McHenry County Blog

Throughout the debate on the proposed minor league baseball stadium to be run by private promoter Pete Heitman, the point has been made that entertainment cannot be found in the mission statement of McHenry County College.

I had read the statement, which is etched in glass and mounted on the side of the MCC boardroom wall and I can guarantee you that the word “entertainment” does not appear.

I took a photograph of it at the end of last Thursday night’s meeting and was about to type its contents.

But, first, I decided to see if I could find it using Google’s search engine.

Guess what?

MCC has it on its web site.

And more. So, I cut and pasted.

Here is what is listed under

Mission, Vision, Goals

Mission:

At McHenry County College, we value learning, and we put the interests of our students and community first. By providing high quality, affordable and accessible learning opportunities, we enable students to meet their educational, career and personal goals. By sharing our knowledge and resources, we support our community's educational, social, cultural and economic vitality.

Vision:

The community’s first choice for a lifetime of learning

Goals:

1. To prepare students to transfer successfully to colleges and universities,
2. To prepare students to enter and advance in their careers,
3. To prepare students with the literacy and basic skills to succeed and grow as learners, workers and members of society,
4. To promote personal development and lifelong learning for all students,
5. To enrich the educational, social, and cultural life of the community, and
6. To address the community’s workforce needs.

If you can find anything about entertainment, please let me know where.

Do you think there will be an amendment to this information?

Labels: MCC, McHenry County College, Message of the Day

Over a year after McHenry County Blog’s last article on the Chicago Crime Commission’s look at divorce court in McHenry County, a comment was left by “stuck in McHenry” under the article

Here it is:

After being involved with the McHenry County Court System supporting my sister thru her divorce and subsequent legal dealings with her mentally ill (diagnosed with narcissism) ex-husband and his escapades with their 2 boys, I am so frustrated and have absolutely NO faith in the system.

She has been told by several lawyers that the court does not want to see his mental health records.

The lawyers have been unprofessional - one told her to quit being a bitch when she would not agree to something he was demanding, another walked out of the court room angry because he lost and would not talk to her.

The Guardian Ad Litum flat out lied in court and defended the father rather than representing the children.

She (the GAL) has NO training in child development, domestic violence or child abuse (physical or emotional). She actually thinks the first time she meets a child that he will open up and talk to her about what's happening.

The judge found the father in contempt but would not do anything with it. Why have court orders if they're not enforced!

The therapists will not speak to the best interest of the child because they do not want to be subpeonaed and interrogated.

It is sad what is happening to these children, everyone knows it and no one cares or will do anything about it.

The McHenry County court system is a joke.

Those who would like to drop a dime on crime may do so by contacting the commission by calling 312-372-0101. There is also a way to communicate by email on the web site.

McHenry County Blog first reported the Chicago Crime Commission's probe into McHenry County May 4, 2006.. July 23nrd McHenry County Blog reported on State's Attorney Lou Bianchi's letter to county officials. August 4th, McHenry County Blog printed a letter from Barrington Hills' attorney stating the village had not started the probe.

As or September 21st of last year, nothing had yet appeared in any daily newspaper.

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I would hope "stuck in McHenry" shared his/her observations with the Chicago Crime Commission.

Did anyone but I notice that Bill LeFew was not quoted in the newspapers when the Chicago Crime Commission announced it would report its findings about divorce court to federal authorities?

Yet, when one of his buddies files complaints with the Crime Commission and the Illinois Attorney General, it’s worthy of a resignation from his party chairmanship.

An, irony.

Labels: Bill LeFew, Chicago Crime Commission, Lou Bianchi, McHenry County Divorce Court

The 7th United States Court of Appeals, on a 2-1 vote, has denied former Governor George Ryan his request to stay out of prison pending his appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
Even dissenting Judge Michael Kanne, however, wrote of "the production of overwhelming incriminating evidence against the appellants."

Appellate Court Judges Daniel Manion and Diane Wood rendered the decision.

Judge Kanne strongly dissented:

"I dissent because I disagree with the in chambers opinion’s characterizations of the dissents form the panel opinion and the dissent from the rehearing en blanc; the in chambers opinion’s emphasis on and reliance on forfeiture; and that opinion’s conclusion that the appellants have not demonstrated a reasonable probability of success on the merits.

“The trial was riddled with errors that ultimately rendered the proceedings manifestly unfair and unjust, notwithstanding the production of overwhelming incriminating evidence against the appellants. Therefore, because the trial was “broken beyond repair,” there is good cause for a stay and the appellants have a reasonable probability of succeeding on the merits.”

For some personal memories of George Ryan, click here.

Labels: Daniel Manion, Diane Wood, George Ryan, Get Ouf of Jail Free, Michael Kanne

Last Thursday nights McHenry County College Board meeting was broadcast live.

To people sitting out in the hall who could not fit into the relatively small MCC boardroom.

There were more people at the board meeting than I have ever seen attend before.

After all, this was the meeting that Donna Kurtz and Scott Summers were to be censured by their fellow board members.

Don't you love collegiality?

There were a fair number in the hall when I walked into the crowded, standing room only boardroom, but only four when I followed a member of the public out to get his name.

I asked if the meeting were being recorded and was told that it wasn’t.

Can you believe that an MCC employee spent all night following the action with a television camera, but no one stuck in a tape to make a record of the meeting?

Of course I can.

The college board doesn’t want electronic records of its meetings.

That’s why at least two individuals, maybe three, were pointing recording devices at those speaking during the board meeting.

Labels: Baseball Stadium, Donna Kurtz, MCC, McHenry County College, Scott Summers

A press release from Dave Bachmann announcing his challenge to Republican Coroner Marlene Lantz:

BACHAMANN FILES AS DEMOCRAT FOR McHENRY COUNTY CORONER

WOODSTOCK—David John Bachmann, the founder and former owner of a Crystal Lake funeral home, filed petitions today with the County Clerk’s office to run for the Democratic nomination for McHenry County Coroner.

Bachmann, of Hebron, said “I am eminently qualified for the office having 30 years experience serving grieving families as a licensed Funeral Director world wide.”

