EDITORIAL

The City and the Not-For-Profits

It is gratifying to see the ten members of City Council - the nine aldermen and the mayor - wrangle and agonize about city services and the effect of property taxes on the residents of Evanston. It is troubling, though, to see how, year after year, the struggle comes down to nickel-and-diming over services that for the most part cost less than $100,000 in a budget that is well over $200 million. This year it was the libraries, the elm tree injections and the mental heath budget. In prior years it has been the FAAM program and the summer youth employment program. One is left to wonder why such hot-button items are always the ones on the chopping block. It often feels as though the citizens are being taken hostage: "Give us the taxes or the elm trees will get it."

These cuts take aim at programs that make the City what it is - they help make Evanston Evanston. Is the budget really so lean that the City needs continually to lean on these programs?

The budget, it is said, defines our values. But more and more it seems to define constituencies, as Council members appear to respond to those who show up to advocate for their own causes, while those who advocate for the less fortunate are apparently one tier removed from "constituency."

One such example is the proposed 10-percent cut to the City's mental health funding. These funds go to various small, overworked, under-funded not-for-profit agencies in Evanston that provide mental health and social services to some of our most frail and vulnerable citizens. Not only do the agencies need these City funds as a part of their budget to continue their important work, but also in many cases, the agencies are able to leverage this support to obtain other funding. Agencies can point to the funding from the City's Mental Health Board as a sign of support from the City in soliciting funds from other organizations. Thus the dollars in support of our most vulnerable citizens - many of whom are too young or too frail to seek support for themselves - go further than perhaps Council members might understand. We urge the Council to keep funding for mental health services at its full level.

A Word About Not-For-Profits
At the same time the Council proposed cutting the funding to the not-for-profit agencies that provide services to many Evanston residents, some aldermen called for not-for-profits "insofar as they are able" to contribute to the City coffers.

There is no question that the request includes Northwestern University, Evanston Hospital and St. Francis Hospital.

Like every issue, this one has several layers. One is that Evanston is mandated by state law to subsidize these institutions by absorbing their property tax, with the understanding that they, as educational or charitable institutions, give back to the community at large.

We believe that, at heart, most people here recognize the important contributions that the university and both hospitals make to this community; there is cachet to be home to one of the greatest academic institutions in the country, and the hospitals provide vital health care to the community. At least one of them is legendary for its compassion toward the poor.

We also realize that many people here think the University and the hospitals could do more. Perhaps this is true, but we need to be able to show them a reason for this, beyond the fact that they have the money and the land and the tax-exemption. They need to be shown something concrete. We suggest that the City's $141 million shortfall in the police and firefighters' pension funds is concrete enough to warrant contributions from Northwestern and the hospitals.

As some of these institutions become more and more like "for-profit" institutions, racking up millions of dollars in their net revenues through their operations and investments, the justification for their exemption becomes questionable.

GUEST ESSAY

'Access to Rigor'

By Dr. Eric Witherspoon, Superintendent, Evanston Township High School, D202

Lately, school and community interest has focused on how incoming freshmen access honors-level work at Evanston Township High School and what measures are used to place them in classes. The underlying concern is that by using a limited profile to describe student achievement, fewer students are placed in rigorous courses that challenge their intellects.

To that end, this winter the ETHS administration has expanded the ways we screen incoming freshmen by using two tests (EXPLORE and MAP), instead of just the EXPLORE, as well as the teacher and principal recommendations and parent input that have always been used to verify and personalize each student's test-score profile.

Also, effective next fall, we have strengthened a course all ninth-graders must take: Freshman Humanities, a team-taught interdisciplinary English and history course. Currently, Freshman Humanities is offered at four ability levels: straight honors, mixed honors-and-regular, regular, and enriched. For 2008-09 and beyond, the straight regular level will be eliminated, and students will be more precisely placed in either mixed, honors, or enriched classes. The mixed classes give "regular" students direct access to challenging themselves with honors-level work and seamlessly allow them to earn honors credit if they, their teacher, and their parents choose.

By doing this we are placing a higher emphasis on increasing rigor for our students and on identifying more students who should be challenged by honors-level work. We know the classes ninth-graders take have a big impact on their preparation for honors and advanced classes while attending ETHS. Our goal is to have more students enrolled in honors and advanced classes at all grade levels in the future.

