The District 207 Board of Education will vote tonight on a cost re-duction plan proposed at the January board meeting in an effort to fill the gap in a $17 million structural budget deficit.

The most controver-sial aspect of the proposed plan is the reduction of 137 jobs throughout the district, including 75 certified teachers. Staff members from all over the district were notified of their likely release in the days following the Janu-ary 11th board meeting at which Superintendent Dr. Ken Wallace first pre-sented the Reduction Plan to the board.

At the end of this school year, District 207 will have more than $85 million in its reserve fund – more reserve money than nearly every other comparable school district in the Chicagoland area.

Despite this fact, Dr. Wallace and other admin-istrators project that in five years, that fund will be so depleted that the dis-trict will have to start bor-rowing money. Dr. Wal-lace has argued that these drastic and unprecedented cuts to staff, which will save the district $5 mil-lion in 2010-2011, are the

necessary and “respon-sible” steps to take to keep the district financially healthy.

With these proposed cuts of staff, the district will go from a total of 980 employees to 843 em-ployees, the largest staff reduction in the district’s history. As a result, many programs will likely be cut and class sizes will increase in every subject; in fact, many subject areas will see class size increas-es of more than 20%.

On January 20th, the board of education held a public forum at Maine East to explain the current financial situation, sum-marize the proposed cuts, and hear the community’s viewpoints and concerns.

The forum began at 7:30 and continued until 11:45. According to the Daily Herald, more than 3,000 people attended the event and hundreds of concerned students, teachers, and community residents expressed their concerns to the board.

The overwhelming sentiment from students, teachers, and residents was for the school board to tap into its large “rainy day” reserve fund to save teachers’ jobs instead of

The PioneerMaine East High School • Park Ridge, Il • February 1, 2010

District 207 BOE votes tonight on

drastic cutsBy Yogi Patel

see VOTE, next pageStudents from Maine East, Maine South, and Maine West protest District 207

Administration’s proposal to drastically cut teaching staff.

Page 2The Pioneer FEBRUARY 1, 2010

Joanna Gwizdz of Maine East and Matt Holubecki of Maine West hold up a sign at the protest held on January 22nd outside the Ralph J. Frost Admin. Bldg.

Proposed CutsTeaching Staff

Safety Monitors

Secretaries

Teaching Assts

Custodians

Administration

Technology

Security Gaurds

75

16.5

13.5

11

11

7

2

1

making drastic staffing cuts that will damage the educational quality and sterling reputation of Dis-trict 207 schools for years to come.

Members of the Maine Teachers Associa-tion (MTA) handed out fli-ers and pamphlets with in-formation explaining that cutting teachers isn’t the only option, although it’s the only option the Ad-ministration has pursued.

“We are only as effec-tive as we work together,” MTA President Emma Vi-see told the Daily Herald.

Dr. Wallace started the forum with a presen-tation about the current financial situation and the projected situation in the next five years, followed by a brief speech from Board of Education Presi-dent Edward Mueller.

Despite having final exams the next morning, scores of students from East, West, and South stood in line for hours to speak on behalf of their favorite teachers and to encourage the board not to cut vital programs at the three schools.

Anna Rangos, a ju-nior at Maine South, spoke on behalf of a spe-cial education teacher at South. Literally in tears, Rangos spoke of the dif-ficulties students face in a special education class-room. “It’s our education at stake,” said Rangos. “We’ve made very close connections with these teachers.”

Michael Borit-nowski, a sophomore at Maine West, worked with students from all three schools to prepare his speech to address the cuts

that will negatively affect every student in District 207.

Other students who made notable speeches included George Jabbour, a sophomore at Maine East; Cassidy Olson, a sophomore from Maine West; Ellen Coogan, a senior at Maine West; Jai-me Espinoza, a senior at Maine East; Patrick Wohl, a sophomore at Maine South; and Raja Amjad, a junior at Maine East.

Dozens of members of the fencing team at Maine West spoke out about their successful program and the plan to reduce it from a varsity sport to an intramural ac-tivity. Team members held trophies and medals to demonstrate the program’s success. The administra-tion has since proposed to allow the fencing program to remain a varsity sport.