The son of a prominent Crystal Lake businessman, Bachmann chose to enter what he calls the “death care industry” as a young man. After working in California and Florida, he returned to McHenry County where he worked at a prominent Cary funeral home before opening his own Bachmann Funeral Home (now Skaja-Bachmann) in 1987. He served the local community in many volunteer capacities including as president of the Kiwanis, a board member of Crime Stoppers and Senior Citizens of Illinois, chairman for Special gifts for the American Heart Association, and an educator in death and dying for Hospice of Northern Illinois and at McHenry County College.

Bachmann sold the funeral home in 1991 and relocated with his family to Florida where he continued his career as funeral director and executive. After surviving a near fatal brush with cancer and two serious accidents, Bachmann sold his Florida business and spent a year serving as “Embalmer of State” in the impoverished Mexican state of Tlaxcala where he trained medical examiners in safe handling of human remains before moving last year to Hebron.

"I am running as a Democrat,” Bachmann said, “because I believe in diversity. I strongly believe that all public offices should be free and open for any qualified American to seek not only for the chosen or a select few. This is a pioneering concept in McHenry County.”

As coroner Bachmann said he would have three priorities: properly securing remaining prescription drugs in the homes of the deceased, educating immigrant communities about proper and legal procedures around the death of a loved one, and educating youth in the permanence of death to discourage risk taking behaviors.

McHenry County Blog ran articles about his pending candidacy on October 20th and October 21st.

Labels: Dave Bachmann, Marlene Lantz, McHenry County Coroner

State Rep. Mike Tryon, who filed for re-election on Monday, has issued a monthly letter to his constituents. It follows:

This legislative session has brought forth many important issues that will affect the quality of life in our district. As I continue to represent your best interests in Springfield, it is extremely important to me that I stay connected with the people of McHenry County.

In an effort to address any concerns or questions that area residents may have, Senator Althoff and I will be hosting a series of town hall meetings. The intention of these meetings is to gather public input and give you an outlet to have your voices heard.

The first town hall meeting that was scheduled for this Thursday, November 1 in Crystal Lake has been cancelled as Senator Althoff and I have been scheduled to be in Springfield. There are several very important issues still pending in Springfield and it is important that we represent McHenry County as we continue to seek resolution. I apologize if this cancellation causes any inconvenience, but I welcome all area residents to attend one of the following Town Hall meetings.

7 p.m., Tuesday, November 6
Huntley Village Hall
10987 Main Street, Huntley

7 p.m., Wednesday, November 7
Algonquin Village Hall
2200 Harnish Drive, Algonquin

These events are free and open to the public. Your input is so important to help me represent you in Springfield. I hope that you will take the time to attend.

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The meetings will be probably held after the key votes on expanding Illinois gambling and whether or not to increase sales taxes in McHenry County to bail out the Chicago Transit Authority.

They will also be held after the deadline for filing petitions to oppose Tryon in the February 5th primary.

Labels: MikeTryon, Pam Althoff

If you were a member of Huntley School District 158’s board of education, this would be one of the items in your board packet. It was placed there by Larry Snow.

Read the source documents and draw your own conclusions.

Subject: MRSA Threat and Commitment to Parents that our Schools would be Cleaned before last Friday Morning.

Promises made should be promises kept.

A commitment was made in writing to parents and district employees that the schools would be super cleaned prior to the beginning of school on last Friday.
Should parents have been notified either before or after the fact that students returned to school(s) that had not been properly cleaned?

Are there employee right to safe work place issues when a specific commitment of a “super cleaning” was made and instead they return and see that little or no regular cleaning was done in their classrooms?

Appropriate employee notification.

3. Management and Supervision of the super cleaning work by a hierarchy of 4 managers:

Assistant Director of Operations and Maintenance; Salary: Over $74,000

Who reports to:

Director of Operations and Maintenance; Salary: Over $97,000

Who reports to:

Chief Operations Officer; Salary: Over $103,500

who reports to:

Superintendent; Salary: $155,000

On top of this the taxpayers are paying for the outsourced managerial services of GCA, a professional services company.

With the above management staff plus the administrators at each school, how is it that a timely visual walk through of each classroom was not systematically performed at each school on such an important “super cleaning” day”, well before the start of school?

4. A school board member, Kim Skaja blogged information to the community before 8 a.m. on that Friday morning. Who did she receive her “factual information” from?

Did Mr. Green or Mr. Burkey authorize her to speak for the District on the performance of the schools related to the MRSA cleaning?

5. I have been critical of board members having hired their unemployed friend as a top administrator. What I see in writing here raises a concern that Mr. Burkey is using less than good judgment to properly notify the Board of Education and parents about issues, (even ones potentially affecting the health and safety of students and employees) if underperformance may potentially negatively reflect on the management operations of our schools.

The seriousness is appropriately reflected in Mr. Avina statement: “I feel ashamed”.

My concern is that Mr. Burkey and top administrators apparently feel it is their right to selectively conceal specific underperformance from the Board of Education.

6. On a positive note, I believe that Mr. Rossi, our Director of Transportation would not have used any bus on Friday that was not cleaned. I believe he and his staff understand the importance of health and safety issues. I also believe he and his staff understand my sentiments about not jeopardizing the trust given to him by parents and the District. I also believe our Director of Food Services, Cheryl Lawrence, and her staff, also understands the trust that they have earned carries with it important responsibilities.

