MONDAY
February 16, 2015 • $1.00
TAKING AIM Marengo’s Zach Knobloch aims for state’s most 3-pointers in a season / B1
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Cutting down on trips to hospital
COMPUTER SCIENCE IN McHENRY COUNTY
EDUCATION REBOOT
Centegra opens a pharmacy to reduce readmission rates By EMILY K. COLEMAN
ecoleman@shawmedia.com
Kyle Grillot – kgrillot@shawmedia.com
McHenry County College professor Cynthia Grieb (second from right), works with students Aaron Kurowski of McHenry (left), Josh Haymond of Wonder Lake and Richard Doucet of Lake in the Hills as they work on an assignment during an Applied Logic class Thursday in Crystal Lake. The U.S. Bureau of Statistics predicts that computer science will be the fastest-growing industry in the country; however, only about half of states are preparing students for jobs in computer science fields.
Some schools shift programming focus on fastest-growing industry By EMILY K. COLEMAN
ecoleman@shawmedia.com
W
“It was such a new field, something I had never learned in school. It was different from anything I had taken in school before. You’d be making these things with chips, and they’d be blinking. It seemed like magic to me.”
OODSTOCK – When Woodstock North High School tried to roll out a computer Bo DellaMaria, Crystal Lake Central graduate, who is now a senior at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign on how classes in high school helped him prepare for college programming class in Sidney Smith’s senior year, he and his friends immediatethe SAT college entrance exam. A kids signed up. ly signed up. new course in this area – one specifically aimed at increasing student en••• The 2013 graduate algagement, including among girls and ways had a fascination minorities who are underrepresented Some schools are pushing forwith computers, dating in the field – was announced this past ward, however, capitalizing on a growing interest in computer science, December. back to middle school All four of Crystal Lake-based Diswhen his father, a software which the U.S. Bureau of Statistics trict 155’s high schools have offered predicts will be the fastest-growing development manager, the course since the 1999-2000 school industry in the country. year, spokesman Jeff Puma said, Of the 102 schools across Illinois would bring home all that the district also offers an sorts of new devices to test that offer Advanced Placement Com- adding Introduction to Computer Science puter Science, six are in McHenry programs on, and he knew County. course and Project Lead the Way, a course designed to introduce students The program nationwide has that he wanted to go into grown by about 25 percent since 2013, to STEM (science, technology, engithat field. neering and math) subjects. said Zach Goldberg, the spokesman But the class never got District 158’s Huntley High for the College Board, the nonprofit off the ground. Not enough that administers the AP program and School has had it since at least the
2007-08 school year, the first year for which is the College Board has data. Jacobs High School in Algonquin added the class for the 2013-14 school year. And while District 200 hasn’t picked up the course, it has delved into the field, offering for the first time this year, a dual-credit course through McHenry County College in Web design fundamentals, district spokeswoman Carol Smith said. The district also plans to roll out three to five sections of dual-credit computer literacy classes, a prerequisite for many of MCC’s business programs, along with all four of District 155’s high schools, Johnsburg High School and tentatively Richmond-Burton Community High School, said Tony Capalbo, McHenry County College’s associate dean of college and career readiness. “The skills that they learn transcend beyond computer science,” said George Oslovich, District 200’s assistant superintendent for middle and high school education.
See COMPUTER SCIENCE, page A8
McHENRY – In an effort to keep patients from unnecessarily ending back up in the hospital, Centegra Hospital – McHenry just opened a pharmacy designed to make it easier for patients to get their prescribed medicines and eliminate an extra trip. With the Affordable Care Act and an escalating penalty system that was being exacted on health care providers’ Medicare payments, some hospitals have been taking a harder look at their readmission rates. The maximum penalty hospitals could see rose to 3 percent on Oct. 1, the beginning of the 2014-15 fiscal year, although none of the hospitals serving McHenry County approached that number. Centegra Hospital – McHenry’s penalty was calculated at 0.76 percent compared to the 1.39 percent ding to Centegra Hospital – Woodstock’s Medicare payments. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services calculate the penalty using the hospitals’ readmission rates for patients who initially enter the hospital for pneumonia, heart failure, heart attacks, hip or knee replacement, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and return within 30 days. One of the problems Centegra was seeing was that patients weren’t following up. They weren’t scheduling an appointment with their primary physician or picking up their prescriptions. To address that, Centegra started making sure that if a patient needs to come back for an appointment within seven days, they leave with that appointment already scheduled.
See HOSPITAL, page A8
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Rauner grapples with budget problems By KERRY LESTER
The Associated Press SPRINGFIELD – Gov. Bruce Rauner will lay out his plan on Wednesday to confront an unprecedented fiscal crisis exacerbated by the recent expiration of the state’s temporary income tax increase, a multibillion-dollar revenue loss that could foreshadow big spending cuts and test his campaign pledge to not raise taxes. By law, Rauner must develop a budget based on currently available funds. But the loss of the additional income tax AP photo revenue last month leaves a gaping hole Gov. Bruce Rauner speaks to students Tuesday during a visit to for the remainder of this fiscal year and Lanphier High School in Springfield. Rauner told students he needs to next year. Rauner has been tight-lipped about reallocate money from nonessential government services and move it his plan, but the Republican offered some over into essential services, such as education.
ON THE RECORD
Michael Hill McHenry County’s new health official hails from Texas / A3
hints in his State of the State address this Some state programs and services are month and at recent stops around Illinois. rapidly running out of funds. A state-subsidized day care program needs roughHere’s a look at the situation: ly $300 million more to continue helping low-income parents through June. The THE IMMEDIATE CRISIS A roughly $2 billion revenue gap is departments of Corrections and Revenue expected by the end of the fiscal year in also are running low on cash, as is the acJune because the $35.7 billion budget count used to pay court reporters. Richard Dye, an economist at the Unilawmakers passed last spring didn’t allocate enough money for expenses and versity of Illinois’ Institute for Governa decision on extending Illinois’ income ment and Public Affairs, called the state tax increase wasn’t taken up in the fall as of this year’s budget “worse than ever.” “The revenue and spending for this lawmakers heeded Rauner’s request not to address any “substantive” issues until year were overly aggressive, and no nechis January inauguration. As a result, the essary changes were made to restore baltax increase rolled back on Jan. 1, from ance,” Dye said. “What has emerged is a 5 percent to 3.75 percent for individuals, cash flow crisis, a payment crisis.” and from 7 percent to 5.25 percent for corporations. See RAUNER, page A8
Pigskin safety
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Sports Editor Jon Styf, expert: Is playing high school football safe? / B1
Resorts in New England expecting plenty of skiers / A4
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