Numerous parents came up to the podium with their children’s edu-cation in mind. The par-ents all shared the same opinion: cutting teachers is not a sensible option. They asked the board to explore other options in order to fill the gaps in the projected budget.

Community mem-bers made strong rhe-

torical points during the evening. Former District 207 teacher and current Park Ridge resident Sandy Deines finished her com-ments by pointing out that the administration has al-ways maintained that the reserve fund was only for a “rainy day”.

“Well, guess what?” Deines said as she opened an umbrella and placed it on the stage in front of the school board and adminis-trators, “it’s raining.”

The final speaker of the evening was Maine East social studies teacher Mr. Gary Zielinski, who reminded the board mem-bers of the power that each of their votes has.

The school board blames the historically terrible U.S. economy for part of its budget short-falls, citing an extreme-ly low CPI (Consumer Price Index), the figure that largely determines how much property tax money goes to a county’s schools.

But even with the recent news that the CPI will be 2.7% instead of the projected 1%, the board modified its projections only slightly, and did not

Students protest outside the Ralph J. Frost Administration Center against the proposed

cuts that include 74 teachers.

VOTE, cont. from page 1

see BUDGET, next page

The Pioneer Page 3FEBRUARY 1, 2010

reduce at all the number of staff who would be let go.

The administration has also blamed the pre-vious District 207 super-intendent and business manager for accounting errors and mismanage-ment of funds. Former superintendent Dr. Joel Morris responded to the accusations in a letter to the Daily Herald defend-ing himself against be-ing held as a “scapegoat” for the district’s financial woes.

“We need to recog-nize that even with the reduced revenue, District 207 has over $100 million in reserves, far more than any surrounding school district,” wrote Dr. Morris. “While some expenditure reductions are necessary because of the current economic situation, a re-duction in these reserves would seem reasonable.”

On Friday, District 207 Administration con-tinued its effort to try to convince the teachers’ union to renegotiating its current contract, which runs through the school year 2011-12.

A public letter from Dr. Wallace on Friday said the District 207 Adminis-tration would recommend that the school board “tap into the reserve fund”, but only if the MTA agrees to open the contract.

Despite rhetoric say-ing the teachers are not at fault for the current finan-cial crisis, the administra-tion has asked the MTA to renegotiate the terms of the contract that both sides negotiated, mutually agreed to, and signed less than two years ago.

Critics of the admin-istration’s proposed cuts point out that the size of the district’s reserve fund is considerably more than nearly every school dis-trict in the area, yet 207 is

the only local district pro-posing such drastic staff-ing cuts.

Other skeptics of the board’s proposed actions disagree with the Admin-istration’s dire financial projections. The board has not included the more than 35 teachers who will retire by 2012. Also ig-nored by the board’s pro-jections are the millions of dollars of potential income from a casino, money that the city of Des Plaines has already budgeted for.

“It’s hard to trust fi-nancial projections from the same people who have apparently mismanaged so much money,” said one Maine East teacher who didn’t want to be identi-fied.

The school board will make an official vote on its historic Reduction Plan to-night at its monthly public board meeting at 7:00p.m. at the Ralph Frost Admin-istration Center at Maine South High School.

SCHOOL BOARDMEETING

7:00 P.M. TONIGHT

RALPH J. FROST ADMINISTRATION

CENTER atMAINE SOUTHHIGH SCHOOL

BUDGET, cont. from page 2

By Amanda Shaw

So it’s second semes-ter and you’re not exactly happy with where you are in your classes; what do you do?

Just Breathe! There is a solution, actually there are many.Second semes-ter the grades are erased and you get to start over. A clean slate is a chance to put the first semester lazi-ness behind and work for the grades you want. So instead of sitting on the couch watching television and procrastinating, try just getting things done.

If you get your home-work done early, you get the time to yourself later.

Procrastination only leads to more and more procras-tination, so the sooner you stop it the better. “Just grow up” says senior Afia Ekra.

High school is only four years. Do what you’re supposed to and it’ll be over before you know it.