A greater emphasis on placing students in honors classes is based on solid research that shows student achievement will increase when the following conditions are established:
• High expectations for student achievement
• More rigor in curriculum and teaching
• Acceleration of learning
• Pre-teaching (preparing students for what is next)
• Support systems for students who are taking more rigorous classes
• Effective effort (belief in student capability by both the student and the teacher)

Another factor - demonstrated student achievement - helped undergird our decision. When we began placement this winter, using the expanded profile to put eighth-graders in their 2008-09 classes, the current four placement options no longer worked. More students scored at average-to-higher levels on the placement tests than were expected. Therefore, regular-level classes were not going to adequately challenge these students.

The total number of students who will have access to honors-level work and credit in Freshman Humanities next year will be approximately 470 students. This year approximately 285 students are taking Freshman Humanities for honors credit. By expanding the criteria used to identify student potential, and by dropping the "regular" placement option, we are increasing the number of students who have access to rigor and who will be meeting the more difficult honors requirements.

Rigorous courses are not the exception at ETHS. All courses in history, fine arts and applied arts have been mixed, honors or Advanced Placement courses, where applicable, for many, many years. Even in science, mathematics and world languages efforts to bolster access to honors-level courses are under way. At ETHS, we are committed to higher achievement for all students, and committed to offering them the support they need to achieve.

Ten Candles on the Cake

By Charles Wilkinson

In later life, birthdays are mostly for forgetting, except maybe significantly numbered ones. When one is on the short end of time, who needs a reminder? But when one is at the other end, believing they are immortal, birthdays are more a harbinger of what lies ahead rather than an echo of all that is behind.

Evanston's RoundTable turned 10 this month, a marker every kid looks at wide-eyed because, hey, they have arrived at double digits! Ten, as many parents know, is a turning point, subtle though it may be, in a child's growth. Their once cute "Whys?" begin to become "Why nots?" and their world begins to widen incrementally.

Newspapers are different; at least I know the RoundTable is. It was born with "Why not?" as its vision and in a very definite world - Evanston. Year by year it struggled in its growing but never wavered in its vision to give a different voice to a community proud of its diversity and social consciousness. By this, its tenth year, the RoundTable has established a welcomed presence in Evanston, deserving to be celebrated for many reasons.

Ten candles on the cake, spelling out its name, pinpoint only some of them:
R - responsible, respectful, responsive,
O - objective, open to opinions other than its own
U - unhesitant to "tell it like it is"
N - nervy, newsy, neighborly
D - dedicated, detailed, down-to-earth and … delivered
T - topical, timely and thorough
A - attentive, accurate, attuned to truth
B - bold, balanced and sometimes brassy
L - level-headed and leveling
E - earnest, edgy, ethical

Obviously and unfortunately, there is no "C" in RoundTable. But every reader cannot miss the care, concern and commitment of its editors, writers and staff. Believing that the paper's voice is not its own but all of Evanston's, from day one everyone involved has held themselves accountable to bettering the community's life on all levels: government, business, social and personal. "Why not?" remains at the heart of their vision.

Newspapers may be different from kids, but like any 10-year-old, the RoundTable counts the candles on the cake, makes a wish and gets on with becoming 11.

Women, Still Growing

By Peggy Tarr

It's almost National Women's History Month. I revisited a book of nursery rhymes and was again struck by some of the notions about women and girls.

"Here's Sulky Sue,
What shall we do?
Turn her face
To the wall

Until she comes to."

"Little Polly Flinders
Sat among the cinders,
Warming her pretty little toes!
Her mother came and caught her
And whipped her little daughter,

For spoiling her nice new clothes."

"Hush-a-bye, baby,
Daddy is near,
Mamma is a lady,

And that's very clear."
"What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice and all that's nice
And that's what little girls are made of."

Women have come a long way in many parts of the world, but still have far to go. Here in the United States (and elsewhere), women are still subdivided in the struggle for women's rights based on race, ethnicity, age, religion, et cetera. Historically, we are reminded of this division in a section of a speech by Sojourner Truth - an African-American, born Isabella Baumfree (or Van Wagener), 179?-1883, abolitionist, orator, and women's rights advocate, born a slave:

"That man over there says that woman needs to be lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helped me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me the best place, and aren't I a woman?" (paraphrased)

This statement captures the "catch 22" situation among women when the group divides/dilutes itself based on discriminatory notions. There has and does exist the misconception that African-American women are "strong," able to handle any- and everything. Wrong! Humans (a species to which African-American women belong) cannot handle everything.

The nursery rhymes below are presented to show that women come in varieties of strength and character, regardless of race, ethnicity, age, religion, et cetera, that one version does not define all the members of a group.

"Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet,
Eating of curds and whey.
There came a big spider,
Who sat down beside her,
And frightened Miss Muffet away."
Versus
Little Miss Rough-it
Had to tough it,
Eating her curds and whey.
There came a big spider,
Who plopped down beside her;
Miss Rough-it just shooed it away.

