GA_081717

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the glencoe anchor | August 17, 2017 | 9
THE WINNETKA CURRENT
District chugs along with
enrollment balancing
phases, studies
At the District’s regular
school board meeting
on Aug. 8, Winnetka residents
and school officials
were updated on the status
of District 36’s Future
Ready D36 plan, which
was presented by awardwinning
educational facilities
company DLR Group
and broken down into five
key phases.
Jason Lembke, representing
DLR Group, explained
how the group
ponce
From Page 4
Ponce, the son of “Chicago
Tonight” (WTTW)
host Phil Ponce, graduated
from New Trier in 1995,
shortly before his father
took a job in Washington
D.C. with the national PBS
show, “The News Hour
with Jim Lehrer.”
At New Trier, he played
violin in the orchestra, sang
in the swing and concert
choirs, performed in the
musicals and plays, and ran
track and cross country all
four years. Glencoe was on
his radar only to the extent
that a high school girlfriend
lived there, four blocks
from his home now.
After graduating from
New Trier, Ponce earned
his bachelor’s degree from
Indiana University and
master’s degree from the
Medill School of Journalism
at Northwestern University.
His TV career began in
2005 when he was hired
at WILX-TV in Lansing,
Mich., as a reporter and
weekend anchor. In 2006,
he joined ABC-owned
WLS-TV in Chicago as
a general assignment reporter.
began its work with the
District in July. The hiring
came in response to
the District’s Enrollment
Balancing Project, which
started last year with discussions
on how to alleviate
overcrowding in some
district schools. The fix
for the current year is that
the incoming kindergarten
class will be split between
Greeley School and Hubbard
Woods School while
Crow Island School will
start at first grade.
Lembke explained that
the District is in Phase 1:
Deeper Understanding,
Before joining WGN-TV
in 2010 as a general assignment
reporter, there was a
two-year professional detour.
In 1996, while at Indiana,
Ponce founded the a
cappella group Straight No
Chaser. After the group’s
videos went viral on the
internet, Atlantic Records
gave them a record deal.
In 2009, after Straight No
Chaser’s album “Holiday
Spirits” went to No. 1 on
iTunes and Amazon, Ponce
decided to leave ABC and
join the group full-time.
SNC went on to perform
hundreds of concerts
throughout the country and
record three more albums
for Atlantic. The group’s
televised concert series
“Live in New York” (produced
by WTTW) aired on
PBS stations coast to coast.
Though he no longer
sings with the group, Ponce
does occasionally write for
them, and when they perform
in the Civic Opera
House in December, he
plans to be in the audience
cheering them on.
Ponce and Amy, who
works for an addiction
treatment center, have been
married for six years and
lived in Chicago until the
which began with a facilities
engineering analysis
and will continue through
October. During this
phase, it will be gathering
input from the primary
users, including students,
teachers, administrators
and support staff. Student
ideation, teacher activity
logs, indoor environmental
quality and sustainability
will be among the factors
it considers.
Phase 1 will conclude
with community presentations
at each school during
the week of Sept. 25-Oct.
3. Following that, Phase 2:
move to Glencoe. Once he
was settled back in television
news at WGN-TV, the
focus of their life rarely
shifted north.
“In the news business,
we don’t come up to the
North Shore very often,”
he said. “There are not a lot
of stories here that are going
to lead the 10 o’clock
news, so I didn’t spend a
whole lot of time up here
even when I lived in Chicago.”
Nor did he come back to
the North Shore to “hang
out,” except to occasionally
pop into Walker’s Pancake
House in Wilmette “to
relive my childhood a little
bit and get the 49er’s flapjacks,”
or to grab a burger
at the Chuckwagon in Wilmette.
But as friends began
moving back to the North
Shore, so did the gravitational
pull for him to do the
same.
“I wouldn’t say I necessarily
missed the North
Shore but eventually our
friends start moving here
and we spent a little bit
more time here and we
knew it was probably time
to make the move,” he said.
“We were in this house for
about two minutes and we
Discover and Explore will
begin with a district-wide
preview on global perspectives,
scheduled for
Oct. 24.
During Phase 2, DLR
will do comparisons with
other school districts in Illinois,
around the United
States and in other nations
to find models of educational
facilities that are
worth following or adapting.
Reporting by Katie Copenhaver,
Freelance Reporter.
Full story at WinnetkaCurrent.com.
knew it was the right house
and we decided to make it
happen.”
Glencoe was on his radar
from the beginning of his
house hunt.
“The North Shore is obviously
a fantastic area, but
Glencoe has its own little
niche in itself,” he said.
“Everyone has really
been welcoming here, especially
our neighbors. It
feels like you live in a small
town here so you get a little
bit of that small town magic
and it is still nice to be so
close to the city.”
In his spare time, Ponce
enjoys tending to his yard
and garden, which features
plenty of hostas, hydrangeas
and potted plants.
“I love landscaping. I
love to water it. I mow my
own lawn. Everyone else
around here outsources
their yard work. I do my
own. People who are driving
around town will likely
see me working in the yard
or walking the dog,” he
said.
“We are off to a great
start here,” Ponce added.
“I think we are pretty
much here to stay, and to
be part of what I know is a
really special community.”
Coco Ally Lesniak
Lesniak Family, of Glencoe
Seven-year-old CoCo is
an incredible shelter
dog. She has an amazing
brown brindle soft
fur coat. Her favorite
activities are going for
a walk/run and playing
with all the kids who are
usually around our home
due to our older children.
She loves our family,
friends and one of her favorite foods is carrots.
She is an incredible part of our family and wakes
us with a contagious smile every morning wanting
to go for a run with Mom, (no matter what the
weather has in store). Folks on the Green Bay Trail
know her well. She’s simply amazing and we’re
grateful to have her in our family.
HELP! We’re running out of pets to feature! To see your
pet as Pet of the Week, send information to Megan Bernard
at megan@glencoeanchor.com or 60 Revere Drive,
Suite 888, Northbrook, IL 60062.
WINNER:
Best Groomer in
Chicagoland
Pet of the Week
Sponsored by
Love Fur Dogs
The Best in Grooming 847-LUV-DOGS
www.LoveFurDogs.com • 69 Green Bay Rd. Glencoe, IL
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