So maybe you’d rather spend time with your friends than do your homework, but then your grades will suffer. “Form a study group so you can be productive while hanging out” says Mr. M an experienced teacher.

So the next time you get the choice fun or home-work, think about your grades and where you’d like them to be at the end of the year.

The Pioneer Staff 2009-2010

Semester One Editors

THE PIONEERMaine East High School

Park Ridge, Illinois

• • •

The Pioneer is dedicated to reporting on news, entertain-ment, and sports events for Maine East High School and the surrounding community.

The Pioneer is distributed to students, staff, and a limited mailing list.

Submit story suggestions, photos, letters to the editor, or comments regarding the content of the newspaper to sponsor Matt Miller via email:

mmiller@maine207.org.

FOLLOW THE PIONEER ON TWITTER: @mehspioneer

ONLINE PDF VERSIONS of THE PIONEER:

tinyurl.com/Pioneer0910

Selma MatezicNadia Khavari

Logan GermaineDylan GuzmanAmanda Shaw

Michelle ZdobylakShaun Kuriakose

Max LewisErika Opperman

Joey BadalOmar PalafoxJosh Swoboda

Chris LevyMiriam HernandezJeff Gianakopoulos

Patrick OpalkaKanwal Haque

Abigail MedranoNikko AndriotisOrnina Sada

Samantha LentoRebecca BordenaroShaun KuriakoseErika Opperman

Yogi PatelMona Hamdan

JOIN THE PIONEERand get credit for it!

• • • •Talk to your Counselor

about takingNewspaper Practicum

9th Period!

Semester Two Editors

Editors-In-Chief

Second semester is a good opportunity to wipe slate clean!

Emily LapinskiReporter

Page 4The Pioneer FEBRUARY 1, 2010

Wondering why about 150 netbooks were distrib-uted among the students at school? It’s simple; these netbooks were distributed among the students at Maine East to get different opinions of whether of not future freshman classes should have netbooks. They are running a pro-gram, called a pilot pro-gram. A pilot program is a test or trial for a project you wish to study.

As Department Chair for Applied Arts and Tech-nology Mrs. Wachowski said, “You learn through experience.”

The school has been provided with two differ-ent grants for purchasing the netbooks. One grant was for applied arts and technology, and the other grant was for the English department. Though the school did not purchase the netbooks with school

funds and savings, they sure do appreciate the help they have gotten to have the pilot program run.

Some classes at Maine East are trying out the new netbooks on a daily basis to see if the future freshman classes should be provided with them or not. Netbooks are small computers -- ba-sically they are like mini

notebook computers. “It’s a positive pro-

gram,” said English De-partment Chair Mrs. Gal-lagher.

You can always partic-ipate in a program like this by signing up for a class such as ITC and WTC.

Not only do you be-come part of a program, you also get to learn things that

Are Netbooks the future for freshman classes?By Mona Hamdan

Don’t let the economy bring you down. With a se-mester of school left, you can still save up a good amount of money this school year.

Find a job that fits you best from my top five jobs for teens:

Retail StoresWhen considering this job, also consider what kind of store you would like to work in. Keep in mind that you have a better chance of getting hired at larger stores, such as Wal-Mart, Sears, JC Penny, etc., than you do at a smaller storelike Children’s

Place, 5.7.9, Gamestop, etc. Important traits working in retail include having good communication skills and being willing to work with customers. Jake, a retail worker, added, “The major-ity of stores start with a min-imum wage pay, but give raises every few months de-pending on the store.”

Babysitting If you like working with children and would not mind getting calls from par-ents every few days or being on a fixed schedule, babysit-ting is the job for you. The more experience you have with children the better the pay. A great help is if you

have been taking care of your siblings while grow-ing up. When considering a babysitting job, responsibil-ity plays a big factor. It’s not all games and fun. Keep in mind that you are responsi-ble for someone else’s child for that period of time.

RestaurantsWanting a job with flexible hours? Be a waitress/waiter! Even though the hourly pay isn’t good, the tips can go a long way. According to Anna, a waitress at Olive Garden, the pay is twice as good on weekends as on weekdays. Communication and organization are big parts of a waitress/waiter

job. “It’s a job that everyone should work at least once in their life”, says Anna.

