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Tuesday, February 24, 2015
SERVING DIXON AND THE SURROUNDING AREA SINCE 1851
DIXON PUBLIC SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY FORUM
Focus on renovation option ‘Until we can prove this does not work, we will stick with it’ BY JERMAINE PIGEE jpigee@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5525 @JPigee84
DIXON – Officials in the Dixon School District want to take a closer look at renovating the current school buildings in the district. About 50 people were at Washington Elementary School on Monday to hear more about the plan and ask questions.
“We have taken the comments we’ve heard, and we think the most appropriate solution for this community is to renovate the buildings that are in place,” said Amy Yurko of BrainSpaces, a Chicago-based school facilities planning consultant. Renovating the buildings in the school district would cost upward of $111 million. “We are not saying this is the end plan we are going with, but
Next forum The next community forum will be at 6:30 p.m. March 16 at Dixon High School, 300 Lincoln Statue Dr. Visit plandixonschools.info for more on the facilities plan. until we can prove this does not work, we will stick with it, and we need your help to help us make this work,” Yurko said. If the recommendation is approved by the school board, renovation would be done in phases – or as funding becomes available. RENOVATION CONTINUED ON A2
Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@saukvalley.com
About 50 residents – many of them parents – listen during a community forum Monday night at Washington Elementary School in Dixon.
DIXON | BUDGET WORKSHOP
DYNASTY MODE: PROPHETS HEADING BACK TO STATE
‘Cautious’ approach planned Looming state cuts could put purchases, hires in jeopardy BY MATT MENCARINI mmencarini@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5529 @MattMencarini
Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@saukvalley.com
Prophetstown girls basketball coach Don Robinson (right) celebrates his Prophets’ 50-37 victory over Annawan on Monday night in the Illinois Valley Supersectional at Illinois Valley Community College in Oglesby. The Prophets will make a second consecutive trip to Redbird Arena in Normal, where they’ll face Moweaqua at noon Friday in a Class 1A state semifinal. Read more about the Prophets’ convincing victory on B1.
MORE JOURNEYS JUST BEGINNING While the Prophetstown girls are making traveling arrangements for the state tournament, the boys teams from the area are just setting out on the first leg of their postseason journeys. What better way to kick it off than with coverage of the Wooden Shoe showdown between Fulton and Morrison. Read about the Steamers-Mustangs regional contest on B3, and look forward to full coverage of the boys’ postseason play in days – and weeks – to come.
STERLING SCHOOLS | TECHNOLOGY
Challand students getting iPads in fall Donations mean computers are coming 4 years ahead of district’s plans BY JERMAINE PIGEE jpigee@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5525 @JPigee84
STERLING – Thanks to more than $150,000 in donations and pledges, Challand Middle School will get 800 Apple iPads 4 years ahead of schedule. The Sterling School Board
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is expected to approve the computer initiative Wednesday, then, beginning in the fall, Challand’s 760 seventhand eighth-graders will have a digital tablet to use at school and at home. The 40 other tablets will be rotated in as needed. “A year ago, we were not predicting that this would
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happen so quickly,” Superintendent Tad Everett said. “We were going to do the original deployment in 4 years. With the new revenue that has been provided to us, we have the opportunity to do this now.” The iPads will improve academic engagement and achievement of students,
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school officials say, and will help them use the Internet and digital media to communicate and work effectively. Laptop computers, the Apple Macbook Air model, already are in use at Sterling High School.
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IPADS CONTINUED ON A4
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DIXON – In the 2 weeks since Dixon’s first budget workshop for the upcoming fiscal year, the city has been forced to take a more cautious approach. Last Wednesday, Gov. Bruce Rauner gave his first budget address, and among the proposed cuts was the share of the state’s income tax revenue that gets sent to local governments. Rauner’s budget proposal calls for a reduction of the local share of income tax revenues from 8 percent to 4 percent. The city could lose about $750,000 a year, if Tim Shipman his proposal goes Dixon fire chief wants to make through. As a result, the hires to address city will look to increased call cut about $1 mil- volume, reduce lion from the $2.2 overtime pay million in budgetary requests it’s received, as opposed to the initial $671,000 it was looking to cut. Among those requests were new hires, including a request from Fire Chief Tim Shipman for several new hires. CAUTIOUS CONTINUED ON A4
Next meeting The Dixon City Council’s next regular meeting is 5:30 p.m. March 2, at the Public Safety Building, 220 S. Hennepin Ave., in the community room. Visit DiscoverDixon.org or call City Hall at 815-288-1485 for an agenda or more information.
Today’s weather High 31. Low 6. More on A3.
Need work? Check out your classifieds, B7.
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