To properly inform board members, the below information is provided:

Larry Snow

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Email from individual teachers to the administration that our school(s) were not properly cleaned included:

“…I am concerned that my classroom is never properly cleaned.
I thought the reason for cancelling after school activities last night was so that the school could get a thorough cleaning …”

“People are upset that everything was cancelled last night so they could clean and the building doesn't look like it was cleaned at all.”
“it was obvious to me that no other surfaces in my room had been cleaned aside from the four tables my students use regularly. I spent 20 minutes this morning sanitizing the remaining three tables, chairs and large island in my room”

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From: Lamb, Chuck

Sent: Friday, October 26, 2007 10:58 AM

To: Chesak Elementary

Cc: Burkey, John; Stewart, Glen; Awrey, Terry

Subject: Room Cleaning Today

Importance: High

Chesak Teachers and Staff;

Yesterday District Administration evaluated a potentially serious concern about health and welfare of District 158 children and staff in our buildings as it relates to exposure to the MRSA bacterium. Prompt and dramatic action was taken to notify district staff, parents and community of the situation. As part of this plan of action after school events were cancelled at the Reed Road Campus Schools to allow for thorough 'appropriate' cleaning of the buildings. Even though cleaning teams were in the district until 5:30 a.m., reports by Chesak personnel would cause us to believe that cleaning efforts did not meet our expectations.

As a result the Administration has directed a re-cleaning of the building to start immediately to insure that the building is clean and safe. We are ramping up the custodial team to attempt to clean every classroom. They will be cleaning as many classrooms as possible during PE, Music, Art classes or lunch times to sanitize tables and community surfaces. Please be sure to follow your Friday schedule so that we can effectively direct teams to the empty classrooms. The intent is to get to every classroom this afternoon. Any rooms not cleaned and treated this afternoon will be addressed tonight after school.

Please feel free to contact us if you have questions or concerns.

Mr. Lamb

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From: Avina, Armando

Sent: Mon 10/29/2007 3:43 PM

To: Renkosik, Doug; 'GCA Services (tspaeth@gcaservices.com)'

Cc: Stewart, Glen; Burkey, John; Lamb, Chuck; Henderson, Christy; Serpe, Christa; Hladik, Lisa; Billard, Holly; Sandoval, Juan; Rodriguez, Juan Carlos; Moerke, Wendy; Rothbauer, Barbie

Subject: chesak complaints

As part of the company (GCA) I feel ashamed that the mentioned events took place on Friday morning. Let me try and explain a little bit of what went on since we were busy on Thursday and Friday. Today I had some time to actually sit down and go through my inbox and reply to my e-mails. We got the emergency call and about 12 employees came to work and most of them started working at about 10am over at Martin and 3 of them went home at 3am in the morning after they finish their regular shifts over at chesak. Thursday around 11pm I received a call requesting us to clean the school buses and they were going to call back to find out how many people were in line to help out. I immediately contacted my night supervisor and some of the night leads because I needed to know how many people were willing to stay over and help us out. The reason of why I'm telling you this is because one of the explanations that the night lead over at chesak give us of why the complaints, is because he had the idea that they had a certain frame time to disinfect the school and afterwards they were all going to disinfect the buses in the Adm building. There is only 4 classrooms with complaints between Thursday and Friday and by coincide most of them where from the kindergarten area. Honestly there is no fair answer to give you, but be certain that I will be checking them more frequently than before. I want everyone to feel the presence that a cleaning company is getting the cleaning done over their expectations.
Project Manager

Armando Avina

Labels: Chesak Elementary School, Glen Stewart, Huntley School District 158, John Burkey, Kim Skaja, Larry Snow, MSRA

Oprah Winfrey's 150-girl $46 million South African boarding school in South Africa is in the news again.

One of the dorm matrons apparently molested girls under her care.

It reminded me of Chicagoland charity Rise International, which builds schools in Angola for $12,500 each.

105 school have been built so far.

After the schools are constructed, the Angola Ministry of Education provides the teachers.

It's an amazing private-public partnership.

New readers who are open to being inspired might want to read,

“Illinois Financing African Schools: $12,500 to $40 Million”

Our family supports the effort.

Perhaps yours will decide to do so, too.

Pretty hard to make your charitable giving go farther than this.

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The picture on top is of a redesigned school at Kavimbi in Benguela.

Since it is so much larger than the previous ones, my guess is that it costs more than the $12,500 it cost to build the ones on the left.

It looks like they have gone from mud to concrete block. The photo on the bottom right is of a concrete block school being built at Chilonda in Bie. Obviously it will last longer than the mud brick schools.

All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Labels: Angola, Oprah, Rise International, Souith Africa

Dated August 5-7, 2004, this tee shirt is from the AWD/VLK 5th Annual K-9 Olympics.

The events seem to have been

• Area Search
• Tracking
• Detection
• Hard Dog/Fast Dog
• Obedience
• Control
• Obstacle Course
• Building Search

I saw on the back of the coach of the McHenry Marlins who is a K-9 officer for the Lake in the Hills Police.

He not only is the K-9 officer, but he raises and trains search dogs, too.

He told me that he would bring one of his dogs to the pool one day so the children could become familiarized with it.

He has another tee shirt that I can't wait for him to wear when I have a camera handy. The story behind it will make you sad.

Labels: AWD/VLK, K-9 Unit, Lake in the Hills Police, Message of the Day, T-Shirt, Tee Shirt

The three state representatives whose district are in all or part of McHenry County have filed for re-election.

So far, no opponents have filed against 52nd district State Rep. Mark Beaubien (R-Barrington Hills), 63rd district State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Bull Valley) and 64th State Rep. Mike Tryon (R-Crystal Lake).

To replace long-time incumbent Bill Petersen (R-Long Grove), there are two candidates so far:

• Rod Drobinski of Wauconda and
• Dan Duffy of Lake Barrington

Labels: Dan Duffy, Jack Franks, Mark Beaubien, Mike Tryon, Rod Drobinski

The Northwest Herald concentrated on the McHenry County Peace Group’s participation in the peace demonstration in Downtown Chicago Saturday.

It ran a video, including an interview with Crystal Lake’s Libby Pappalardo, but I’m told nothing appeared in the print edition.

There were supporters for Ron Paul’s Republican campaign for president there, too.

The Ron Paul for President backers were gathering petition signatures from the peace supporters for their presidential candidate.

Lore in the Libertarian Party says that only about half the signatures collected in Chicago are valid ones.