LandscapingLandscaping is a full year around job involving not just one duty, but many. These tasks include, shov-eling snow, mowing the lawn, raking leaves, ect. It’s all depending on the sea-son, which you are willing to work in if not all. Your pay can vary a lot depend-ing how good of a job you do and how much work you have done. With a job like this you need to make sure you have good connections with people that are willing to hire you for the job.

TutorYour studies will pay a lot in this job. Literally. If you know someone who is struggling in a subject or two, set up a tutoring sched-ule between you (plus the parents of the child if they are younger) and an amount they are willing to pay you per hour. The schedule will work out perfect for you as it will fit into your avail-ability schedule. Plus, you might learn a thing or two on the job. They’ll look up to you like no other.

The sooner you apply, the sooner the job will come to you! I wish you luck on your job hunt!

Top five jobs for teens in any economyBy Michelle Zdobylak

can benefit you throughout your life regardless of your future plans.

ITC and WTC teacher Mr. Baysingar wants ev-eryone to know that net-books are great for every-thing.

“The ITC and WTC classes teach students how to use netbooks to improve their grades in other Maine

East classes and for col-lege,” Baysingar said.

But as we all know, there are always two sides to an argument. Some faculty members like the idea of students carrying a netbook with them so that whereever and whenever they have free time, they can do their school work at school or even at home.

But on the other hand, some faculty and even students at Maine East disagree with part of what the program provides to all students. Maine East senior student, Selma Matezic said, “The school should not invest in too many netbooks because they have enough com-puters at school. I think students who don’t have computer access at home should be the only ones to get them.”

Now the question is, whether or not to get future freshman classes netbooks instead of books?

The Pioneer Page 5FEBRUARY 1, 2010

“It’s not too late!” Maine East College

and Career Counselor Mrs. Shankman repeatedly says that to seniors this time of year.

The message: there is still time for seniors who have not made a plan yet for their post-high school years. But right away they need to search, compare, and decide on the school you want to attend after high school.

If you plan to apply for Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAF-SA), you still have time. The application process started January 1, 2010 and continues until March.

Also, if you plan to apply for scholarship(s), you still have time. Just keep checking your school email. Mrs. Shankman keeps students updated with all the things they need to know about apply-ing for a scholarships. She will also keep you updated

with information about FAFSA, scholarship(s) opportunity, and require-ments before graduation.

But you must act now! If you did not already, you need to get going. There are still some schools out there that have late appli-cation deadlines, such as Oakton. Search, compare, and decide on the school you want to attend gradu-ating Maine East.

Pick a school you feel pushes you to it every time someone mentions it

around you. The school you pick will be most like-ly the school you are going to attend for the next two to four years of your life.

Deciding on a school is like deciding where you want to own your own business. You have to look at the whole package: the

physical geography of a college, the community surrounding the school, and the distance to the school from your home are among the considerations.

Think wisely and do what you have to do be-fore it really becomes too late!

By Mona Hamdan

Not too late to make post-graduate plans!

On January 6, 2010, a bulleting on the District 207 webpage announced that on a day of severe weather warnings, Maine East, West, and South will, when acceptable, change to a Collaboration Day schedule rather than can-cel the school day.

This means that on days with weather warn-ings, school will start at 9:30 instead of the usual 7:30. As if the 2 hour de-lay is enough to clear the roads.

Many students have some legitimate concerns about the new policy.

Sophomore Farhad Sattariaghdam can only get to school with a ride from his parents, who must be at work before 9:00am. On a late-arrival day, Sat-tariaghdam has to come to school at 7:00am.

However the point of these schedules is that the school won’t be open un-til slightly before 9, due to the roads.

The only option for Farhad would be to walk the roads which have been

deemed unfit for cars. Or to come early and wait outside of the school

There is also the prob-lem of attendance. If stu-dents have no way to get to school, then they miss out on a day that would have normally been canceled.

We seem to have made it out of the most hazard-ous weather of this season. But there is still chance of this schedule being put to use.

Hopefully we won’t be in a situation where we need to use the new sched-ule this year.

