On his monthly podcast, Superintendent Paul Swanstrom clears up some rumors at Joliet West High School: No new locker rooms.

He also explains why Joliet Township High School District can afford turf and Plainfield School District cannot.

Plainfield School district faces a $6.7 million deficit. Meanwhile JTHS has reserves of $36 million. The Plainfield board recently decided not to install turf at its four high schools' stadiums.

Joliet West student, Elissa Chudwin, speaks with Swanstrom about some of the recent and upcoming improvements that have been made to JTHS facilities.

Podcast

Throughout the years, Ken Erdey has learned that the big expensive props that jump out at you doesn't guarantee a scare.

"You walk pass those things and sometimes people know what's coming. But when you got actors and live people, they can play off each other and play off what they are seeing," Erdey said.

"It's amazing what people find scary and it's amazing what people don't," he said.

Because the haunt is a fundraiser for Plainfield schools, Ken Erdey says they can't use horror or torture scenes. He describes the haunt as friendly.

"You will rarely see a weapon in our haunt," he said.

He trains his actors that the surprise itself can produce the scare.

"As a group, one can be the distraction and one can get the scare. To me, it's how Scare High gets it's name. It's all about the scream.

"I have a goal I want to scare somebody completely, I want to have somebody being scared and I want somebody laughing the entire time, laughing at their friends for being scared," he said.

He instructs his actors to have four or five different acts within their scene so it doesn't get boring for them. And, it encourages guests to go again - they'll get a different scare!

"My hope is they come back and see something different each time," he said.

Erdey stands behind the scenes of the haunted rooms and listens for the good scream.

He was surprised to learn who was one of his best screamers: His daughter, Elaine Erdey, 12, a seventh-grader at Drauden Point Middle School.

She's now old enough to act in the haunted house. His son, Thomas Erdey, 10, a fifth-grader at Ridge Elementary School, will help out at the family haunt for young children.

"She's actually my best screamer. ... She's in the nurse's office. All I hear is this busted out scream. I was like 'What was that?' It was my daughter," he said.

So are you brave enough to visit the scariest high school in Plainfield?

Scream High Class of 2010 guarantees a good scare in the basement of the Plainfield Police Department, 14300 S. Coil Plus Drive.

The haunted house is open 5-8 p.m. tonight; 5-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets cost $10 per person.

For younger children, ages 3 and up, there is a friendly-family scare with lights on and lights off from 1-4 p.m. Saturday. It's more of a fun tour of Scream High, showing off cool, gross stuff. Cost is $5 per person for the haunted house.

During that time, for free, there will be pumpkin coloring, demonstrations from the police and fire departments, crafts for kids and bouncies for kids to jump in. The event is sponsored by the Plainfield Police Department's D.A.R.E program and the Plainfield Fire Protection District.

I just love these creative community service projects at John F. Kennedy and Ira Jones middle schools in Plainfield School District.

Ira Jones students are making sure other kids have a fun Halloween by donating old costumes.

The YMCA and Student Council are collecting gently used costumes through today. The costumes will be donated to local shelters.

On Halloween, J.F.K. Middle School students have a real good reason to go door-to-door. They are trick-or-treating for the troops.

Next week, they are being asked to bring in their candy so the school can send it to the troops. Pretty cool stuff!

Valley View School Board named their new superintendent Monday night.

James Mitchem, principal at Bolingbrook High School, will be the next superintendent of Valley View School District.

Mitchem's appointment was confirmed unanimously by the school board. Mitchem will succeed Phillip Schoffstall, who has announced his retirement effective no later than June 30.

"We're expecting great things from Jim," said school board President Steve Quigley in a press release. "We like his no-nonsense approach and his attitude that we can do more for our children. He has a firm grip on the things that are needed to make our district better."

A graduate of DePaul University with a bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in educational leadership, Mitchem is currently pursuing his doctorate as well as his superintendent certification from Argosy University.

Quigley said the board reviewed roughly 20 applicants, narrowing the choices to three before selecting Mitchem who was the only finalist from within the school district.