Here is a report from the front:

Also among the thousands downtown on Saturday were about 50 Ron Paul supporters, waving signs, collecting signatures, passing out literature, and turning a lot of left and center people on to Ron Paul. I saw one or two people with Obama buttons, but they’re not sure why, since he wants occupy Iraq for at least 10 more years. The only other presidential candidate with a presence was Dennis Kucinich, who had a few people collecting signatures and carrying small, flimsy signs.

The only presidential candidate with an airplane banner (calling for an end to the war) circling Union Park during the rally was Ron Paul, see attached pictures. One shows the Ron Paul airplane banner flying over the top of the stage, the other is a close up of the airplane and banner.

I wonder if any of the McHenry County Ron Paul supporters will run for Republican precinct committeeman. If they don't like the person nominated by the Republican Party, they could always resign and let the new county chairman appoint a replacement.

Any so inspired or anyone else that would like to energize the McHenry County Republican Party, can learn how to run for the office (10 “good” signatures required, but I recommend 20) by clicking below:



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All images can be enlarged by clicking on them. A Ron Paul supporter sent me the pictures of the banners. The photo of Libby Pappalardo is from Northwest Herald's video.

Labels: Libby Pappalardo, McHenry County Peace Group, Ron Paul

During the question and answer session of the Minuteman meeting at McHenry County College Friday night, Allen County, Ohio, Sheriff Daniel Beck told of a call he got from a women who had had a hard time getting a job.

The biggest city in his county of 104,000 people is Lima. It has a large proportion of families under the poverty level.

The woman told Sheriff Beck that she had been trying to get a job at a certain factory for two years.

“They had so many illegals there, I couldn’t get a job,” she explained.

Finally, she got one.

“When the lady called me, that was really gratifying,” Sheriff Beck said.

He used the story to illustrate that illegal aliens take jobs that Americans would otherwise have.

I remember a related call I got during the recession of the mid-1970’s. A woman from Wonder Lake, I think, told me she had applied for a job at Claussen Pickles in Woodstock, but she wasn’t hired.

She told me they wouldn’t hire anyone who didn’t speak Spanish.

By the way, did you know that Crystal Lake used to be a headquarters for pickle packers. I've been told the land along Dole Avenue south of Crystal Lake Avenue were pickle patches before it was developed.

Labels: Allen County, Claussen Pickle, Daniel Beck, Illinois Minuteman Project

With the driving of religion out of all forms of public life it is refreshing to see that the much criticized Texas Department of Corrections has the courage to allow a faith-based section of a prison.

Ever since I entered the Illinois House of Representatives in 1973, the Department of Corrections has been misnamed.

It doesn’t “correct” prisoners.

It punishes them.

If “Truth in Labeling” laws could be applied to governmental entities, a name change would be mandatory.

Even Governor Rod Blagojevich resurrection of the Sheridan Correctional Center as a drug rehab place is severely suspect.

I have heard from more than one source that probation officers are told not to blemish Sheridan’s reputation by sending those with paroled infractions back to jail.

So, I’d like to point folks to some real good news. In fact, it even sounds like Good News.

In an Associated Press story by Dave Carey, which I first saw last Sunday in the Daily Herald, but will link to an October 13th International Herald Tribune story in the hope that it will work for more than a week, there is a report of

"the Carol Vance Unit, founded in 1997 on the outskirts of Houston. It's the oldest of a rapidly growing number of faith-based prison facilities across the nation.”

Ten states now have such programs…as close as Iowa and Missouri.

I first heard about this idea when I was serving with my seatmate State Rep. Tom Johnson, who was chairman of the Prison Reform Committee. He showed me a newsletter from Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship organization with an extraordinary story about a prison in Brazil.

It was operated with only a handful of guards and escapes were nil.

Inmates had to be Christians to gain entry and, just like Paul with the earthquake would have allowed him to escape, they stay behind bars for their punishment.

The warden in Texas, Cynthia Tilley, says she loves the place.

"It's so calm."

These don’t work without volunteers.

It’s not that Illinois prisons don’t have Christian volunteers. I met a man on a Walk to Emmaus who found Jesus in Jacksonville’s prison. He certainly seemed like a changed man to me.

Reporter Carey is writing a balanced article, though, and adds this in the beginning:

“Evidence that they reduce recidivism is inconclusive, and skeptics question whether the prevailing evangelical tone of the units discriminates against inmates who don't share their conservative Christian outlook.”

However, evidence is strong that violence and trouble-making drop sharply in these programs, and they often are the only vibrant rehabilitation option at a time when taxpayer-funded alternatives have been cut back.

Ask the inmates and they say they “are treated with respect. They have hope.”

That is so different from what happens in Illinois prisons, at least the ones I visited in the late 1990’s.

Most states let Prison Fellowship run their programs. Florida does it on its own.

The three prisons (two for men, one for women) have 30% fewer infractions than the others.

I’ll be the guards fight to work there.

In Texas, men are eligible only the last two years of their sentence.

One inmate, Raymond Halls, convicted of murder at age 16 and sentenced to 15 years, said,

"In my other prison, on a daily basis there was rape, drugs. When you come to Carol Vance, it's like a load is lifted. It's like heaven."

A volunteer teaching Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life” admonished his class:

"You guys are a chosen nation. You go out from prison with a different mind-set from guys not in this program."

Each prisoner has a mentor in and after prison.
Besides the state-run prisons, Corrections Corporation of America has 24 prisons in 13 states with “faith pods.”

More information on the Texas program can be found at this web site.

Labels: Chuck Colson, Illinois Department of Corrections, Prison Fellowship, Prison Rape, Prison Reform Committee, Rod Blagojevich, Sheridan Correctional Center, Tom Johnson

A friend of mine got this email and forwarded it to me. It’s from Wonder Lake's White Oaks Bay resident Jeff Gerhardt.

After reevaluating his life, he decided to concentrate on “developing a series of STEM programs (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) in 2003 called Focus On NASA.”

As you can read below, he and others made it work in the inner city. Now, they want to bring it to McHenry County, but their funding fell through. They are looking for space to house the program and funding.

More information about what is needed can be found here.

If you are interested in helping out, here’s the sponsorship sign-up form.

