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4 | April 20, 2017 | The frankfort station news frankfortstation.com Summit Hill School D161 Board of Education Officials review school lunch program’s future Megann Horstead Freelance Reporter The prospect of losing the opportunity for federal reimbursement loomed over the Summit Hill School District 161 Board of Education at its April 12 meeting, as of- Social Club Widow & Widowers Social Club 6:30-9PM FRIDAYS May 5th, June 2nd, and July 7th Zion Lutheran Church • 17100 South 69th Ave • Tinley Park We meet once a month. All denominations welcome! BEVERAGES, SNACKS & ENTERTAINMENT... Monthly General meetings, Organized restaurant outings, Dances, trips, theater etc. Monthly games, discussion, interaction meetings, Newcomers get acquainted meetings. FOR MORE INFORMATION DANELL CHMURA 630-728-9368 BILL DOLEHIDE 708-342-6820 ficials weighed in on low student participation in the lunch program and actions the district should take moving forward. “The bottom line is the vision of our current lunch program [and] the vision of the National School Lunch Program [are] very different,” Superintendent Barb Rains said. The lunches provided at Summit Hill schools are prepared by Quest Food Management through an agreement formed with Union School District 81 in Joliet. In November, the program was reviewed for compliance to National School Lunch Program requirements. That audit is performed once every three years. “The result of that was findings that were mostly easily correctable,” Director of Business and Transportation Doug Wiley said, noting that the reviewer raised some concerns that could not be addressed through corrective action through the administrative review. “We chose to run those through their complaint process. Really, the focus of those issues were why the participation in our program was low, even among the free and reduced.” Rains said the district had tried to cater the program to the entire population, but it didn’t work. Wiley said the district has many students who are eligible for free or reduced lunch but choose not to participate. To date, there are 210 students participating in the program. “The crux of this is the fact that we’re trying to provide lunch to the folks who need it, whereas the National School Lunch Program is more interested in providing school lunch to the entire population, which is not something we can accommodate,” Wiley said. Wiley said if the board does nothing to align the program to fit the spirit of the National School Lunch Program, the district could lose more than $20,000 in funding. The Illinois State Board of Education offered a number of suggestions to Summit Hill to gauge why participation is limited. This included efforts to offer families the added option to purchase lunch daily rather than one month at a time, open up test tastings, and conduct parent surveys both from the free and general lunch populations. Wiley said officials will need to determine if they wish to stay in the program. “The only part that would be changed if we left the program was we wouldn’t get the federal reimbursement for those lunches,” Wiley said. “We’d still get the direct certification list. People would still apply at the beginning of the year for free lunch if they’re interested.” The healthy food requirements would need to remain in place. Wiley said the district could choose to run a more robust lunch service, but that would require additional staffing they don’t currently have. Board President Rich Marron negated the idea, saying there are a number of variables at play. “We’re not going to stop going through Union, [with whom] we have the intergovernmental agreement,” Marron said. “We can’t manage this on our own, because the guidelines are too restrictive. You have to [have] a specialized kitchen to work within them. We can’t do this daily, because we’d have to hire a fulltime person, and we’d end up losing money. “The question is, really, if we do some taste testing and a survey, is that enough to make this go away?” Marron asked, noting that the reviewer could continue to have concerns. “Then, I think the answer is there for us.” Summit Hill officials came to a consensus that nothing is changing on the front end with the lunch program. The difference is that the district may not seek reimbursement. Budgets items discussed Summit Hill officials also took a look at the district’s proposed budgets for technology and operations and maintenance. Wiley presented to the board a proposed technology budget, excluding salaries and benefits, accounting for nearly $700,000 in expenditures. Spending includes plans to employ 234 student tablets, along with contractual services for access points. “That’s half of what was proposed,” Wiley said. “Once we have the budget fully compiled, we can determine if there’s room to include more tablets.” This year, Summit Hill purchased 729 tablets. “That leaves us roughly 650 tablets short for the district,” Wiley said. Other items highlighted in the technology budget include three copy machines and two intercom system replacements. To get the tablets and access points ready for the 2017-2018 academic year, district officials intend to take board action at the next regular meeting to ensure that work is performed during the summer. Summit Hill officials said they still have five years before they’ll start needing to budget for replacement tablets. As for the district’s operations and maintenance budget, school officials identified two main projects they’ve wrapped up, including roof improvements at Dr. Julian Rogus School and installation of a condenser unit at Hilda Walker. “They’re done, they’re on track to start [when] school gets out,” Wiley said. Please see d161, 8
frankfortstation.com news the frankfort station | April 20, 2017 | 5 Business owners, Village compromise on fest street closures Jon DePaolis Freelance Reporter Dozens of people turned out for the Community Services Committee meeting to register concerns over action items involving potential street closures in the downtown district for events. One such event is the Bluegrass Fest, which is scheduled for July 8-9 at Breidert Green. Trustee Keith Ogle said the original plan for the festival was to close Kansas Street, from White to Oak streets; as well as Ash Street, from Kansas to Nebraska streets. The closures would be from 9 a.m. Saturday, July 8, to the end of the festival at 9 p.m. Sunday, July 9. Downtown business owners attended the meeting to voice their displeasure over the Village considering closing down streets for such a length of time, with several stating that it would negatively affect their businesses. A big reason is parking is not sufficient in the area, once the streets are closed. Trustees said it was a safety issue that led the committee to consider closing the streets for the festival. Last year, during the festival, while Trustee Mike Stevens was sitting outside at Smokey Barque — which is directly across the street from Breidert Green — and said he saw someone “nearly get run over.” “People are walking up and