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O c to ber 8, 2015 • $1 .0 0
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D-156 strike affects events
NATIONAL LEAGUE WILD CARD GAME: CUBS 4, PIRATES 0
Game forfeited; dance postponed By ALLISON GOODRICH agoodrich@shawmedia.com
Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo (right) holds Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta after they defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-0, in the National League Wild Card game Wednesday in Pittsburgh. AP photo
WILD CARD WINNERS Cubs shut out Pirates, advance to take on St. Louis in NL Division Series
AP photo
Morrissey: Jake Arrieta delivers complete game in ‘Game 7’ situation Cubs don’t flinch after benches-clearing incident in seventh inning
McHENRY – An event often seen as the mark of a fresh school year has been scrapped in McHenry Community High School District 156 as an ongoing teachers strike will enter its sixth day Thursday. On Wednesday, the district’s football team forfeited its homecoming game, which was slated for 7:15 p.m. Friday at McCracken Field in McHenry. The team was set to host Dundee-Crown High School. The homecoming dance, originally scheduled for Saturday, also has been postponed and will be rescheduled, according to a post on the district website. “Other major homecoming activities continue to be reviewed for rescheduling,” the notice said, adding the administrative team will meet with student leaders once the strike ends to gather input on how to revise the school calendar. The McHenry Community High School Educators’ Association and school board will be back at the bargaining table at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in an effort to get roughly 2,600 students back in school after they will now have missed six days of class and a slew of other activities. Union spokeswoman Heidie Dunn said the negotiation session was set based on school board members’ availability. Because the negotiation session doesn’t start until Thursday night, the football team would not be able to practice for the mandated amount of time before a game, under an IHSA rule requiring teams that miss seven straight days of practice to hold three practices on separate days before playing in a game. The picket lines started again Wednesday and will proceed Thursday morning after a nearly ninehour session ended without a deal. It began at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and lasted until about 4 a.m. Wednesday. While there was obvious disappointment an agreement was not reached, officials from both the union and school board took on more optimistic tones than have been taken after previous sessions.
MLB PLAYOFF COVERAGE IN SPORTS
See STRIKE, page A6
Agreement fully restores McHenry County VAC’s support By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com WOODSTOCK – A question over whether the support that the McHenry County Veterans Affairs Commission gets from county government is legal, which resulted in a brief closure of the office, was settled with an intergovernmental agreement. The VAC last month voluntarily suspended most of
its services for about a week in the wake of a legal opinion that concluded that county government cannot provide it with human resources and other support without an official agreement in place. County Board members on Tuesday approved the agreement with a 20-0 vote. Board members approved the agreement without debate as part of the consent agenda. But member Andrew Gasser,
What it means
leaders and VAC leadership for moving fast to resolve the problem. The McHenry County Board “You all displayed incredivoted Tuesday, 20-0, to approve ble leadership on this and gave an intergovernmental agreement us the tools we needed with that allows the Veterans Assistance a minimal break in service,” Commission to continue to receive Gasser, R-Fox River Grove, logistical support from county said. government. Although managerially independent under state law, a retired Air Force officer and the VAC in its 26 years esthe County Board’s liaison to sentially has been treated as the VAC, praised both county another county agency, with
the county covering its human resources and liability insurance needs. But a July legal opinion by the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office concluded its statutory independence means an official intergovernmental agreement between the VAC and the county is required to get that support. The opinion, requested by an individual seeking clarification on whether the VAC is
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truly an independent entity, was based in large part on an April appellate court ruling over a lawsuit filed about an ongoing political feud over control of the VAC in Grundy County. Because questions about the agreement at the County Board committee level slowed the progress of the intergovernmental agreement, VAC
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See VAC, page A6