DuPage County Budget
DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin presented a balanced budget for the county’s 2021 fiscal year at yesterday’s board meeting. The fiscal budget comes in at $479.7 million. A record unemployment rate of 14.7 % in April, and an estimated $5.3 million loss of sales tax revenue from last year are some effects DuPage County is seeing from the COVID-19 pandemic. But efforts to trim costs like deferring new vehicle purchases and asking employees to suspend selling back vacation time helped the county balance its budget and keep the property tax rate flat. Cronin said his two top priorities with this budget are public health and public safety. The board will consider the budget until its expected vote on November 24.
D204’s Equity Statement
At District 204’s latest board meeting, the group passed an equity statement, which will act as a framework for decisions the board makes. The statement reads: “The District 204 Board of Education recognizes that in order to inspire all students to achieve their greatest potential, we must lead and engage in a collective commitment to equity. We pledge to foster educational equity for all students by actively working to remove any barriers by ensuring that all policies, practices, and procedures support and affirm the talents of each student. We recognize that equity work is ongoing, and we pledge to engage the entire 204 community actively, including students, families, educators, and all stakeholders in our equity journey.”
D203 Equity Plan
And at Monday’s District 203 meeting, a draft of the Naperville 203 Comprehensive Equity Plan was presented. Back in June, the district passed an equity statement that aims to “undo inequities that exist in policies and practices to create an equitable learning environment.” The plan highlights student groups that the district believes have been marginalized and underrepresented. Five “Pillars of Success” are outlined: systemic transformation of culture, courageous equity-centered staff, equity-centered schools and classroom practices, perpetuating systems of equity and opportunity, and family and community empowerment.
Win for Germaphobes
A Naperville North High School student’s robotic team has won the grand prize in the NASA TI Codes Contest. Alayna Nguyen and her team the Germaphobes created a robot that could help sanitize the International Space Station for the national competition. The team, made up of students from different states, did it all through Zoom calls, never actually meeting in person. She and her team will receive a Texas Instruments graphic calculator and a TI-Innovator Rover, along with a trip to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
If you have a story idea, we want to hear from you!
