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D-156 union approves contract McHenry high school students back in classrooms Tuesday By ALLISON GOODRICH agoodrich@shawmedia.com McHENRY – School is officially back in session Tuesday for about 2,600 McHenry high school students after a long-disputed teachers contract was ratified by the union Monday afternoon. The McHenry Community High School Educators’ Association voted favorably on a contract after a sevenschool-day strike and numerous negotiation sessions with the school board. The McHenry Community High School
District 156 Board will vote on the contract at its Oct. 19 meeting. “I feel very much relieved,” said Gary Kinshofer, lead negotiator for the school board. “I’m excited to get back to business as usual, to get the kids back in school, to get some normalcy back into everybody’s lives, and to let the community start healing.” Throughout the negotiations, at times contentious, the two sides remained at odds over teacher compensation, specifically the salary schedule structure. Insurance con-
tributions after the 4.5 percent increase in premiums also was a point of debate. Both the union and the school board had to bend in order to reach an agreement, Kinshofer and union spokeswoman Heidie Dunn said. “There was actually a lot of movement on both sides,” Dunn said. Details of the accepted proposal had not yet been made available as of Monday afternoon, but from Kinshofer’s perspective, neither side got exactly what it wanted. “I think the true definition
of negotiating is nobody leaves extremely happy, but nobody leaves completely upset either,” he said. “I think it’s a good contract for the district and the teachers going forward. “Each side accomplished some of their goals, but no one got all of their goals.” While the parties engaged in hours of negotiations over the last week and a half, it’s the students who have been left withSarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com out class, extracurriculars, or co-curricular activities while McHenry teacher Adrianna Stull arrives Monday at McHenry West High
See D-156, page A5
School to vote on whether to ratify the tentative agreement reached by the District 156 board and the teachers union early Saturday.
SCHOOLS USING TEACHER INPUT, PURCHASED MATERIALS TO MEET NEW STANDARDS
Debate a chance for O’Malley, other Dems The ASSOCIATED PRESS
meant writing new curriculum on their own, using outsourced materials or both. In McHenry County, the approach among several districts has been the last. That sounds like a “best-ofboth-worlds” approach to Janine Remillard, researcher for the Consortium for Policy Research in Education and associate professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania. “If teachers are being brought together, and being provided with really good training to learn about the critical features of the standards, and are provided enough time to work together to adapt their materials, that could be quite good,” Remillard said. Her concerns, she said, come when teachers are left without adequate time and opportunity to develop an understanding of the standards.
DES MOINES, Iowa – Stuck far behind Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Martin O’Malley needs a breakout moment in the party’s first debate to catch up to the front-runners. And he knows it. “This will really be the first time that nationally voters see that there’s more than one alternative to this year’s inevitable front-runner, Secretary Clinton,” O’Mal- Martin ley said. O’Malley “It’s a very, very important opportunity for me to not only present my vision for where the country should head, but also 15 years of executive experience, actually Jim Webb accomplishing the progressive things some of the other candidates can only talk about,” he said. The former governor of Maryland and mayor of Baltimore got into the race at Lincoln the end of May, after Chafee telegraphing for some time his plans to seek the White House in 2016. The entries of the two others who will be onstage Tuesday night in Las Vegas, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee, were surprises to most. But all three have one thing in common – an inability so far to generate any of the enthusiasm among voters that has pushed Sanders into and kept Clinton at the top of the field. All three poll in low single digits in early preference surveys, well below even Vice President Joe Biden, who has yet to say if he’ll make a late entry into the race. O’Malley has been openly critical of the Democratic National Committee and the decision to hold six primary debates, with four scheduled in early primary states before the Iowa caucuses Feb. 1. He has mounted a push for the party to expand the number, even encouraging protests in front of Democratic Party headquarters.
See COMMON CORE, page A5
See DEBATE, page A5
Photos by Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
Peter Kupfer, director of curriculum and instruction for District 158, talks with parents Sept. 28 at Marlowe Middle School in Huntley about Common Core during an informative meeting about the new curriculum.
McHenry County districts build Common Core-aligned curriculum By ALLISON GOODRICH agoodrich@shawmedia.com HUNTLEY – Second-graders at Mackeben Elementary School last spring were using tablets and makeshift credit cards, making transactions to “buy” everyday classroom items. Consolidated School District 158 teachers were piloting a lesson that provided a hands-on experience to teach elementary students how to add, subtract and make change out of money – part of the new Common Core state standards, second-grade teacher Robin Doubek explained. “We used our technology, and kids created their own family groups,” said Doubek, who’s part of a four-person group reviewing ways to align the second-grade math curriculum with the new standards. “They were responsible for purchasing items every day, learning how to balance a
Parents at Marlowe Middle School in Huntley pack the theater Sept. 28 during an informative meeting about the new Common Core curriculum. checkbook, understanding supply and demand.” In 2010, Illinois adopted the new standards, which emphasize depth over breadth – a more comprehensive understanding of
concepts and the ability to apply knowledge to real-world situations. Since then, school districts across the state have been working to roll out lessons in line with the new rigor, whether that has
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