MONDAY
May 4, 2015 • $1.00
TAKING THE OFFENSIVE
NORTHWEST
Patrick Kane leads Blackhawks past Wild, 4-1; lead series, 2-0 / B1
HERALD RALD
HIGH
LOW
73 51 Complete forecast on page A8
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NWHerald.com
THE ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED IN McHENRY COUNTY
FUTURE UNCERTAIN FOR HIGH SCHOOL NEWSPAPER PROGRAMS
THING OF THE PAST?
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Project to add more homes in Marengo Marks 1st time in 3 years city has seen residential growth By STEPHEN Di BENEDETTO sdibenedetto@shawmedia.com
Photos by H. Rick Bamman – hbamman@shawmedia.com
Huntley High School’s The Voice editor in chief Adam Reckamp (right) works on an editorial as design editor Jessamine Clavero, entertainment editor Devin Martin, opinion editor Rachel Brands and print editor Sarah Henderson work Wednesday on getting the paper out on a production day.
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Ninety-five percent of the kids in this program do not pursue journalism as a career. But that’s not the point – it’s the other skills you can pick up, like writing, layout, collaboration, and leadership.”
Dennis Brown Longtime journalism adviser at Huntley High School
Some schools cut journalism courses as interest dwindles By ALLISON GOODRICH agoodrich@shawmedia.com At Cary-Grove High School, gone are the days of having students type their bylines to see them in print later that month. Devin Hester, faculty sponsor for the school’s extracurricular newspaper program, said it was probably about four or five years ago that the elective journalism course was dissolved into an after-school activity, and a year ago when it started producing an exclusively online publication. “Obviously, our readership went down compared to when you could put a hard copy directly in front of students,” Hester said, adding the focus now is on new media, such as social media platforms, photos and video. “But there is a step back in the audience, which I think kind of deflates the kids. “I mean, you write an article and you’re excited about it, excited to see it, but then it can just disappear into the abyss of the Internet.” A tangible newspaper produced as part of a high school course is a thing of the past at all School District 155 schools. At Crystal Lake South, physical newspapers folded this year, Activities Director Matt Koll said. The students in the after-school program focus more on taking pictures, and the articles
that do come out appear on the school’s general website. “[For the journalism elective], student interest was declining to the point where we could no longer have the course,” Koll said, adding the elective was discontinued four years ago. This is a trend experts outside of McHenry County said is becoming more prominent. “With the push toward a 21st century curriculum, I think there’s a push to focus less on electives than on core courses,” said Stan Zoller, a director for the Journalism Education Association, a national organization for teachers and advisers of journalism. “I think kids load up on AP classes, and in some cases, they don’t have time to expend energy to do electives like journalism.” Still, interest isn’t waning at all local high schools. At Huntley High School and Johnsburg High School, print newspapers still come out of inschool courses – courses that are at high capacity this year, advisers said. “I actually have more kids this year than any other year,” said Dennis Brown, longtime adviser at Huntley High School. It’s not that kids in Huntley are necessarily more interested in one day writing for a major
See JOURNALISM, page A6
ABOVE: Back issues of Huntley High School’s student newspaper The Voice are seen Wednesday. RIGHT: The Voice entertainment editor Devin Martin designs a page Wednesday for the May 1 edition.
MARENGO – A local construction company later this year plans to build homes and duplexes in Marengo, marking a renewal of residential construction seldom seen lately in the city. Once it officially secures financing in May, Brackmann Construction will build the new homes on 122 lots in the Brookside Meadows subdivision, located on the southeastern end of Marengo. It marks the first time Marengo has seen a home built in the past three years, when Brackmann Construction built a home and a couple of duplexes at the subdivision, said Corey Brackmann, who oversees sales at the family-owned company. “It’s extremely good. It’s important for a community to grow,” Brackmann said. “It helps with property values. It’s creating jobs. It creates everything.” The Marengo company opened the 230unit subdivision in the mid-2000s but struggled to complete the housing project after the economic recession hit, Brackmann said. The company will now turn 122 remaining lots at the subdivision primarily into single-family homes. Multifamily units –
See MARENGO, page A6
Rauner’s idea to privatize agency raises concerns By DAVID MERCER The Associated Press CHAMPAIGN – Gov. Bruce Rauner says his plan to privatize the state’s economic development agency will improve job creation in Illinois. But similar plans in other states and even in Chicago have sometimes raised concerns about transparency and oversight, with taxpayers not always knowing how their money was being spent. Rauner’s plan, currently being considered by the Illinois General Assembly, would turn much of the development work of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity over to a new, nonprofit corporation. Rauner and other supporters say a private agency Bruce Rauner negotiating tax breaks and other government-funded incentives with companies can move faster and with less red tape than a state agency. They say it could use private money to pay higher salaries and recruit better talent. “We think the agility comes from having private people that can be much more aggressive,” Jim Schultz, Rauner’s recently named DCEO director, said in an interview
See PRIVATIZATION, page A6
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On the Record
NFL draft
Curfew lifted
Crystal Lake D-47 teacher relishes teaching STEM / A3
Columnist Hub Arkush gives Bears a B+ for effort, but real grade 2 years away / B1
Hundreds pray and chant for justice at rally in Baltimore / A4
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