Curds - The coagulated part of milk, from which cheese is made; after milk sours. Whey - Thin, watery part of milk which separates from thicker part (curds) after coagulation.

Letters to the Editor

Save the Branch Libraries
Open Letter About Library Branches

I am writing to you as a more than 32-year resident of north Evanston, a former Central Street business owner, and presently, a school librarian.

My concern is the near constant threat of closing our branch libraries. We have already lost one branch, an amputation that will probably never be reversed. To lose our other branches would be a loss beyond repair.

I can only speak from first-hand knowledge of North Branch (NB), but presume much of what I have to say would also apply to South.

Over the years I have lived here, I have been a regular user of NB. As our neighborhood turns its housing over to younger families, proximity to the branch library is an outstanding neighborhood feature, right up there with schools, post office and transportation.

People walk to NB. We walk with children in strollers, or alone, or in groups, and with canes and walkers as we age. We may drive to the convenient parking across the street.

NB is a vital organ to the vitality of Central Street. People visit the library as part of their journey of chores (cleaning, banking, buying, posting, or maybe visiting the park also across the street).

People can stop in for an oasis of warmth on a cold day, or a cooling relief on a sweltering August day. NB serves us with meeting space and speakers. We have popular reading, multiple children's events, newspapers, magazines, reference, and an outstanding staff to serve us. The ability to have materials transferred here from downtown is a major service, while also being environmentally sound - a service van brings multiple materials here and back instead of multiple vehicles traveling back and forth to downtown.

People will not simply transfer this usage to the downtown library. NB is a part of the fabric of many lives. To sever this because the state can't manage pension funds is unfair.

I grew up in Chicago, using the branch library as a mainstay of recreation and learning. If someone hasn't experienced the joy of branch libraries, perhaps they can't fathom the depth of loss should they be cut. They serve a vital link to childhood reading as well as a lifelong source of information and pleasure.

Our branch libraries are an Evanston treasure. Our downtown library is obviously a vital Evanston resource, but its appendages are part of that vitality. Books smiling at you through the glass windows of NB, a street view of people enjoying library services, and a window adorned with children's reading achievements speaks to a community in an inviting way that a multistory edifice housing the rest of our library services can never do.

We owe it to the present community and the children who come after us to maintain the branch library network here in Evanston.

I never hear it measured how much they contribute - only how much they cost. It's hard to measure convenience, their advertising value, their educational value, their "street presence" value to the other merchants on Central Street (which I saw when I had a store there). In our hearts we have to know their value far exceeds their cost.

Instead of treating them as expendable appendages, we should look to elevating the entire library system to a taxing body of its own. We never have to contend with the issue of threatened closing of our Lighthouse park or other parks, since they have status as taxing units. Our library system is worthy if that move and the protection it would impart.

I know Council has taken them off the chopping block for this year, but please keep our branch libraries, now and forever.
-- Barbara Zapszalka

Streets Are Inexcusably Bad
Editor:

After slipping on the ice and falling on the poorly plowed street in front of our house this morning, I feel compelled to share my thoughts at the way our residential streets have been - and I use the term loosely - plowed.

In a phone call today to City Hall I was told the reason the side streets are not properly de-iced is that the City is trying to conserve salt in case we have another snow storm, and that the City can't get more salt until March.

That's just great. How about doing a better job of plowing in the first place? By the way, that would include not burying the crosswalks and entrances to the alleys.

Ah, yes, the alleys. I tried to be a good citizen and put my car in the garage, but you only get one try. Once the car is out of the garage there is no going back (even in my four-wheel-drive Suburban), because the alley is more like a two-lane bobsled track than a back street.

But I digress. I recall back in 1979 we had a snowstorm that cost Chicago Mayor Bilandic his job because of that city's awful snow-removal effort.

I'm a third-generation Evanstonian, and I've never seen our streets so poorly cared for. We have certain expectations of our City services. High on the list is passable streets, usable crosswalks, and accessible alleys.

We are not getting that in a timely manner. I can't use my alley, my street is dangerously icy, potholes are everywhere, and only through the efforts of residents are the crosswalks usable.

The Mayor, the City Manager and Streets and Sanitation Management really dropped the ball. You people are making big bucks, and the taxpayers of Evanston expect results, not excuses. We want our money's worth.

Poor planning? Poor training? City out of money? Too little too late? You all should be ashamed, or at the very least, embarrassed.