Pictures come from the Focus on NASA Gallery.

Here is the still uncompleted web site.

A forum for teachers and students can be found here.

The Future of Science and Math

Education in McHenry County

Greeting McHenry County Residents,

I write this to you as a resident of Wonder Lake and a person who loves what our county has to offer. I also write this as a person who is concerned with the future of our youth in McHenry County and indeed the entire nation.

This is a long email, and I do apologize for that, but the issue is important and one that I have been working on now for years. I also apologize if you get multiple copies of this. I have been searching for people who I feel could have an impact within their community on the future of education, and its possible that in creating all the different lists of people, you may have ended up to two lists.

What I ask is that you please read both this email and the attached documents. Understanding the issue and the effort behind its resolution is half the battle to reaching the goal.

There is a little bit of a story behind this and I hope you will indulge me. I feel that understanding of motivations helps people to recognize the legitimacy of an effort.

Several years' back I was splitting my life between family, a business career, participation in a Rotary club, my church and a part time adjunct professor at Northwestern Business College (Not to be confused with Northwestern University). You might say I was doing some searching within myself by pulling my life in multiple directions. I had reached the pinnacle of one career found it wholly unsatisfying and started a new career. The reason why I became an adjunct teacher was because of that sense of seeking I was going through at the time.

I had moved to Naperville at the urging of my (then) wife. I was active in one of the local Naperville Rotary Clubs, the one that has that "House of Dreams" raffle and was visiting another Club promoting the then current permutation of that raffle. While there I witnessed a presentation by a man who was a successful business person who sold all he had acquired in his life to start up a foundation in Eastern Europe with the focus to open up children's hospitals. The presentation was quite moving. In fact it moved me down to the core of the soul. Had I not had the responsibility of my own daughter to finish raising, I might have chased off and followed the man. But I knew at that moment my life had changed forever.

The speaker gave it all away (all of his life's tangible assets), to do what was needed to solve a problem of great need.

So after a period of several months of self-examination, I too changed the direction of my life. After that meeting I looked back upon my life and started to re-evaluate the concept of success. As a geek running an Internet company the question was in what form that redirection would take for me. All I needed was a problem of great need a little closer to home. My part time role as a college science and technology teacher was the answer to that question.

Because I have had a reasonably successful career as a geek (you can go to Wikipedia for bio or google me if you like), one thing I learned long ago was that it was a fatal management error to ever judge others by the same standards as I measured myself. But that said, I could not believe how ill prepared the majority of high school graduates were for college level IT and Science classes. They did have superior math skills to students in the past, but their ability to solve problems and science aptitude was very low.

I began to reach out to high schools and try to offer help to raise the content bar, but found that the established educational construct was a difficult thing to change. I felt the only solution was for me to find like minded people, develop a new kind of science and math curriculum and deliver it as an after school program to help those students that I could reach.

It was not long before I found I was involved with an agency in Chicago serving low-income at risk youth. A assembled a group of very dedicated people who created a program teaching those youth the technology skills they needed to obtain jobs and live productive lives. That program was called the Youth Community Technology Project or YCTP. Very quickly we were providing educational services to a remarkably large number of youth.

In providing this service to our "At Risk" youth demographic; we began to find that youth of all races, ethnicity's, religions and economic strata were attracted to the unique program construct that we had developed for YCTP. Blending youth that were not "at risk", was a benefit to the program as we could supplement the overhead of the cost of our At Risk youth within the construct of an After School program.

Over that next year, my associates and I went back to the drawing board. We took that single program and morphed it into a new kind of curriculum and delivery methodology. We felt our programs connected better to youth in general than the "traditional" educational construct with the major goal of improving math and science competencies.

There is no question of the need for this. Everyone recognizes the dramatic need that exists in all schools to improve STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs. Our University systems are filled with students from around the world, because the youth from our own school systems do not apply in the numerical percentages that they once did in the past. Indeed the issue remains if they could even qualify. The result is our medical, science and engineering professions import talent from around the world as we continue to fall short of supplying our own needs.

There is plenty of blame to go around for this problem. We have done this to ourselves as a culture and a country. If your education system is designed to improve testing scores and thus improve the ability to get into college; than our present education system is succeeding in its construct. The simple fact is, the outcomes we have been pursuing are being addressed. But, this success is at what cost?

Many schools have had to eliminate Music Education, Physical Education, Applied Technology (shop classes) and many more programs have been eliminated to provide funds simply to teach to the testing standards. As a college level teacher, I can tell you anecdotally of the result on science and engineering.

We may now teach computer aided design in our high schools, so the kids today can draw very pretty pictures. But because science and in particular applied technology (shop class) options have narrowed, many of our youth entering engineering programs can not design something that can be built (practically and economically), much less make it work.

In witnessing this trend we developed a program series construct that achieved three unique goals in-concert. The first goal was to create a delivery methodology that appealed to youth and reconnected them with the educational process. The second goal was to create curriculum and program focus that would raise interest in youth toward STEM post secondary education and careers. The third goals was to provide those youth with a construct that offered youth opportunities to reach beyond their own perceived capabilities.

What we created was a program series called FOCUS ON NASA. This program series turned out to be even more successful than we dreamed. This was true in particular for those kids that could be called or self identified as "Geek Kids."

A number of adults have been offended by my use of the term "geek kid". But I was one of those kids as a youth and so I understand well the feeling of being an outsider, not fitting in with the main body of kids. The truth is that there exists many different kinds of geek kids, not just those interested in science and technology. There are band geeks, theater geeks, all kinds of kids that fit that general mode. They as a group are average to above average in intelligence but are OFTEN disconnected from the educational process. High School counselors can tell you of the scores of kids that go through their office that have the facilities to handle high school, but they seem disconnected from the process. This is the demographic that we targeted as our core group.

