two of the 205 Clinton Rosette Middle School students who packed Carmike Market Square 10 theater in DeKalb for a private screening of the Golden Globe-winning, Oscar-nominated film. “I think it’s going to be accurate on what happened there,” Lopez said before the film. The field trip was made possible through a GoFundMe campaign that raised $2,000 to cover bus transportation for the students from the middle school to the theater, and the cost of their movie tickets. The
See SELMA, page A7
Clinton Rosette eighth-grader Mia Castaneda (right) talks to classmates Genesis Wright (left) and Arieyana Cooper before the screening of “Selma” at the Carmike Market Square 10 on Tuesday in DeKalb.
PRESCOTT, Ariz. – The small Arizona town where Kayla Jean Mueller grew up gathered in grief Tuesday upon learning that the 26-year-old aid worker who traveled the world on a quest to help others had died while in the hands of Islamic State militants. A small memorial on the courthouse plaza in Prescott began to grow rapidly as word spread that Mueller’s death had been confirmed. In Washington, President Barack Obama pledged to bring Mueller’s captors to justice “no matter how long it takes.” Muller’s 18-month captivity had largely been kept secret in an effort to save her. The Islamic State group reported Friday that she had died in a recent Jordanian airstrike targeting the militants. On Tuesday, her parents and U.S. officials confirmed her death, but the Pentagon said she died at the hands of Islamic State itself, not in any airstrike. “What a fine, fine woman and a tribute to Prescott,” said 15-year resident Tina Nemeth. “It’s just so sad, it really is, and everyone feels exactly the same. It’s a shock it hit Prescott. We’re not that big of a town.” The former territorial capital of Arizona has only recently begun to recover from a devastating 2013 wildfire that claimed the lives of 19 members of an elite firefighting squad. Stickers featuring the fire crew’s logo and bearing the number “19” are still fixed to vehicles all around town. The mountain town of 40,000 people resembles a relic of the Old West in many ways, with its colorful downtown saloons and a dirt road leading out of town to where Mueller’s family lives. Its picturesque downtown courthouse lawn is recognizable to outsiders who still
recall it as the site of the dramatic martial-arts fight scene in the 1971 film “Billy Jack.” On Tuesday, that lawn was crammed with members of the media gathered to hear an emotional, often tearful tribute from Mueller’s family and friends. “All these stories about Kayla, she sounds so extraordinary,” said the Rev. Kathleen Day, who heads the United Christian Ministry at Northern Arizona University, where Mueller attended college. “What was so extraordinary about Kayla was she did ordinary things to extraordinary measures,” Day continued. “She gave people food. She gave people water.” She even befriended her captors, the reverend added, at one point trying to teach them origami. And she wrote passionately about conditions in war-torn Syria, where she had gone to help refugees. “Every human being should act. They should stop this violence,” Day said, quoting one of Mueller’s blog posts. Her aunt Lori Lyon said Mueller accomplished more in her 26 years than most people do in a lifetime, adding that her death had “touched the heart of the world.” From Jordan, government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani offered his country’s condolences. The White House said Obama had spoken with Mueller’s parents and offered his prayers. The president said Mueller “epitomized all that is good in our world.” Arizona Sen. John McCain hailed Mueller’s humanitarian work in a speech from the Senate floor. “After graduating from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff in 2009, Kayla committed her life to helping people in need around the world – first in India, then Israel and the Palestinian territories and
See MUELLER, page A7
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DeKalb High evacuated because of the smell of natural gas / A3
Indian Creek heads to regional championship by beating LaMoille / B1
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