By Shaun Kuriakose

New weather policy: late arrival, not cancellation

Would you want to come to school in weather like this, even with late arrival?

"Get down with all the veggies," said

Sky Kim.

Photopportunity: What was your NewYear's Resolution?"

"Not to have a New Year's Resolution!" said Joe Disclafani.

"Watch more Oprah," said Vanessa

Samson.

"Get all the ladies!" said Syed Rizvi.

Page 6The Pioneer FEBRUARY 1, 2010

An Asian Carp epi-demic threatens the Great Lakes multi-million dollar fishing industry. Although the fishing industry is un-der siege, the carp also threaten America’s natu-ral wild life balance.

Researchers are con-cerned that Asian carp will decimate the food chain that supports the native fish of the Great Lakes.

“Due to their large size, ravenous appetites, and rapid rate of repro-duction, these fish could pose a significant risk to the Great Lakes Ecosys-tem.” according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Asian Carp can grow to an enormous size of 50-110 pounds and length of 4 feet. These invaders are quickly becoming the most abundantly caught fish of the Illinois River watershed.

Carp consume na-tive fish and food at an extremely fast rate and in doing so will slow down and will eventually de-stroy the Great Lake fish-ing industry.

Surrounding regions like Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Canada are not looking forward to the upcoming battle of eradi-cating the great lakes of Asian Carp. However as a preemptive strike, wild-life authorities have began construction of a fish bar-

rier to keep the Invasive Asian Carp at bay and out of the Great Lakes.

Local fishermen are doing their part by not releasing captured Asian

Great Lakes under siege by Asian CarpBy Logan Germaine

The Asian Carp is a threat to the ecosystem of the Great Lakes.

Music is said to be a source of understanding, comfort, personality, and emotion. When we hear a song, some of us pay at-tention to the music, sound, tempo, while others look more deeply to find mean-ing through the song’s lyr-ics.

There have been many musicians out there who could either articulate one of the two aspects of music, and some who achieved both.

We have been lucky through the years to be en-tertained by such talented performers as The Beatles, U2, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, and Michael Jackson, to name just a few.

They truly understood what music meant, and if we even try to compare them with the music art-ists of today, the results are pretty sad.

These unique art-ists have had the ability to reach the top of the charts with music that was inno-cent, real, and expressed a true essence. They didn’t need to write about sexual behavior to get the atten-tion of the public.

The majority of today’s music is based on love and romanceand shows no cre-ativity at all.

What happened to writing about yellow sub-marines? Our musicians today have resorted to subjects like drugs, alco-hol, criminal activity, and show many signs of be-ing hormonally as well as

emotionally unstable. You do not have to be perfect to create art, but you have to use emotions experienced in the right ways so that something decent can come out of them.

If you look closely at some individuals who write songs about love, like Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Chris Brown, Jay Sean, and Kanye West, we are appalled. These individuals, you can even say teenagers, write about love, but are constantly seen with someone new. They have the guts to write about things they have no real knowledge of, and try to convince listeners, but don’t feel the need to apply it to themselves.

Carp back into the river system. “I take a small hatchet with me when I fish so that when I catch a Carp I can kill it fast and humanly.” says a

local fisherman Brian Light. This however will not solve the problem but shows the community of fishermen are getting in-volved.

...air passes through your nose at approxi-mately 100 miles per hour.

...all bodily functions –includ-ing your heart-beat – stop for a millisecond.

...too hard it is possible to frac-ture a rib.

...too hard you can cause a blood vessel in your head or neck to rupture.

...your eyes close unless they’re held open.

Interesting FactsWhen you sneeze…

...it helps get the bacteria out of your system when having a cold.

...you must be awake. You can’t sneeze when you’re sleeping!

...the bacteria from a sneeze can travel 2-3 meters or more.

see MUSIC,next page

Today’s musicians are hypocrites and bad role models

By Emily Lapinski

The Pioneer Page 7FEBRUARY 1, 2010

It’s time to stop pay-ing more attention to your text message than to the way you drive.

Yes, it is now ille-gal to text message while driving in Illinois. Gover-nor Quinn signed the bill and the law took effect on Friday, January 1, 2010.

