Thursday May 3, 2018 Vol. 6, No. 10 Hot news tip? Want to advertise? Call (309) 741-9790
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Farmington schools considering tuition waiver By BILL KNIGHT
FARMINGTON – Stoked by social media, heated discussions continue here surrounding the issue of letting employees of Farmington CUSD 265 bring their kids to school without paying nonresident tuition. Initially posed as a question by Junior High School teacher Kim Litchfield last fall, the idea has been on the Board of Education’s agenda several times, and the Board sought and received permission from the Illinois State Board of Education to enact the policy if they choose to implement it. A public hearing was held in December, when Board member B.J. OldFor The Weekly Post
field, who has since said he opposes the action, said he’d heard from members of the public who objected. At that hearing, resident Ralph Higgs called the idea a “slap in the face to us taxpayers” and potentially divisive for the staff. On both sides, emotional appeals and gossip have competed with statistics and facts to fuel the divisiveness. “This is a sensitive issue for all involved,” said school board member Chad Johnson. “Decisions like this one are not made without weighing the pros and cons very carefully. We’ve been discussing and gathering facts on this for over six months.” Farmington Superintendent Zac Chat-
terton said he’s confident that the outcome will be reasoned and fair. “The board has taken their time on this topic, listened to all comments, and will make an informed vote,” he said. “I continue to stay neutral on the topic and provide the Board with information but have not given them a recommendation,” continued Chatterton, who conceded there are challenges with filling vacancies. “Throughout the state there is starting to be a more broad teacher shortage,” he added. “There has always been certain areas that are ‘high-needs’ positions, but those areas are increasing.” The Board of Education is tentatively
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ECF seeking zoning OK
THE GREAT MIGRATION
Blacks moved from the south to Illinois
Elmwood project progressing By JEFF LAMPE
ELMWOOD – The Elmwood Zoning Board of Appeals will hear an application for rezoning on Tuesday, May 8, that could be one more step toward a wellness-fitness center and a new medical clinic for the community. The Elmwood Community Foundation (ECF) is seeking to change the zoning Inside of a 10-acre parcel of land located north • Pages from the Past. Page 8. of town, north of • High-speed flowThe Meadows subers catch eyes. division and west of Page 14. Illinois Route 78. • Obituaries Pages Applicants are re- 16-18. questing to change zoning from an R-2 Medium Density Residential District to a C-2 General Commercial District, to obtain a Special User permit for a regional wellness and fitness center and to receive a variance from requirements calling for a transitional buffer on the west side of the property. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at Elmwood City Hall. The ECF has been working on plans for a wellness and fitness center for nearly three years, but has been meeting regularly to discuss the project since JanWeekly Post Staff Writer
By CHUCK SWEENY
Victory Bell can still remember the night when he boarded the Illinois Central Railroad’s City of New Orleans in Durant, Mississippi, bound for Chicago, then changing trains and ending up in Rockford. It was 1945, at the height of the Jim Crow apartheid in Dixie that purposely kept blacks poor with few rights. Bell, his mother and siblings were headed north to join his father, who had already moved north to get a factory job. “We had been sharecroppers,” the 83-year old Bell remembers working near Durant, 60 miles north of Jackson. The family had eked out a living, but opportunities for advancement just were not there for black folks.
planning to consider the idea at its May 14 meeting.The board policy on public participation requires comments at meetings to be respectful, civil and short – not more than five minutes and possibly shorter to conserve time and let more individuals speak. Discussion could be heated. The main objections are that the benefit is unfair to teachers who live within the District and that permitting nonresidents to attend Farmington Central would cost the District – and taxpayers – money. After talking to several people and asking for suggestions via a Facebook page operated by two women from Farmington
For The Weekly Post
Victory Bell came north from Jim Crow-era Mississippi in 1945. Bell served as a Rockford alderman from 1971 to 2009. Photo by Arturo Fernandez of the Rockford Register Star.
“I remember it was in the middle of the night when we boarded the train. We had to sit in the black section. When we got to Illinois, the conductor said we could sit anywhere we liked on the train,” Bell said, “and we no longer had to say ‘sir ‘or ‘ma’am’ to white people, which was new to us.” His uncle and father had come to Rockford in 1943 and 1944 to get jobs that paid better than sharecropping. “The machine tool businesses were very aggressive in hiring at that time, and people were able to come to Illinois and get jobs at various machine companies and make a decent salary,”
Bell said. Illinois’ manufacturing industries were working around the clock to turn out planes, tanks, guns and bullets for the armed forces during World War II. The state’s manufacturers continued to boom after the war. Bell is a living embodiment of The Great Migration, the movement from 1916 to 1970 of 6 million to 7 million black Americans from the states of the old Confederacy to the North. More than 500,000 came to Illinois. They were fleeing legal oppression. They were looking for better lives for Continued on Page 9
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