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City plans special census
WOODSTOCK SCHOOL DISTRICT 200’S PHYSICAL EDUCATION REVAMPED
’16 count part of Woodstock bid for home rule By STEPHEN Di BENEDETTO sdibenedetto@shawmedia.com
Photos by H. Rick Bamman – hbamman@shawmedia.com
Physical education teacher Jackie Anderson (right) directs her class in basketball fundamentals Thursday at Olson Elementary School in Woodstock. Woodstock School District 200 received a $550,000 million federal grant last year, which they’ve used in part to revamp their kindergarten through fifth-grade physical education curriculum. Despite efforts by some districts to improve student health, a growing number of parents don’t think schools are helping their child be healthy. BELOW: Olson Elementary School student Kayla Hernandez (left) looks to pass to a teammate while learning fundamentals of basketball in gym class Thursday.
A heartfelt change McHenry County schools move focus toward lifelong fitness By EMILY K. COLEMAN
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ecoleman@shawmedia.com WOODSTOCK – The ball moved haltingly as the fifth-graders in Jackie Anderson’s physical education class scrambled to get open. The game was a new one, rolled out as part a physical education curriculum overhaul for kindergarten through the fifth grade at Woodstock Community Unit School District 200’s six elementary schools. The role school districts play in keeping kids healthy and active has garnered increasing attention over the past decade as childhood obesity numbers worried parents, health officials and policy makers. But despite the attention – or perhaps because of it – fewer parents would say their school is helping their child be healthier, down 13 percentage points since 2011, according to a Phi Delta Kappa/ Gallup Poll released this past Sep-
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tember. The problem might be that not all school districts have the resources, said Keely Krueger, Dis-
trict 200’s director of grants, language and culture. And not all schools have a grant writer, added Melinda Etnyre, a
physical education program instructional coach. “You have a set amount of resources, and you’re trying to do a lot in many different areas,” Krueger said. “That’s why we are very lucky to have this grant because it is helping us to move things ahead even faster than we would normally be able to do.” District 200 is wrapping up the first year of a $1.38 million, threeyear federal grant. During that first year, the district revamped its physical education curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade, buying the
WOODSTOCK – City officials are planning a special census count in their upcoming budget, as Woodstock officially stands 230 people shy from a population total that would automatically expand the city’s taxing authority. City Manager Roscoe Stelford said his staff believes Woodstock’s population will surpass 25,000 residents by mid 2016, almost six years after the official 2010 U.S. Census count put the city’s population at 24,770 residents. Roscoe A 2016 spe- Stelford cial census count that verifies the larger population means the state would automatically grant Woodstock home-rule status, granting the city broader taxing and licensing authority. The city also would see larger reimbursements from state shared revenues, such as income taxes, Stelford said. “We are 230 people short. Home rule definitely has an impact,” Stelford said. “It gives council more options as far as budgetary fixes. No doubt, home rule provides nothing but more options to address all sorts of issues in the community.” The city’s proposed 2015-16 budget, which begins May 1, will include about $60,000 to start the work needed to bring U.S. census takers into Woodstock by spring 2016, Stelford said. Officials would then fund the remaining half of a special census – estimated at $120,000 total – in the 2016-17 budget, since the special count would span both budget years, he said.
See FITNESS, page A3 See CENSUS, page A6
Thousands recreate march in Selma, Ala. Event honors 50th anniversary of landmark civil rights confrontation By KIM CHANDLER and PHILLIP LUCAS The Associated Press SELMA, Ala. – Thousands of people crowded an Alabama bridge Sunday, many jammed shoulder to shoulder, many unable to move, to commemorate a bloody confrontation 50 years ago between police and peaceful protesters that helped bring about the 1965 Voting Rights Act. A day after President
Barack Obama had walked atop the Edmund Pettus Bridge, police said at least 15,000 to 20,000 people had joined the crush on and around the small bridge. Many came from around the country for several events commemorating the landmark moment. William Baldwin, 69, of Montgomery, brought his two grandsons, ages 11 and 15, to the bridge Sunday so they could grasp the importance
of the historic march he took part in a half century earlier. “They’re going to take this struggle on and we have to understand the price that was paid for them to have what they have now,” Baldwin said. “It wasn’t granted to them, it was earned by blood, sweat and tears.” Some sang hymns and others held signs, such as “Black lives matter, all lives matter.” On March 7, 1965, police beat and tear-gassed marchers at the foot of the bridge in Selma in a spasm of violence that shocked the nation. The attack helped build momentum for passage of the Voting
Rights Act later that year. Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking at Brown Chapel AME Church on Sunday, drew parallels, without being explicit, between the events of 1965 and today. He noted that the “Bloody Sunday” march was sparked by the murder of activist Jimmie Lee Jackson, “an unarmed, young black man.” “An unarmed, young black man,” he repeated. Annie Pearl Avery, 71, recalled being arrested on Bloody Sunday as she tried to get a nurse to the bridge. She
See SELMA, page A6
AP photo
Mercedes Binns, who has been to Selma 17 times because of its place in civil rights history, walks Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” a civil rights march in which protestors were beaten, trampled and teargassed by police at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, in Selma. “In 50 years so much has gone on, but not enough as we still have work to do.”
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