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SCRUTINY OVER SIGNS Supreme Court ruling prompts local review of policies By KEVIN P. CRAVER A small Arizona church’s court victory over a city sign ordinance is forcing local governments to examine their own rules to ensure compliance. Law and legal precedent have long held that the First Amendment forbids government from regulating signs based on their content. But in a unanimous 9-0 ruling in June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the act of classifying signs for regulatory purposes – creating rules for election signs, yard signs, temporary events, etc. – can be content-based regulation and, therefore, unconstitutional. While local governments and the legal experts who represent them are confident their sign ordinances will survive mostly intact, they are not taking any chances. McHenry County late last year ratified its unified development ordinance, which officially completed a years-long overhaul of all development-related ordinances
pertaining to unincorporated areas. Deputy Planning Director Darrell Moore said the chapter of the ordinance dealing with signs is now being examined. “I believe our ordinance is enforceable at this point, however, it is under review,” Moore said. Clyde Reed, the pastor of Good News Community Church in Gilbert, Arizona, sued the city over an ordinance that treated its directional signs to the different locations at which it holds its worship services differently from other signs. The city cited the church for exceeding the 13-hour time limit for directional signs – by comparison, city ordinance allows political signs to be displayed for up to five months. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the unanimous court, concluded that such a distinction is content-based and, therefore, unconstitutional, and that a municipality must have a “compelling interest” to have different standards for signs. Municipal attorney Michael Smoron
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JUSTICES: CONTENT-BASED SIGN ORDINANCES NOT PERMITTED
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of the Crystal Lake law firm Zukowski, Rogers, Flood & McArdle does not predict many of McHenry County’s sign laws will require major overhauls. He said local governments had content neutrality in mind when they drew up or revised their sign ordinances, and are not as stringent as that of Gilbert. For example, temporary signs in unincorporated areas do not even require a county permit under its ordinance. “The municipalities with whom we work don’t try to divide up messages like this town did,” Smoron said. “Although everyone says that the Supreme Court has never gone this far, it was also in response to very aggressive regulation.” Crystal Lake Community Development Director Michelle Rentsch said a review of the city’s sign rules is ongoing. She anticipates minor changes but nothing significant. “We have a lot of content neutrality in our ordinance, but the Supreme Court ruling has taken that farther,” Rentsch said.
High schools weigh allowing test retakes By EMILY K. COLEMAN ecoleman@shawmedia.com CRYSTAL LAKE – A failure to complete homework was digging a hole students couldn’t climb out of. The conclusion came as Crystal Lake-based Community High School District 155 took a look at some of its data in 2012 and decided to take a long, hard look at its grading philosophies. “It all comes back to this point that we care not about so much these little components but in the end, what do the kids know,” Assistant Superintendent of “It’s such an Educational Services Corey Tafoya said. important thing. That means putting the The grades we most of the emphasis gradewise on summative assessreport, we need ments such as unit exams, essays and final exams and to feel confident not on formative assessin what we are ments such as homework, quizzes and other assignreporting and ments designed to gauge stand behind where students are along the way, he said. them and feel Crystal Lake South like we’re being High School math teacher Katie Koch said she’s getting consistent.” much more strategic about what homework she assigns, Kris Davis handing out less busy work math teacher at and cutting back on nonCrystal Lake South subject-related extra credit, High School since trying out the philosophy this past school year, adding that some students are starting to take the homework more seriously because they understand they need to be prepared for the tests. It also means recognizing not all students learn at the same pace and if it’s important for them to understand the material, it makes sense for them to have the ability to retake the tests, Tafoya said. A committee of administrators and teachers tasked with coming up with these philosophies did so after delving into the research on homework and assessments in 2012 and then testing out pilot programs over the course of the 2014-15 school year.
See GRADING, page A4
Bland’s funeral draws mourners, supporters to Lisle church By NATHAN LURZ nlurz@shawmedia.com LISLE – The upbeat music that played Saturday morning at the DuPage African Methodist Episcopal Church in Lisle was in stark contrast to the somber faces of mourners entering the building. Hundreds of mourners, well-wishers and supporters waited in line and packed the church Saturday to honor the memory of Sandra
“Sandy” Bland, a Naperville native whose arrest and death in a Texas jail cell drew national attention. The Rev. Theresa Dear said there was Sandra Bland much to be celebrated about Bland’s life – including her stand against the police officer who arrested her. “We celebrate that she found her voice and she found her purpose
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in social justice,” Dear said. “We celebrate the fact that she walked and lived in her truth. We celebrate that Sandy Bland was ... a young lady who refused to be subdued and silenced.”
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Bland, 28, was found dead July 13 in a Texas jail cell three days after she was arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer during a routine traffic stop July 10, according to news releases from the Waller County Sheriff’s Office and Texas Department of Public Safety. Bland’s death was ruled a suicide and remains under investigation. Dear described Bland as a powerful, uplifting and empowering college graduate who had many aspira-
tions and goals. “We absolutely reject everything that Waller County has done in terms of trying to disrespect, denigrate and completely dishonor her character and her personality,” she said. “The Sandy Bland that they have tried to portray is not the Sandy Bland we know.” Dear said Bland’s family was doing as well as they could.
See FUNERAL, page A4
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