We are now four years into the YCTP/Focus On NASA project and have results to show its merits. What is interesting is how quickly the word spread through the youth population. Our youth are very connected via the Internet in ways previous generations were NOT. The result is we have had kids come to us from all over the Chicago area. Our programs are presently held at the Neighborhood Boys and Girls Club in the Albany Park area of Chicago. And yet, we have kids from as far north as Vernon Hills, as far south as Midway Airport and as Far West as Naperville that have come to participate in our programs.

They come because of OPPORTUNITY. These programs are unique.

We offer different STEM programs that appeal to youth of wide interests. Kids that are interested in band, theater, art and other areas come to us because they know that they will have the OPPORTUNITY to not only participate in interesting (and exciting) programs, but that their personal SKILLS will be valued. Because of our unique program constructs, kids with art skills can be just as important to the success of a program as the kids that already have the technical chops.

Our program list includes:

UGLI: A geek kid drop in center

Eco-Extreme: A program that blends extreme sports with science

YCTP: a· computer refurbishment program

Team Columbia: a small robotics program for Middle schools

B2B: A five discipline applied science program.

BOT-BUS: A robotics advocacy program.

ATX: Companion program to B2B that travels to the Kennedy Space Center and allows youth the experience the "Astronaut Training eXperience"

Team Maddog: A competitive High-Power· rocketry program

Team Challenger: An FRC competitive Robotics program (our· varsity sport)
And more to come…..·

The 2006/2007 school year was an amazing one for our programs. Indeed our flagship program called TEAM CHALLENGER posted results that are so high, we have no reference scope in how to judge it. Even those of us inside the program don't have an experience for comparison to fully recognize this success.

Team Challenger is a competitive robotics program that if I was forced to describe in a single word would call it "intense".

We participate in the FRC robotics competition sponsored by the organizations US FIRST and NASA. There are over 2100 teams from around the world (Our team number is 2047) that compete in this competition, and the greater professional engineering community looks upon FRC as the most significant and competitive engineering competition faced by high school youth on the planet.

These are not tiny little robots that are glorified Erector Sets. FRC Robots are 30"x 42" at the base, can stand as high as 6 feet tall, weigh as much as 150 lbs., and can rocket across a 40' x 60' competition field at 18 feet per second. These robots cost many thousands of dollars and can take thousands of hours to build. During the time leading up to our first competition last season, our team collectively put in 1874 hours to design, build and test our robot.

Fielding an FRC team is no small undertaking, and is similar in scope to the effort and cost expended on a high school athletic team. Those that participate view it as the ultimate varsity sport of the mind.

FRC based programs have benefited tens of thousand of youth across this country, and TEAM CHALLENGER had a huge impact on those youth in our Chicago program. Here is a sample of the list of achievements for an inner city program:

Team Challenger won the· Xerox Creative Engineering Award for our unique four-wheel Holonomic Drive System, while competing in the 2007 Milwaukee FRC Competition.
Team· Challenger won the Rookie All-star Award at the 2007 Midwest Regional as the best first year team in the Midwest.
Team Challenger qualified for the· International Championships
Team Challenger sent 31 youth and 7 adults to· the 2007 International Championships

Team Challenger recorded the third· highest score in a single match and the largest point differential in a single match (264-4) during that Championship
Team Challenger had a final ranking· of 14th in the world for the 2007.
Team Challenger won NINE Peer Awards· during the 2007 FRC season.
Team Challengers 16 graduating seniors were all· accepted to college, 15 are attending college, one is volunteering for a year at a kibbutz in Israel, 10 were accepted into MAJOR university engineering programs.

Now, why am I writing to you about this program series?

For the better part of the last year I have been looking for people with whom I can partner and potential funders to bring these programs to McHenry County. From a personal standpoint, I would much rather see these benefits go to youth in my own area. We in McHenry County have as much need in improving our schools as the rest of our state.

From a practical standpoint I would enjoy doing this locally and letting one of my associates manage the Chicago programs.

Therefore as I began to form my plans for the 2007/2008 school year, I focused a great deal of effort in funding for delivering Focus On NASA programs to McHenry County. In doing so we had lined up about $55,000 in additional funding to begin the process of starting a Focus On NASA program series in McHenry County.

Press releases in hand and staff already hired, we were informed during the last week of August that the funding had been pulled at the last minute as the corporate sponsor could no longer make good on the commitment of funds. It looked as if we would have to put off a Focus On NASA in McHenry County till the 2008/2009 school year.

This was a disappointment to those youth and teachers that I had spoken with about the program. And in truth it was a disappointment to the people that created Focus On NASA. Our goal is to take what we have learned and bring it to communities across the state.

Good fortune has smiled on us at the last minute, or at least an opportunity. But I need help to take advantage of the two opportunities before us.

First, we have the opportunity for a small $6,000 grant from NASA.

Second, Lt. Governor Pat Quinn has been a supporter of my program and has talked to people that can possibly solve our problem. DCEO (Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity) has made available some possible grant funds if I can put together a team in McHenry County fast.

However, time is very short and I need people to respond quickly if they wish to see these kinds of STEM programs in McHenry County. I need FIVE things and again I need them quickly. All the paperwork for the grant are due November 13th.

1) First and probably most important, I need you to help me to exercise your own part of the 6 degrees of separation. PLEASE pass this on to anyone you know in the County connected to a funding option, and in particular people that own, manage or work in a tech business. Awareness of this program series will go a long way to addressing the other three needs.

2) The second favor is we need a few people or companies to make a pledge of financial support. I say pledge as I will not collect the funds unless sufficient funds are put together to create the Focus On NASA programs. But at minimum I need to raise pledges of at least $10,000 as "matching funds" for DCEO to provide a $50,000 funding channel to get things started in McHenry County.

Our organization is a 501c3 so all donations are tax deductible. If we get the DCEO funding it is more often then not continuous long term annual funding. This would be a solid base to bring the entire series of Focus On NASA programs to McHenry. Long term we need to fund a $150,000 funding channel for each program cluster. My hope is to have several clusters through the county, but the development funds are needed first.

Any business or individual willing to donate should contact me ASAP. Please email to TeamChallenger@gmail.com . In addition to the tax deduction, many of the sponsorships create high visibility for the sponsor. There are also many forms of "in-kind" support, in particular for provisioning the youth drop in center. Two of the documents attached to this email are the sponsor packet.

