The Huntley Farmside

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The HimtteY Farmside
Thursday, October 14,1999
A Press Publications newspaper mf serving the Huntley community
Volume 29, Issue 41
Dist. 158 board member resigns
School ofiBcials 'disappointed'
By Christopher Petersen
Press Publications
Ann L. Leslie, who has served School Diistrict 158 since November 1997, an¬ noimced her resignation from the Board of Education Oct 1.
In a brief statement re¬ leased by Leslie that day, she annoimced that the was re¬ signing her position, effective at 7 a.m. Oct. 1, but would not offer an explanation as to why
she resigned.
"My decision will not be shared or commented upon by myself to anyone else," Leslie said in her statement. "As for the speculation, rumor and innuendo that follow such decisions, in my case it is ir¬ relevant."
Superintendent J.R. Hartley said that Leslie's resignation came as a surprise to the rest of the board, but that they re¬ spect her decision.
"We were disappointed to ¦   BOARD, Page 2
Village gets clean biU of Y2k health
By Christopher Petersen
Press Publications
The village of Himtley has nothing to fear from Y2K, it was announced at the Com¬ mittee of the Whole meeting last Thursday.
Wlage  Administrator  Carl
Tomaso presented the vil¬ lage's Y2K statusreport to the committee, giving the village's computer systems and- software a clean bill of health from the bug. Tomaso said that thevillage simulated the date change from Dec. 31, 1999, to Jan. 1, 2000,and re¬ ported that there were no ¦   Y2K, Page2
Promoting safety
Coloring contest teaches how to deal with fire
The Huntley Fire Protec¬ tion District sponsored a coloring contest as part of the Fire Safety Week Ac¬ tivities at Huntley Ele¬ mentary School.
Students in kindergarten through fourth grade did a marvelous job designing and coloring fire-safety posters. The winners eamed a ride on the Huntley fire engine.
Third- and fourth-grade winners rode in a fire truck during the Homecoming Parade Oct. 1. First-and second-grade winners rode following the fire-safety program held at the school on Oct. 4.
During the Oct. 4 pro¬ gram, firefighters demon¬ strated the special equip¬ ment they wear and use during fires. "Sparky" the fire dog made a special ap¬ pearance during the pro¬ gram.
Fire Safely Week also in¬ cluded   informative   class projects   to   alert  children ¦   SAFETY, Page 2
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Huntley Fire Protection District Capt. Al Weisneth stands in front of Fire Engine 938 with winners of the district's Coloring Contest. Winners from the kindergarten to sec¬ ond-grade category are, from left to right, Joey Muren, Jen Beruscha, Caelin Niehoff and Aaron Kubik.
District provides kids with chance to see stars
By Christopher Petersen
Press Publications
Children in School District 158 don't have to wait for the stars to come oiit to leam about the universe anymore.
Now they can come out to the stars anytime they want, thanks to the efforts of the Huntley PTA. The PTA started a fimd-raising drive and   accepted  donations   in
order to purchase an in¬ flatable star lab fpr use by the School District.
The star lab is a 14-fo6t-tall inflatable nylon dome that chUdren can crawl inside to see projections of the con¬ stellations, making it a porta¬ ble planetarium to teach chil¬ dren about the stars without needing telescopes or even the darkness of night to make the stars visible. A projector uses cylinders with different
star pattems to recreate the night slg' from any point in the world on the inside of the dome.
District Superintendent J.R. Hartley said that the district had been previously borrow¬ ing a star lab from the Kish¬ waukee school district, but decided to buy one of their own this year after teacher Peggy Worth made the re¬ quest to the PTA.
According to PTA President
Ann Lennis, a group of par¬ ents from the PTA formed a committee to organize and raise money for the purchase of the lab. Once they were organized, the parents had a fund-raiser and took donations from various village groups. A govemment grant was also obtained by Assistant Super¬ intendent Pamela Kraus. Lennis said that the total cost of the star lab was around $13,000.
The lab arrived in Septem¬ ber, and a presentation of the lab was held at the Huntley South School's gymnasium last week. Lennis said that the children really enjoyed the experience, as evidenced by the reaction Worth received. She had many thank-you notes about how exciting it was, Lennis said. She also said that while the children had already used a star lab in the past, they were excited to have one of their own.