I'm waiting for a callback from the City Manager's office. Not holding my breath though. Now, where's that aspirin?
-- K. W. "Bill" Deans

Missing Sandy McDermott: Thoughts for a Special Friend
Editor:

I worked with Sandy for 24 memorable years at Nichols Middle School. Sandy had so many wonderful qualities; I loved her for many reasons. Some words to describe my special friend are young, fun loving, honest, truthful, genuinely caring, organized and intelligent. Sandy was the ultimate list maker and always accomplished her goals.

In our school and my life Sandy was always a gifted listener and a voice of reason. She was an outstanding and experienced educator, and District 65 will never be the same without her. I will miss her warmth and understanding.
-- Carla Kenny-Phillips

A View from the Peanut Gallery
Editor:

On Feb. 11 I just happened to hear an NPR news piece on the scheduled meeting of the Evanston City Council Planning Committee to hear a presentation from the developers of the proposed 49-story building and take public comment. It was news to me. Happy for the City, there were over 200 people in attendance. Unfortunately (or not), the committee, running late, decided to set aside time on March 10 for the discussion.

There could be no mistaking the general view of the spectators toward the development, it was total and complete opposition. People were exchanging business cards, signing petitions and pretty much growling at the Council members.

So, come March 10, hopefully we will have 500 people in attendance. After all,the Council members are our representatives and it is our City. Let's put a stop to all the discussion of a 49-story monstrosity in Evanston. Vote it down and come up with a plan that will be more compatible with the cityscape that most of us want to see preserved.
--Tony Grimwade

Do Not Cut the Mental Health Board Budget
Editor:

The City of Evanston is confronting difficult times. And in these times, hard decisions have to be made. One of the decisions under consideration is the City Council's proposal to cut 10 percent of the Mental Health Board funding for community-based agencies.

Mental Health Board funding helps support 18 organizations that provide critically necessary human services to Evanston residents. These services help thousands of children, youth, elderly, disabled, families and mentally ill - those in crisis in our community who are the most vulnerable.

We at the YWCA Evanston/North Shore receive funding from the City to provide counseling and support services to women and children in our community who are experiencing domestic violence. These services are critical in helping them safely break free of violence and in establishing long-term independence from their abusers.

With a cut in funding, we will be able to serve fewer women and children who come to us in fear for their lives. And as the only comprehensive domestic violence program in the entire northeastern Chicagoland area, these women and children have few other options available to them.

The decisions made by the City Council reflect the priorities and values of all of us who live and work in Evanston. When adjusted for inflation, funding from the City for human services has decreased almost 40 percent since 1997. While we understand that the budget decisions the Council has to make are not easy, we cannot purport to be the caring and compassionate community we are all proud of and continue to balance the budget on the backs of those who need us the most.

On Feb. 23, we strongly urge the City Council to, at the very least, restore the 10 percent they are proposing to cut from the Mental Health Board budget.
-- Karen Singer, Executive Director, YWCA Evanston/North Shore

Keep Branch Libraries Open
Open letter to City Council

I would like to share some thoughts concerning the possible closing of the branch libraries. I know that the discussion on this issue has often turned to whether the branches satisfy a rigorous cost-benefit analysis, but I wanted to offer two other views on the issue.

First, I wanted to emphasize to the Council the important "civic" nature of the branch libraries. The branches are not just convenient places to get free books.

They are, fundamentally, true public spaces. They are places where we encounter and interact with our larger community. They are places where, in our increasingly isolated world, we come out of our homes to engage with our neighbors -- and without any price of admission.

Every Saturday, for years now, my daughter and I wander over to the Central Street library to get or return a book, and generally to see what is happening in our neighborhood. No doubt this tradition would continue to some extent even if you were to close the Central Street library. We would still find ourselves on Central Street. We would still need to get our dry cleaning or return our movie rental.

But what would be lost would be the "civic-ness" that is part of a library outing and which makes it different from other outings. In this consumerist society of ours, trips to the library are one of the few remaining ways in which we come out and interact with our community that isn't about shopping. It is a reason for being with one another that isn't predicated on buying or selling. And except for what you do to house our homeless and feed the hungry, I cannot think of a wiser, nobler or more appropriate use of public funds.

Which takes me to my second point.

I don't know exactly the reasons why you are considering shutting the branches. I presume the reasons are financial. Branches are inefficient. We could do more, with less, through consolidation.

I would simply like to remind this Council, as you no doubt know, that the goal of government is not always strictly financial efficiency. Sometimes government can and should seek to serve higher ends.

