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School bus crashes increase in CL Eight incidents have occurred in city in first month of school; no injuries have resulted By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com CRYSTAL LAKE – Schools buses in Crystal Lake have been involved eight crashes this year – a dramatic jump from previous years – and school only has been in session for a month. Crystal Lake Elementary School District 47 and Community High School District 155
Assistant Director of Transportation Penny Fleming said by late September last school year, they had recorded a single school bus crash. For two years before that, the district saw none in the first month of school. None of the eight crashes this year have resulted in injuries, but Fleming said it doesn’t make the sharp increase any easier to fathom.
“We can’t get anymore yellow than we already are,” Fleming said. “I would say be more alert, be more aware of the big yellow bus. They stop regularly to load and unload students.” There were more than 1,660 crashes involving school buses in Illinois in 2013, according to the most recent report from the Illinois Department of Transportation. The num-
ber had been trending down since 2008, when state reports show there were 2,445 crashes involving school buses. Out of the eight crashes recorded in Crystal Lake, two were bus drivers’ faults, Fleming said. One of those crashes was actually a driver who clipped another driver’s mirror while in the transportation department’s parking lot, while the other was a driver
who took a turn too sharply, she said. The other six crashes were the fault of the other driver involved, according to Fleming’s reports. Most of those, she said, were people rear-ending buses. It’s a difficult problem for the district to fix. If a bus driver is at fault for a crash, he or she has to go through a retraining program to refresh the three
weeks of training and certification required to drive a district school bus, Fleming said. How to stop people from rear-ending some of the 125 buses the districts have on the road daily is not as clear, she said. The state itself has some means of ensuring that drivers watch out for buses. Illinois law requires a driver stop for
See CRASHES, page A4
Six-day U.S. visit concludes for pope
‘GREEN’ PROJECTS IN LOCAL SCHOOLS
Francis celebrates Mass in Philadelphia The ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com
Jeff Chadwick with FSG Electronic installs new energy-efficient light bulbs Wednesday at Huntley High School.
McHenry County school districts working toward energy savings By ALLISON GOODRICH agoodrich@shawmedia.com HUNTLEY – By the time the holidays arrive, all of the buildings within Huntley Community School District 158 should be retrofitted with new energy-efficient lighting – a project expected to save the district more than $100,000 each year. Becoming more “green” now is a typical practice among most school districts, especially given certain federal and state regulations in place. For example, the Illinois State Board of Education requires any new construction projects to be compliant with the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code, according to information from an ISBE spokeswoman. But a number of area school districts, such as District 158, in recent years have elected to make improvements and changes beyond what is regulated, not just for the health and environmental benefits, but also for a decidedly worthwhile return on investment. The long-term returns translate into less money for utility companies and more for the districts, school officials have said. Projects across McHenry County range from switching to automated water faucets at Algonquin-based Community Unit School District 300; to placing more insulated roofs and UV-reducing windows on schools in Cary Community Consolidated School District 26; to retrofitting light fixtures and replacing heat-
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These are things we elected to do to be more efficient to save on our bottom line and improve the environment.” Doug Renkosik, District 158 operations and maintenance director
ing, ventilation and air-conditioning systems in District 158. “These are things we elected to do to be more efficient to save on our bottom line and improve the environment,” said District 158 Operations and Maintenance Director Doug Renkosik. The ongoing retrofitting project in Huntley, partially covered by at least one grant, came at a price of about $1.35 million, Renkosik said, adding it’s meant to be a long-term utility cost-savings program. The district is carrying out that project on top of a large HVAC system replacement, completed in 2013, expected to save $324,000 a year; and a project to replace parking lot and road light fixtures at the Square Barn campus, expected to save $14,000 a year on electricity. Renkosik said the benefits, some likely less
noticeable to the everyday student or staffer, have become apparent to him after such changes have been implemented. “Our energy costs more consistently follow weather patterns, which is an indication that our equipment is working more efficiently,” he said. “Our costs of electricity and gas were different for buildings that were very similar. ... Now, we see consistent utility bills among buildings, which is an indicator we’re functioning more toward our design goals.” In District 300, Superintendent of Operations Chuck Bumbales said energy savings have come thanks to a performance services company that helps the district decipher return on investments for certain projects. The company guarantees returns based on how old the equipment is, Bumbales explained. “We know over a 10-year period, we’ve saved $1 [million] to $2 million in utilities compared to where we were before we were able to retrofit that equipment,” he said. To the east, Fox River Grove School District 3 recently made a change that has allowed for a different kind of cost savings. In joining a state cooperative that helps leverage the district’s purchasing power for custodial goods and services, some of the cleaning supplies now are environmentally friendly products custodial staff can mix on their own with water, as opposed to purchasing in bulk, Superintendent Tim Mahaffy explained.
See ENERGY, page A4
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Bethany Lutheran Church’s newest pastor speaks / A3
Casey Haayer overcame fumbles to help Huntley beat Cary-Grove / B2
Impasse causes police departments to cancel training sessions / A2
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PHILADELPHIA – Pope Francis urged hundreds of thousands of the faithful gathered Sunday for the biggest event of his U.S. visit to be open to “miracles of love,” closing out his joyful six-day trip with a message of hope for families, consolation for victims of child sexual abuse and a warning to America’s bishops. The wide Benjamin Franklin Parkway overflowed with the jubilant, who stood in line for hours and endured airport-style security checks to see history’s first pope from the Americas celebrate an open-air Mass in the birthplace of the United States. The Mass – the last major event on Francis’ itinerary before the 78-yearold pontiff took off on the flight home to Rome – was a brilliant tableau of gold, green, white and purple in the evening sunlight of a mild early-autumn day. Riding through the streets in his open-sided popemobile, the pontiff waved to cheering, screaming, singing, flag-waving crowds and kissed babies as he made his way to the altar at the steps of the columned Philadelphia Museum of Art. With a towering golden crucifix behind him, Francis told his listeners that their presence itself was “a kind of miracle in today’s world,” an affirmation of the family and the power of love. “Would that all of us could be
See POPE, page A4
AP photo
Pope Francis embraces a young man in a wheelchair Saturday during the World Meeting of Families in the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia.
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