3) Third, we need businesses in the county that are TECH businesses to step forward and become partners in this process. What I mean by this is NOT cash support (but that would be helpful) but businesses actually willing to partner on the DCEO grant. Typically grants such as this are tied to either jobs or internship opportunities. I need a business, or group of businesses that will each provide a summer internship or two, in a tech related job. If you run a tech business, consider this a FREE human resource opportunity to find the creme of tech savvy youth. Please if your business happens to use robotics, or better yet builds robots, I need to talk to you. Please email to TeamChallenger@gmail.com as soon as possible.

4) Another area of need is physical space to host the programs. Although we do meet in the schools we serve with regularity, because many of our programs are shared by a group of schools, we have the need for Cluster/Community Headquarters facilities in strategic locations around the county. We have one such facility in Chicago. We are also happy to announce that we have had a huge facility donated in Woodstock Illinois that will act as our main facility in the county. We have sufficient space their to build a large machine shop, a full size 40'x60' FRC playing field as some recreational facilities as well.

This is an opportunity for a property owner to donate the use of a presently unused facility and get a tax deduction. We are looking for facilities in McHenry, Crystal Lake and a location in the west area of the county. If you know of someone are willing to become a partner, please email to TeamChallenger@gmail.com with your contact information and we will call you ASAP.

5) Fifth, we need people who are interested in working with an amazing demographic of youth to volunteer. Our programs have staffers once we get a location established, but we would not survive without volunteers. In particular we look for people with skills related to technology or science. But if you are just a person with a passion for hobbies then we can find a place for you. If you are willing to become a mentor then please email to TeamChallenger@gmail.com and request a mentor information flyer.

Last, although we are doing the best to spread the word to educators. Please tell teachers and administrators that you may know. It may be that it is too late for them to get involved for this school year. But they need to begin the process now to get involved for next year.

My thanks for your patience and indulgence for this long email.

Yours,
Jeff Gerhardt
Founder of Focus On NASA
Recipient of the 2006 LEADER Award for Curriculum Development

All Photos may be enlarged.

Labels: Focus on NASA, Jeff Gerhartd, Wonder Lake

Last week was Red Ribbon Week.

Students at McHenry West High School, where my son practices swimming with the McHenry Marlins, created posters and made a display.

Red ribbons spelled out the letters,


If you click on the image, you might be able to make out what the individual posters say.

Similar-themed posters were put up last October and before last Christmas.

Labels: Message of the Day, Poster, Red Ribbon Week

The first candidate to shoot me a press release about filing for office is state representative hopeful Jim Krenz of Carpentersville. Here is what he sent:

KRENZ SUBMITS PETITIONS AND GAINS MASSIVE MOMENTUM

KRENZ CAMPAIGN SUBMITS OVER 1,000 SIGNATURES FOR STATE HOUSE RACE

SPRINGFIELD, IL October 29, 2007 – Republican candidate Jim Krenz, who is running for Representative in the 49th District, submitted today over 1,000 signatures on his nominating petitions, which is over double the state requirement of 500.

“Collecting over double the amount of signatures required by state law shows everyone in the district that a change is what people are calling for,” said candidate Jim Krenz. “Families in this district are tired of our representative, whose voting record does not represent them and their interests. ”

By submitting his nominating petitions, Krenz will be officially on the ballot for the February 5, 2008 Election for the 49th District House seat. Krenz will be running against Tim Schmitz, who currently occupies the seat.

“I am the best opportunity for the 49th District to be represented in Springfield,” said Krenz. “The voters of the 49th District will see how Schmitz has voted to raise taxes in the amount of one hundred million dollars, sided with Planned Parenthood and liberal Democrats to make it harder for pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to counsel women and gave illegal immigrants in-state tuition at taxpayer expense.”

After declaring his intentions to run for the State House, Krenz announced that if elected, he would be decline the state pension for the part-time State House position because it is classified as a part-time job and should not qualify for a pension and it is a waste of money to the tax payers in the State of Illinois. Krenz also has made it aware that if elected, he would only serve in the State House for a total of three terms because he felt that having term limits is what is right for the people of the district.

Jim Krenz is running for the Republican nomination for State Representative in the 49th District. Krenz, a lifelong resident of the Fox Valley region, is running his election on important issues such as

• pro-life,
• lower taxes,
• slashing government waste,
• opposing illegal immigration,
• supporting 2nd amendment rights and
• reforming the current health care situation.

One day after his announcement to seek the Republican nomination in the 49th District, Krenz pledged to wave his legislative pension if elected because it was a waste of tax payer dollars and unfair to the general public to have to pay for it.

The Primary Election will take place on February 5, 2008. The 49th District covers St. Charles, Geneva, South Elgin, Elgin, Hampshire, Gilberts, West Dundee, Carpentersville and other communities in Northern Kane County.

Krenz is running against incumbent Tim Schmitz in the GOP primary.

Labels: 49th District, Jim Krenz, Tim Schmitz

The scheduled meeting for 8 AM last Saturday morning to consider a by-laws changes at Woodstock’s VFW may have been canceled because precinct committeemen who are members of the local Operating Engineers Local 150 would not be able to make it.

Bill LeFew, who announced he was retiring as chairman of the McHenry County Republican Central Committee less than two weeks ago, re-set the meeting for a week before Christmas.
He set it on a night both the McHenry County Board and the Crystal Lake City Council meet. Both bodies have precinct committeemen.

One might expect that even if the weather were good enough for earth moving, the union members would have completed their day by the night meeting time of 6:30.

And, of course, the weather could be really, really bad. That would mean no quorum and no quorum means no change in the by-laws.

Also over will be filing time for GOP precinct committeeman. It ends a week from today at 4:40 at the county clerk’s office north of the jail.

It is reasonable to assume that factions not happy with the results of the cancelled Saturday meeting would have been encouraging their friends to run for precinct committeeman.

There will be no such recourse the third week of December.

