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Serving DeKalb County since 1879
Saturday-Sunday, April 6-7, 2013
NIU FOOTBALL • SPORTS, B1
AMERICAN PROFILE • INSIDE
Players share what it’s like to redshirt
Museums chronicle American experience Matt Williams
DeKALB MAYOR’S RACE
VIRTUAL SCHOOLS DEBATE
Verbic wants to move from school board to mayor’s seat
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Newof learning way
By DAVID THOMAS dthomas@shawmedia.com
Photo Illustration by H. Rick Bamman – hbamman@shawmedia.com
Virtual Learning companies are being considered in many Illinois school districts. Those districts, statewide government watchdogs and education associations fear the proposed online charter schools will divert precious tax dollars from public schools to a for-profit, out-of-state company with a shaky track record.
Districts face tough questions with virtual charter schools By STEPHEN Di BENEDETTO
Voice your opinion
sdibenedetto@shawmedia.com
and BRENDA SCHORY bschory@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Doug Moeller believes DeKalb School District 428 is looking at a roughly $480,000 question. Moeller, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and student services, said the multidistrict virtual charter school would take about 60 students from DeKalb if its charter is approved. That loss would mean about $480,000 less in state funding for District 428, but it would be a hit the district would take if it meant a better
Would you send your child to an online charter school? Vote online at Daily-Chronicle.com.
opportunity for those particular students, Moeller said. “As a district, we feel we meet the needs of all our students,” Moeller said. “But there are some students, for whatever reason, that might find this a better way to learn.” Formed in February, the nonprofit Virtual Learning
Solutions is petitioning to open the Illinois Virtual Charter School at Fox River Valley. It wants to enroll students from 18 school districts including District 428, Sycamore School District 427 and districts in DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will counties. School board members in each district must approve or deny the charter request within 30 days after holding a public hearing. The District 428 school board is scheduled to vote on the proposal at its April 16 meeting, while District 427 will vote on it Tuesday. The organization has said it plans to appeal denials to
the Illinois Charter School Commission, which could override school board decisions. Local districts’ funds – estimated at up to $8,000 a student annually – would be siphoned off for each pupil who leaves brick-and-mortar schools to attend the virtual school. Some statewide government watchdogs and education associations fear the proposed online charter school will divert tax dollars from public schools to a for-profit, out-of-state company with a shaky record of managing similar schools in more than 20 states.
See VIRTUAL SCHOOLS, page A7
Obama seeks deal, proposes cuts to Social Security Administration’s plan will be released Wednesday, aims to tackle deficits adding to national debt The ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON – Seeking an elusive middle ground, President Barack Obama is proposing a 2014 budget that embraces tax increases abhorred by Republicans as well as reductions, loathed by liberals, in the growth of Social Security and other benefit programs. The plan, if ever enacted, could touch almost all Americans. The rich would see tax increases, the poor and the elderly would get smaller annual increases in their benefits, and middle income taxpayers would slip into higher tax brackets despite Obama’s repeated vows not to add to the tax burden of the middle class.
His proposed changes, once phased in, would mean a cut in Social Security benefits of nearly $1,000 a year for an average 85-yearold, smaller cuts for younger retirees. Obama proposed much the same without success to House Speaker John Boehner in December. The response Friday was Barack Obama dismissive from Republicans and hostile from liberals, labor and advocates for the elderly. But the proposal aims to tackle worrisome deficits that are adding
to the national debt and placing a long-term burden on the nation, prompting praise from independent deficit hawks. Obama’s budget also proposes new spending for public works projects, pre-school education and for job and benefit assistance for veterans. “It’s not the president’s ideal approach to our budget challenges, but it is a serious compromise proposition that demonstrates that he wants to get things done,” said White House press secretary Jay Carney. The budget, which Obama will release Wednesday to cover the budget year beginning Oct. 1, proposes spending cuts and revenue
increases that would result in $1.8 trillion in deficit reductions over 10 years. That figure would replace $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts that are poised to take effect over the next 10 years if Congress and the president don’t come up with an alternative, thus delivering a net increase in deficit reduction of $600 billion. Counting reductions and higher taxes that Congress and Obama have approved since 2011, the 2014 budget would contribute to $4.3 trillion in total deficit reduction by 2023. The budget wouldn’t affect the $85 billion in cuts that kicked in last month for this budget year.
DeKALB – Of the four mayoral candidates, Mike Verbic has the best claim to the title of DeKalb’s native son. With the exception MIKE VERBIC of a few years spent in Naperville, Verbic has n Affiliation: lived in DeKalb his en- Independent tire life. He’s a fifth-gen- n Age: 46 eration resident, and n Education: during the DeKalb Bachelor’s Degree, Area Renters Associa- Marketing, NIU; tion forum in January, Associate Degree, he rattled off a laundry Business, Kishwaulist of local businesses kee College where he frequented n Career: Inand worked. structional Media If Verbic beats out Systems Technihis opponents – Jencian, NIU nifer Groce, David Jacobson and John Rey n Marital Status: – in Tuesday’s election Married, Jennifer for DeKalb mayor, he n Children: Miwants to welcome new- chael, 16, Grace, 12 comers to the city. “As I go door to door, people feel like they are on their own,” Verbic said. “They don’t know what day ... is trash pickup. They don’t know where the schools are right away. They don’t know what city services are available. ... They need to know who we are, what we believe in DeKalb, and how they can get involved.” Verbic said his “Making the Most of DeKalb” kit would contain resources people for new arrivals. Verbic said it coud be either a packet of paper documents or a website. Verbic is an instruction media systems technician at Northern Illinois University, but he doesn’t believe his job would present a conflict of interest if he’s elected mayor. Verbic began working at NIU around the same time he won a seat on the DeKalb School District 428 board. When he was board president, he negotiated with NIU many times. “If I was a policymaker, that may be a different story,” Verbic said. “But I never envisioned myself working at NIU as a policymaker.” Verbic said his run for the school board in 2005 was motivated by what he saw as the board’s failure to connect with the public after a referendum for a new high school failed. “I felt that if I would be elected a school board member, I could deliver more of that entrenched community input we needed to run a successful capital improvement project,” Verbic said. After he won the election, Verbic led a successful referendum, which in turn led to the building of the new DeKalb High School. But he also was on the board when the district negotiated a $1 million impact fee credit, a credit for which the district might have to pay interest. Verbic said the impact fee credit lowered the price of the land purchased for the school, and Macom Development – now ShoDeen – was to pay that money back when development started. “None of us could see what was going to happen with the housing market,” Verbic said. The district will have to pay $42,000 a year in interest on that impact fee credit starting this year. Verbic noted it’s a complicated situation, as ShoDeen also will owe the district money for the public improvements the district made next to the high school.
See VERBIC, page A8
Mayoral profile schedule n Wednesday – Jennifer Groce n Thursday – David Jacobson n Friday – John Rey n Today – Mike Verbic
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