This law also bans checking e-mail, Face-book and surfing the Web. It is still okay to use a phone’s GPS.

“I think the law is beneficial because re-searchers are compair-ing ‘texting’ or distracted drivers to DUIs.” said Of-ficer Ginualdi, “They go on further to say it may be worse than being intoxi-cated.”

In Illinois, the fines for this moving violation will start at $75-$150 or

higher, depending on the situation.

The National High-way Traffic Safety Ad-ministration estimates that 25-30% of reported crashes (1.2 million a year) involve drivers not paying attention.

Also, drivers using cell phones are four times more likely to be involved in personal-injury crashes than other drivers. This new law is a primary of-fense which means that police can pull over driv-ers for it, just like failure to wear a seatbelt.

The legislation was modified to allow drivers to text if they are pulled over or if their car has stopped due to traffic, an accident or at a train cross-ing. Drivers can also text to report an emergency. The bill now heads back to the Illinois House for

another vote due to these modifications. Some are probably wondering why this became a law.

A car accident in September 2006 killed a University of Illinois graduate who was riding his bike and was killed by a distracted driver on her cell phone. The car acci-dent was from the driver’s use of text messaging be-hind the wheel.

Texting is one of the many things we use to communicate in our ev-eryday lives. Although it is tempting to reach for your phone when you see a new text come in, think about the consequences that can happen to you and others around you. The risk you take may be life threatening.

And now if you text while driving, you are breaking the law.

By Nadia Khavari

Hands off that phone and on the steering wheel!

95% of all text messages are delivered within 10 seconds

• • •2 out of 3 Americans are texting on

a regular basis• • •

The response rate to text messages is on average over 90%

• • •The first text message was sent in

1992• • •

95% of all incoming text messages are read

• • •The peak hours for texting are

between 10:30 pm and 11:00 pm• • •

Text messaging is the most widely used mobile data service on the

planet• • •

On average, Americans send and receive twice as many text

messages as phone calls per month• • •

Americans sent 1 trillion text messages in 2008

• • •Police report roughly 25% of

crashes caused by texting being a distraction

THE SKINNY ON TEXT MESSAGING

Look at Chris Brown. In his song “Forever” he sings “you love me and I won’t let you fall girl.” This shows a person who values respect and is try-ing to get trust. Well, Chris, I am pretty sure beating someone does not show them respect.

In Miley Cyrus’ song “Goodbye”, she writes “I remember till I cry but the one thing I wanna forget, the one thing I regret is say-ing goodbye.”

This shows us a girl who cares about feelings and is brought to sadness when looking back at past relationships. In reality, I cannot come to see Miley

Cyrus crying over all of her relationships; her tears would run out. Every time she is part of a new project she ends up dating some-one new. This girl switches around quite a bit, and I would think if she really felt sorry she would allow herself some time after say-ing goodbye.

These hypocrites feel they have the privilege to act certain ways, on ac-count of their status, but al-ways seem to ensure us that they are just like us.

The truth of the mat-ter is that these individuals take their ability to speak out and make a difference for granted, and don’t take charge of their power to be innovative, inspirational, and creative.

MUSIC,cont. from page 6

Page 8The Pioneer FEBRUARY 1, 2010

The Payback

By Amanda Shaw

Come one; come to the show you’ve all been waiting for – the musical event that comes but once a year is finally here!

Seussical is this year’s musical presenta-tion brought to you by the amazing Maine East dra-ma department. For those of you who don’t know, Seussical is a musical is a musical about Dr. Seuss’s characters from stories like Horton Here’s a Who and Cat in the Hat.

The auditions have been held and the cast has been practicing long and hard preparing for the March 4 preview for el-ementary students.

On March 5 the show is finally open to the public for two weekends only!! March5 and 6 and March 12 and 13 are your only chances to see this mag-nificent event. Keep your calendar clear for this one in a lifetime show.

Seniors Samantha Lento, Dylan Guzman, and Erikka Mae (from left to right) will give their final perfor-

mances at Maine East.

The Truth About Finals By Erika Oppermann

By DnA

Seussical the

Musical!