down the sidewalks and crossing at different parts of the street,” Ogle said. “And it’s not just the street corners — they are crossing in the middle of the street. During the Concerts on the Green, people are dancing in the middle of Kansas Street.” Business owners asked for the roads to be allowed to stay open until 3 or 4 p.m. on both days. One potential issue with closing the roads at 3 or 4 p.m., however, was discussed by Heath. She said if vehicles are parked in those spots on Kansas and Ash after that time, they would either need to be towed or police or volunteers would have to stop what they were currently doing to try and find the owners of the automobiles to get them to move. Ultimately, a compromise was discussed with the members of the community and the committee. It would close the stretch between Ash and White streets at 9 a.m. July 8 through the end of the festival on July 9; prohibit two-way traffic at Oak and Kansas streets; and close Ash Street (from Nebraska to Kansas streets) and Kansas Street (from White to Oak streets) at 3 p.m. on both days of the festival. Similar to the Bluegrass Fest discussion, several business owners in attendance were against the idea of closing down the same streets for Cruisin’ Frankfort — a classic car show that takes place Thursdays, from May 11-Sept. 14. The shows begin at 5 p.m., but the roads would potentially be closed by 5 p.m. so that car club members could park their classic automobiles onto Kansas Street and other spots with no other traffic along Kansas and Ash. For this weekly event, the motion was to close Kansas Street (from White to Oak streets) and Ash Street (from Nebraska to Kansas streets) from 5-8 p.m.; to add no parking signage around the downtown; and to not allow show cars to park until around 4 p.m. The motions for both of those items were not yet finalized as of Friday, April 14. Committee members voice opposition to Village ownership of private streets [hed] Those who are living on private streets in Frankfort and wanting the Village to take ownership of those roads in order to gain services such as snow removal shouldn’t hold their breath. The Land Use and Policy Committee discussed the issue Wednesday, April 12, at a combined meeting with the Community Services Committee at Village Hall. The committee members appeared to be unanimously against the idea of the Village taking ownership of the private streets. The Village does not provide services, such as maintenance or snow removal, to these private roads. Frankfort Police still patrols the areas, but officers cannot write traffic tickets there. For the purposes of the discussion, Director of Development Services Jeffrey Cook listed three options for the committee in a memo to the members. One option was to continue as is, with private roads remaining private. The second option was to accept ownership of certain private roads, as long as certain criteria were met. The third would be a hybrid of the two, in which the Village would agree to offer services and maintenance of the private roads while not owning them. Frankfort resident Tom Barz, who was representing a couple of homeowners associations, spoke at the meeting. “Mostly what they are looking at, as it was brought up at a homeowners meeting, is that they are paying taxes and they want the services,” he said. “I understand both sides of the fence, but I think the associations that I represent are basically looking for snow plowing and they are willing to turn around and participate with the Village on some kind of plowing situation.” The committee members, however, seemed wholly against the idea of taking on the private roads. Frankfort Village Clerk Adam Borrelli said while he understands the point of residents on the private roads wanting the services, he believes the Village currently already has a lot of roads to maintain. “That’s already been a struggle,” he said. “To take on more roads, and substandard ones, doesn’t make any sense to me.” Trustee Cindy Heath equated this issue to that of funding sidewalks for those areas. “I have continued to have issues with us putting in [sidewalks] and using Village funds from other taxpayers to pay for amenities that weren’t originally part of purchase price,” Heath said. She also said she owns a commercial property and pays a lot of Village taxes there, but it doesn’t maintain the lot or plow it. “There’s an understanding that sometimes you have to pay taxes for the common good, and it is not necessarily going to cover your own personal situation,” she said. Village Administrator Jerry Ducay said the Village has had this discussion a number of times. “Our response has been that we were not in favor of taking [ownership of private roads] for a litany of reasons,” Ducay said. “There are a diverse quality in the various private roads in the community, as some in fact are actually gated. Others are built to a lesser width, and some are built to a different standard as far as curb and gutter. Therefore, rather than trying to distinguish between all the different standards, we just changed our rules to say we don’t allow private roads anymore.” The item was listed for discussion, meaning no action was taken. solar From Page 3 atoms to debating nuclear energy. “It applies to their lives — everyone talks about solar, but I don’t think that they’ve ever really seen data from a solar panel,” eighth-grade science teacher Lori Szymanski said. “It gives them meaning, and it’s not just this far away kind of energy in sunny places only.” Working with real equipment and hard numbers isn’t beyond her students, Szymanski said. “It’s not overwhelming and too difficult for kids,” she said. “Most of the students understood the solar energy and the energy concepts because it is everywhere.” For Rodgers, the solar panels are a way to bring classroom experiences into the real world. She said students have pointed out neighbors’ homes with solar panels, and have become more aware of how they reduce the need for other sources of electricity. “It’s fun, it’s interesting, it’s new,” said Butryn, who has solar panels on her own home. Along with classmate Geena DiBenedetto, Butryn tinkered with a tiny solar panel last week, powering a miniature fan under a lamp. A note card acted as a cloud, shading the light and causing the fan to sputter to a stop. Afterward, the class debriefed: More light means more energy. As the weather becomes warmer, Rodgers’ students will head outside to launch solar balloons, filled with air but powered by the sun’s rays. It’s a unique, hands-on activity. But Rodgers hopes it will have a brighter impact. “It really just intrigues me that I could create some future engineers here, just because of putting something on our school,” she said. For more information and real-time data from Summit Hill’s solar panels, visit www.summithill.org/ shjh_home.htm and scroll to the bottom of the page. Social studies and science teacher Roxanne Rodgers discusses how temperature and sunlight affect solar panels. Kirsten Onsgard/22nd Century Media
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