From an earlier email LeFew sent out, we learned that the position of executive director, held by Jeri Davis Landon, was proposed to be eliminated from the bylaws. Another change would be lowering the quorum from 50% to 40%.

Meeting attendance has reportedly not been good since “an important meeting” before an election turned out to be a candidates’ night for favored candidates.

Here’s why it matters who is GOP chairman.

If you would like to try your hand at grassroots political, click below

Labels: Bill LeFew, McHenry County Republican Central Committee, Operating Engineers Local 150

A friend of the blog pointed out the following quote from McHenry County College President Walt Packard:

"If we start picking and choosing which groups can speak and which can't, you're going down a slippery path. Particularly in our college environment, you have to be prepared to listen to a wide range of ideas in order to learn."

It was in Daily Herald reporter Kerry Lester’s article on Friday.

Considering the one-sidedness of discussions on many university campuses, Packard’s reaction to the request by members of Latinos Unidos to prohibit the Illinois Minuteman Project meeting on Friday night is positively refreshing.

Labels: Illinois Minuteman Project, Latinos Undos, MCC, McHenry County College, Walt Packard

McHenry County Blog doesn’t usually dip into foreign policy, but it came up at the Minuteman meeting at McHenry County College last Friday night.

A man named Rick, who said he was in construction spoke during the question period after Allen County, Ohio, Sheriff Daniel Beck had finished his prepared remarks.

“It’s extremely personal to me.

“I attempted to do business I Mexico. I refused to pay off anybody.”

He pointed to the May Day march last year when Mexicans waive the Mexican flag and their handlers told them not to that in the second march, rather to wave American flags.

“I feel our kindness has (allowed us to be) taken advantage of.

“They are taught (in Mexico) that the Americans stole their land.”

He said they were not just minimum wage workers.

“They are earning $54 an hour as a union electrician.

“I know because my brother has 5 illegals working for him…

“I just don’t trust the people because they come from a lawless country.”

He told of going back to finish up business affairs.

“I got pulled over last week and it cost me $200.”

“I got pulled over in a foreign country and it cost me $300,” another person in the audience yelled out.

“I was in Wisconsin.”

That brought knowing laughter.

Rick continued with a tale of Saul Herandez, the third most popular rock star in Mexico, a man he considered his friend.

Herandez was playing at the Chicago House of Blues last Thanksgiving week and spoke to the audience in Spanish. Not speaking the language, Rick asked Herandez’ Dutch wife what he was saying.

“Oh, he’s just telling people you don’t need papers to work here,” she replied. “Keep up the fight. You didn’t cross the border. The border crossed us. This is your land.”

“I must have had dinner with them about 100 times.

He also told of what the President of the Cancun Restaurant Association, a man with whom he had had coffee 100 times, told him the last time he was in Mexico.

“We don’t need you anymore. Yes, we’re going to try to take your country from you.”

A man on the other side of the auditorium said, “I have a friend who works as an intelligence office for ICE. (He told me) they want to flood the Southwestern United States and vote them into Mexico (when they get amnesty).”

Another audience member asked, “Do you agree with that gentleman that they are trying to take over our country?”

“If they ever get amnesty, they’ll own the Southeastern United States.”

A women who said she grew up in Pilson and taught in Cicero “where there are a lot of illegals” indicated she “thinks it is hopeless.”

Beck suggested starting “at the local level. Don’t start at the big level.”

He told of being interviewed on WLS and WYLL Friday.

“I suspect there are a million more like you.”

= = = = =
I would add that right now people can file for Republican precinct committeemen. Get a minimum of ten “good” signatures from your neighbors and you can get on the February 5th ballot for precinct committeeman. I would suggest getting 20 signatures, because some people don’t want to be embarrassed by telling you they are not really registered voters. Notarized petitions have to be at the building north of the courthouse in the county clerk's office by 4:30.

Here’s what you have to do:

Labels: Mexico, Republican Precinct Committeeman

A lot of fuss was caused by ex-Huntley School District 158 school board member Jim Carlin’s attempt to basically censure Larry Snow for a comment put under a Northwest Herald story.

The comment?

"A few free lunches, a few free dinners, a thank-you envelope in the Christmas basket sent to the home and a few well-placed political contributions and you have the recipe for overcrowding."

Carlin’s failure to get his topic on the board’s agenda may well have been part of the reason for his resignation. That and his colleagues' rejection of his proposal to pay fpr a $2,000-a day consultant he recommended.

So, Daily Herald reporter Jameel Naqvi was surprised that there were no harsh words when the school board met with the village board.

Snow continued his relentless push to get developers to pay for the cost of educating new homeowners’ children before they pay their fist tax bill.

“Huntley officials demurred, saying they did not want to tie transition fees to the per-student cost unless other towns in the district also did the same.,” the article said.

Snow adversary Kim Skaja praised the board:

"You have been a leader in collecting transition and impact fees. You have been a leader in keeping growth at a pace we can handle."

Interesting statement considering Huntley made national news for being the 3rd fastest growing city in America a couple of years ago.

The growth rate was 71$ from 2000-2002. That's an increase of 9,797 people.

No problem absorbing 71% growth, right?

Labels: Huntley School District 158, Huntley Village Board, Kim Skaja, Larry Snow, transition fees

A former resident of Delaware read McHenry County Blog's article about the proposed Algonquin-Carpentersville. He noted the promise of an end to tolls when the bonds were paid off. Here is is observation:

"The Delaware Memorial Bridge linking New Jersey and Delaware near Wilmington, Delaware opened on August 15, 1951. The promise to the taxpayers was that the tolls would be removed after the tolls paid for the bridge... The collection of tolls reached that level but the funds were used to build a twin bridge... Now, 56 years later they still have the tolls to support a massive bridge administration system... Taxpayers evidently never learn... This is another 'Trust Me' experience."

Of course, the tolls for the Northwest Tollway were supposed to end when they were paid off, but they were diverted to pay for other Illinois tollways.

Labels: Delaware Memorial Bridge, Illinois Tollway, toll bridge