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THE ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED IN McHENRY COUNTY
50-year journey ends Final SEDOM Center School graduation emphasizes family
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Changes to meetings act moving forward Reform bill inspired by Oakwood Hills controversy By KEVIN P. CRAVER kcraver@shawmedia.com
Photos by Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
Graduates Jonathan Majewski (left) of Crystal Lake, Richard Ickes of Harvard and Belinda Dedual of Harvard celebrate after receiving their diplomas during the SEDOM commencement ceremony Tuesday in Woodstock. After 50 years, the special education district will be closing its school doors once the summer program ends in July. BOTTOM LEFT: Jonathan Majewski of Crystal Lake holds his diploma Tuesday. BOTTOM RIGHT: Emily Rouse of McHenry receives her diploma during the SEDOM commencement ceremony in Woodstock.
On the Web To view photos from SEDOM’s final graduation, visit NWHerald.com.
By ALLISON GOODRICH agoodrich@shawmedia.com WOODSTOCK – Tuesday night was about family. That was the message of Trina Harrelson, a teacher at the Special Education District of McHenry County Center School, slated to cease operations once the summer school program ends in July. Harrelson, who has been with SEDOM for 25 years, was the keynote speaker during the school’s graduation ceremony. With the school’s end in sight, Tuesday’s event marked not only the conclusion of this school year, but the end of SEDOM as the school
families have come to know it. “Hopefully I will continue in this profession despite the closure and the downsizing, which we’re all suffering through together,” Harrelson said to parents, students, faculty and staff sitting in the school gym, “but tonight really isn’t about me. “It’s about family. It’s about the graduating students and their parents and families.” The school was attended this year by 62 to 64 students, and of those, nine high school students in Panther purple robes received diplomas and three junior high students were recognized. A number of others were awarded trophies
or certificates for achievements in various extracurricular activities, such as cheerleading and bowling. Katie Ickes, 17, won several awards, giving the crowd a thumbs-up every time she walked back to her seat with a new trophy. After the ceremony her father, Robert Ickes of Harvard, echoed Harrelson’s remarks – the closure of SEDOM school feels like losing a family. “This school has been fantastic for my children,” Robert Ickes said. “I actually have two here. My son, Richard, just graduated tonight.
The proposed Open Meetings Act improvement inspired by the debacle surrounding the Oakwood Hills power plant has found new life in the final week of the spring legislative session. House Bill 175, which would allow people to report possible violations of the act within 60 days of discovery, rather than 60 days from the meeting in question, will be heard Wednesday afternoon by the Senate Executive Committee. Despite clearing the Illinois House without a single opposing vote, it has been stuck in an Executive subcommittee for the past month, which typically indicates lawmakers want a bill to die. But bill sponsor state Sen. Dan Duffy, R-Lake Barrington, said Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, wanted the bill moved forward. Approval in committee would send the bill to the full Senate for a vote. Duffy credited the “hard work and diligence” of House bill author state Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, for getting it moved out of subcommittee. Both lawmakers’ districts include Oakwood Hills. “I’m optimistic about the success of the bill at this point,” Duffy said. McSweeney filed the legislation in response to what was potentially an illegal July 2013 meeting by the Oakwood Hills Village Board in which members privately discussed the monetary windfall that would come from building a 430-megawatt, $450 million power plant in the small town. The Open Meetings Act, which among other things limits what governments can debate behind closed doors, does not contain an exemption that covers such a discussion. But the questionable discussion was not public knowledge until a year later, when it was discovered by the attorney hired by village residents
See SEDOM, page A4
NO MORE EXCUSES A special report
About this series “No More Excuses” is the Northwest Herald’s ongoing series about the public’s right to know in Illinois.
State Sen. Dan Duffy
State Rep. David McSweeney
On the Net n You can read the text of House Bill 175 at www.ilga. gov. n Visit foia. ilattorneygeneral.net to learn more about the state Open Meetings and Freedom of Information acts.
See MEETINGS, page A4
Democrats show priorities as they advance budget plan By KERRY LESTER and NICK SWEDBERG The Associated Press SPRINGFIELD – A plan Illinois Democrats are proposing as an alternative to the steep cuts sought by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner would keep budget levels flat for local governments and Medicaid and only modestly reduce higher education assistance, committee leaders said Tues-
day. One day after Democratic leaders announced the $36.3 billion proposal for the fiscal year that begins in July, some of the details became clearer. In several areas, the budget plan contrasts vividly with the plan Rauner unveiled in February, setting up a major test for the newly divided government as the state prepares to grapple with its significant financial problems.
“We want a budget that invests in local public safety, in access to affordable education, in people’s children and seniors and their health,” Democratic state Sen. Dan Dan Kotowski of Kotowski Park Ridge said. “We’re not willing to dis-
invest in those things.” Republicans, meanwhile, met with the governor about returning home to their districts next week to emphasize the need for pro-business Michael reforms beConnelly fore the state can spend more money.
“The governor’s message is to be vocal, to tell the folks back home what’s happening and why we’re pressing this reform agenda,” Republican state Sen. Michael Connelly of Lisle said. “The message was to stay strong, that people back home elected him not to nibble around the edges of the budget but to shake up Springfield.” The conflicting messages come as Illinois’ first divided
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government in 12 years negotiates a budget in the final days of the session, which is scheduled to adjourn on Sunday. The way it’s going, both sides are predicting an extended, summertime standoff, creating headaches for state payrolls and schools reopening for the year in August. The governor, a wealthy private equity investor, has
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See BUDGET, page A2