To dramatize my point, I'd ask the Council to consider the many parks peppered throughout Evanston. I've often wondered why this is so. Wouldn't it be more efficient to have one centrally-located park, with the most modern playground equipment? How much could the City make from turning just one or two of such parks over to developers?

And so as you consider whether to shutter the branches, remember the many parks this town works so hard to preserve.

Thanks for your consideration on this issue in particular and for your service to our great community in general.
- Evan Westerfield

Let Congress Decide the Fate of Undocumented Persons
Editor:

Illegal immigrants and supporters like to point out how, since illegals have become a part of U.S. society, we can't send them back. That is like the child who kills his parents and asks for mercy because he is an orphan. How would they feel if someone breaks into their house, says he is just an ‘unregistered occupant' and sometimes leaves a few pennies for expenses ?

Of course people want to come from other countries. It does not take a genius to realize why.

Advocates say they pay taxes and Social Security. Please! How many day laborers pay their taxes or set up personal S.S. accounts? How many tomato farmers check, file employer and employer-withholding and S.S.?

We can't even collect all the taxes from millionaires or the citizen underground economy -- why do some think we can from illegal immigrants?

Certainly no Evanston employer would hire illegals and face the penalties, so they are not the ones collecting taxes.

Congress should decide how many immigrants (all legal) we need and then enforce it.

Employer sanctions must be increased, audits of firms and S.S. numbers must be more frequent, and substantial fines and criminal penalties must be enforced for those who violate the laws. If there are no jobs, they will leave.

Given the "sanctuary" movement of allowing illegals to stay in churches, deportation should be immediate -- no more showing up for deportation or trial "on your honor."
- John Fuqua

Looking for Parents of High-Achieving Kids
Editor:

The only differentiated program of instruction that District 65 offers today is its accelerated math program. District 65 has been trying to tinker with the program since October. In the process they have failed to educate affected fifth-, sixth- and seventh-grade parents on the issues and implications of their proposal to begin onsite instruction of honors geometry this fall.

A group of parents sponsored an educational forum on Feb. 17.

Interested parents of accelerated kids of all ages can learn more at http://www.evanstonkids.org/updates.html.
-- Pam Waymack, Parent of Haven
Accelerated Math Student

End the War, End the Drain on Finances
Editor:

I recently returned from a trip to the San Diego area, where gated communities are flourishing, as they are increasingly, throughout America.

Gated communities are just one sign of what has been deemed the "two Americas," that of the haves and that of the have-nots; or to put it another way, a retreat from the common good.

"Cut services or raise taxes" is the mantra and challenge resounding in the City Council and among Evanston residents.

Cut what? Mental health services. Libraries. Maintaining our responsibilities to the elders in our community who go by the name of elm trees.

Is there an alternative to this Evanston yearly dilemma?

For next year, probably not. For the future, yes.

1. Raise property taxes on a graduated basis. Essentially, the tax rate increases are based on home values and result in a more balanced contribution to the needs of our community. If this is not possible due to existing laws and statues, then levy a special assessment on all owners of homes above a specific level, e.g., $500,000, or whatever figure would have the least impact on those less well-off financially.

This is known as paying one's fair share. Such a policy would contribute to Evanston's remaining a socio-economic integrated community. After all, are we not our brothers' and sisters' keepers?

And if we look at my proposal in a larger context, what I am deeming "fair share" is both quite reasonable and just. Let us remember that tax cuts enacted during the Reagan and Bush regimes largely benefited those in the highest income brackets, resulting in those most well-off financially paying significantly less to fund government programs that serve the general welfare, and, in so doing, increasing the burden for those less well-off.

2. In reference to contributing one's fair share to the community, call upon Northwestern University to assume its ethical and moral responsibility to Evanston and emulate the Buffet/Gates model of sharing accumulated wealth for the common good to compensate for its permanent exemption from paying property taxes, a state of affairs that has a most deleterious effect on the City's finances.

3. Last, to discuss the City's financial crisis and challenge without taking into consideration what is happening in the larger society impacting on all American communities is to bury one's head in the sand.

We must all work to do what we can to end the war in Iraq that is costing American (including Evanstonians) taxpayers $500,000 per minute, $720,000,000 per day, billions per month. We must have Congress distribute the largest proportion of these funds, save that to be needed for reconstruction in Iraq, to our communities to be used for education, health care, mass transit and infrastructure repair and improvements.

To those who oppose what I suggest, rather than just stating opposition to cutting services or raising taxes and fees to be used, for example, to fund the pensions of our fire and police personnel, the challenge is to suggest others ways to meet City obligations and responsibilities to its workers and citizens.
- Louis Silverstein