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D-156 negotiations yield no deal School board, teachers union can’t reach agreement after public speaks out at meeting By ALLISON GOODRICH agoodrich@shawmedia.com and CAITLIN SWIECA cswieca@shawmedia.com McHENRY – McHenry Community High School District 156 teachers will be back on their picket lines Tuesday morning
as another negotiation session with the school board produced no agreement. “We’re disappointed it didn’t get done tonight, but we’ll be back at it tomorrow,” said Heidie Dunn, spokeswoman for the McHenry Community High School Educators’ Association,
Man gets jail time as part of plea deal
after the roughly 2½-hour session. Another session is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the board office. Lead negotiator for the board, Gary Kinshofer, said the two parties exchanged ideas during the session, but no idea
gained any momentum before the sides mutually decided to call it a night. “It became apparent we wouldn’t get it solved tonight [Monday],” he said. The time at the bargaining table followed a 12-hour session that began Sunday night and
stretched into Monday morning. The two parties met about 9 p.m. Monday after the regular school board meeting, which began at 7 p.m. and brought more than 400 people to the auditorium at McHenry High School West Campus.
During the public comment portion, more than 20 people stood to speak, many of whom did so clad in orange T-shirts in support of the union, while a smaller, yet loudly supported, number of individuals got up to
See D-156, page A4
Civics lessons gain momentum
Daughter’s legs, ribs broken in incident By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com WOODSTOCK – A Richmond man admitted Monday to fracturing his daughter’s legs and ribs, although he maintains the injuries were the result of an accident. David J. Nedvar, 27, pleaded guilty to the crime, and was sentenced to 60 days in jail and 18 months of probation. He also must undergo psychiatric counseling and already has completed parenting classes. Nedvar was arrested in September 2014 and charged with aggravated battery to a child, a Class X felony. The charge was reduced to a lesser Class 3 felony, and remaining charges were dismissed upon entering a guilty plea. Authorities said the girl was 2 or 3 months old when she sustained her injuries. Nedvar was carrying the child in the dark and tripped over a diaper bag, his defense attorney Alan Lenczycki said. The girl, now a year old, since has been placed in the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services with a family member of the child’s mother. Nedvar has no parental rights to the child, and he has had no contact with her since his arrest. McHenry County Judge Michael Feetterer was apprehensive to accept an initial plea deal, in which the prosecutors agreed to just the probation term. “Why is there no jail time?” Feetterer asked Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Combs. Combs, who also is chief of the criminal division, noted Nedvar’s limited criminal history, and said the child has made a full recovery. Nedvar and the girl’s mother have another 3-month-old baby boy together, and attorneys reported to the judge Nedvar is fully compliant with child support payments for him and is allowed supervised visits with his son. Still, Feetterer would not accept a plea deal that didn’t include time behind bars. “I’m having a hard time getting around the injuries to the baby,” Feetterer told the attorneys. “… There’s no way I’m going to accept this plea without jail time.” Attorneys then revised the plea to include two months in jail. Nedvar will remain free on bond until Nov. 6, when he will be remanded to the custody of the McHenry County Jail for his sentence, which must be served in its entirety.
Photos by H. Rick Bamman – hbamman@shawmedia.com
Prairie Ridge High School students Katie Burris (left) and Allie Cole discuss their whale debate topic with teacher and department chairman John Pellikan after class Sept. 14. Pellikan is one of several Prairie Ridge social sciences teachers who have stepped up teaching current events and holding debates in U.S. history classes because a civics course is not offered at the school. Students entering high school for the 2016-17 school year will be required to take a one-semester civics course under a law recently signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Area high schools incorporating current events, debates into the classroom By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com CRYSTAL LAKE – Two Prairie Ridge High School students stood at the front of the class fielding questions from their classmates. Katie Burris and Allie Cole had just wrapped up a presentation on the ethics of SeaWorld keeping orca whales in captivity, a weekly enterprise in John Pellikan’s U.S. history class. Encouraged by Pellikan, the discussion questioned what is missing from the narratives being pushed by SeaWorld and its opponents, who is behind the research cited by both sides, and how this compares to the captivity of other animals for research and food production. The weekly debates give students a chance to try their hand at the skills they need to be good citizens, and the class is not the only place these lessons are popping up at Prairie Ridge, Pellikan said. The Community High School District 155 school was recognized this year as an Illinois Democracy School by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, a Chicago-based nonprofit working to improve civic engagement through education. A total of 41 schools have been
slogan “Democracy is a verb” as part of its crusade to spread civics instruction throughout the building, Pellikan said. Posters have been scattered across the building. A bulletin board in one of the front hallways is filled with opportunities for students, and come election season, with information about candidates. Veterans are brought in to speak for Veterans Day, and care packages have been put together for service members. School officials hope to make more simulation opportunities available to students through clubs, such as the Model United Nations for Global Connected Conferences, Pellikan said. They’re also thinking about establishing a Lyceum Club, which would host lunch hour debates on controversial issues and Teacher John Pellikan encourages thoughtful questions from the class during a encourage students to get involved debate about captive whales. outside of school. But what the school doesn’t have named democracy schools, 10 of having an organizational culture is a civics course. The McCormick Foundation them joining the list this fall. that supports this, and connecting Prairie Ridge High School is the the school with the community, said was behind a successful push to get only school in McHenry County to Shawn Healy, the nonprofit’s civic a one-semester civics course incorporated into the state’s high school have earned this recognition. learning and engagement scholar. The Crystal Lake-based school “Why can’t we talk about contro- graduation requirements. The law laying out what the exemplifies what the McCormick versial issues in a health class?” he Foundation is looking for in terms said. “Why can’t we do a mock trial course should entail – a focus on of civic instruction by incorporating in English class?” civics lessons across the curriculum, Prairie Ridge has adopted the See CIVICS, page A5
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