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Four reasons to believe series can turn in Cubs’ favor / C1
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D-156 board OKs teachers contract By ALLISON GOODRICH agoodrich@shawmedia.com McHENRY – Unanimous approval of a teacher contract by the McHenry Community High School District 156 Board was given in a nearly empty board room – a starkly different atmosphere than that of
a recent board meeting that filled a high school auditorium. Monday’s 7-0 vote marked the official end of the extended and at-times tense contract negotiation process that brought on the district’s first strike in 30 years. Two weeks before, during
the strike, teachers were walking on their picket lines, students were describing missed activities, and more than 400 people attended a school board meeting where many spoke on behalf of either the school board or the roughly 150-member McHenry Community High School Educator’s Asso-
Pressure mounting for budget fight to end
ciation. Students missed seven days of school after the strike began Oct. 1. “We just look forward to business as usual,” said Gary Kinshofer, a lead negotiator for the board. “It’s good to have the kids back, the teachers back and it’s good to be work-
ing toward the same goals.” Approved was a three-year contract, ratified by the association Oct. 12 and effective retroactively from Aug. 16 to Aug. 15, 2018. The new agreement gives teachers average yearly step increases – raises based on years of service – of 3.6 percent
for two years, but no increase to the base salary. After two years, the current salary structure will expire and teachers in the third year of the contract will receive a dollar amount raise, equal to a half step, or about 1.8 percent.
See CONTRACT, page A6
TEACHING CHILDREN LEARNING’S BUILDING BLOCKS
By SARA BURNETT The Associated Press CHICAGO – Pressure is building for Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and majority Democrats to end their monthslong stalemate over Illinois’ budget, though lawmakers appear no closer to a deal as they reconvene on Tuesday for the first time in weeks. Fitch Ratings on Monday downgraded Illinois’ rating on $26 billion in outstanding bonds because of the crisis, and Moody’s Investors Service warned that the state’s inability to make its November pension payment could further hurt its already dismal credit rating. The United Way of Illinois said a survey of human service agencies shows more than three-quarters have cut Gov. Bruce services and alRauner most one-third expect to run out of money within a month. Meanwhile business and labor leaders and some of Rauner’s fellow Republicans – including former Gov. Jim Edgar – were stepping up calls for a truce. “It doesn’t help to continue fighting with each other ... We’ve got to get together, work together,” GOP Comptroller Leslie Munger, a Rauner appointee, told reporters Monday. “Everyone has to give some and get a balanced budget with reforms in place. The sooner we do it, the better off we’ll be.” Rauner and Democrats who run the Legislature have been fighting since spring over the budget for the July 1 fiscal year. Democrats want Rauner to agree to a tax increase to help close a roughly $5 billion budget hole, but the governor won’t approve a hike until the Legislature approves changes he wants, such as a property tax freeze and curbs to public-employee union powers. Fitch cited lawmakers’ budget failure, Illinois’ above-average debt and “exceptionally high” unfunded pension liabilities in lowering the rating on general obligation bonds to BBB-, a few levels above what’s considered “junk” status. Last week, Munger said Illinois won’t be able to make a scheduled $560 million payment to its pension funds because of cash flow problems. While Moody’s statement doesn’t indicate a change in Illinois’ rating, the agency said the missed payment could be a factor in future action.
H. Rick Bamman – hbamman@shawmedia.com
Sage YMCA preschool teacher Amanda Hutcheson reads from the “My “i” Book,” and quizzes her students recently at the facility in Crystal Lake. All the preschoolers that attended Sage YMCA of Metro Chicago met the benchmarks for kindergarten readiness – knowledge of basic concepts like colors, letters, numbers and counting, shapes, and sizes and comparisons – this past spring.
Preparation for what’s to come County preschools aim to prepare kids for Day One of kindergarten By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com CRYSTAL LAKE – Everything in the classroom is low to the ground. The room is painted in clean, natural colors, and the amount of primary colors is limited so preschoolers aren’t overloaded with sensory distractions. The building of the new Sage YMCA facility triggered a “re-energizing of the early-learning program,” said Christina Krasov, vice president of performance and improvement for the YMCA of Metro Chicago. “We were very intentional in the way we built out the classrooms and with the furniture and supplies we put in it,” she said. “We got down on our knees and looked at the world the way a 3- or 4-year-old would. Where are things located? Are the learning materials there available to them?” Sage has applied that systematic approach to its curriculum, too, staying up to date on the latest re-
“We got down on our knees and looked at the world the way a 3- or 4-year-old would. Where are things located? Are the learning materials there available to them?” Christina Krasov VP of performance and improvement for the YMCA of Metro Chicago search and immediately putting it to work in the classroom, Krasov said. And it seems to have paid off, she said. About 60 percent of students met the benchmarks for kindergarten readiness when tested this past spring using the Bracken School Readiness Assessment. The remaining 40 percent exceeded those standards. A baseline assessment conducted in the fall had shown the students at 4 percent not meeting, 80 percent meeting and 16 percent exceeding, according to documents provided by the YMCA of Metro Chicago.
Assessments of some kind – either informal or formal – are fairly common, said preschool teacher Jenny Baier, who is in her first year at House of Children in Woodstock. The goal is to make sure kids are ready to go to kindergarten, which they can attend at the House of Children or at their local school district. “Social skills are really, really important – being able to interact with kids, sitting at the tables and doing their work at the tables,” Baier said, adding that they also look at how high they can count and whether they know the alphabet. Kindergarten teachers at Three Oaks Elementary School in Cary
have noticed that more children are going to preschool after the numbers dropped during the recession, Principal Natalie Wishne said, adding that at one point, as many as 40 percent of children hadn’t gone to preschool. Preschool isn’t the only option for kids getting the skills they need on Day One, Wishne said, adding that park district classes can also help kids prepare and that while some kids struggle without the preparation preschool provides, others do just fine. “The biggest thing is that they know what school’s about,” she said. “They know that you sit and listen. They know there’s a time for free play. They know what the expectations are.” Not all preschools are created equal in preparing children for kindergarten, the YMCA’s Krasov said, adding that parents should look for the interactions between children and teachers, not just the bells and whistles that come with marketing.
See BUDGET, page A6
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