"Sometimes you don't have to look very far to find what you're seeking," Quigley said, adding the board moved quickly "because we wanted to get this moving along so we could have a transition period" during which Mitchem will shadow Schoffstall.

"I anxiously await my opportunity to make a difference for our children in a way that will ultimately prepare them for the rigor of post secondary life," Mitchem told the board at Monday's meeting. "Being called upon to lead really means being called upon to serve. I will serve this district with all I have to give."

Mitchem started his career in Valley View in 1980 as a physical education and health teacher at both Romeoville and Bolingbrook high schools where he also coached basketball, baseball, track, badminton and volleyball.

The Bolingbrook resident began his administrative career in 1985 as dean of students at Romeoville High School, a position he held for nine years before becoming administrative dean of students for one year.

Following a three-year stint as director of athletic academic advising at his alma mater, DePaul University, Mitchem returned to Valley View in 1999 as assistant principal for student affairs at BHS. A year later he became principal of what was then B.J. Ward Middle School in Bolingbrook, and in 2002 he was named principal of Romeoville High School Mitchem became principal of Bolingbrook High School in July 2006.

Comment on this story.

www.heraldnewsonline.com

We've gotten plenty of comments from folks not too happy with Plainfield School District's decision not to release board packets to the press so the local media can write advance stories about what the board is going to vote on or discuss.

The district spokesman says he sent the information to 28,000 folks subscribed to the electronic newsletter after the meeting, but you guys are saying that's not good enough.

Here are some of your comments:

- As a school board member in another school district, I would argue that this isn't a courtesy and respect issue for board members at all, but rather a way for a district administrative staff to minimize public scrutiny. It's bad government plain and simple.

- Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Hiding board agendas is deplorable. Public business should be public.

- Maybe your editorial board should take this issue up at election time.

- The public (i.e. tax payers) needs to know ASAP what issues are being presented to the BOE and I think that those issues should be made public BEFORE the BOE votes on it. This whole turf issue is crazy. Why can't football players play on the free grass they have always played on?? Many Many NFL teams do just fine playing on grass. My opinion is that District 202 does not want to make issues aware to taxpayers until after it is too late for those taxpayers to have any real input. Kudos to you for keeping the public informed any way you can.

- We have every right to know what is going on in the Plainfield School District. Thank You Catherine for all your hard work and investigation.

- Wow. I cannot believe they are being so ridiculous about this. Why
don't they get that the board of education and the Herald-News serve
the SAME PEOPLE?!

Plainfield Superintendent John Harper wasn't pleased to find his recommendation to the board in The Herald-News article as part of an advanced story to Oct. 12th board meeting.

He asked school board President Stuart Bledsoe for a moment to comment to the school board and journalists Tuesday night.

"It has been the practice of the administration to provide our board of education with the background information and the recommendations that they need in order to vote on important issues at board meetings . As duly elected officials of this community who spend countless hours of their time studying and evaluating many different perspectives of this district. It is both professional courtesy and protocol that that information is provided to them in advance to a meeting.

"It was brought to my attention over the weekend that very detailed information associated with the study that Mr. Murphy and Mr. Brown presented tonight was published in a local newspaper. For my purposes, it's important that this board of education know that information was not released by the superintendent nor was it released by the department of community relations. That again is out of respect and protocol.

"I think it is blatantly unfair for the board of education to be reading the superintendent's recommendation in the paper days or even hours before you have an opportunity to act upon it," Harper said.

"In fairness to the reporters and journalists in the audience, it is not released by the administration and it's important for you to understand that is not how we do business and we do not release it to some and not all."

Harper said unless he hears something different from the board, the administration will continue to provide the media with packets at the beginning of meetings.

"We will continue to extend the courtesy to seven elected members of the board and not release that information prior to them to having an opportunity to discuss it, debate it and make some decisions upon it in an open meeting," he said.

The Herald-News responded with an e-mail to Harper and the school board on Wednesday:

Dr. Harper and board members,

I was quite surprised to hear Dr. Harper's reaction to yesterday's article. Tom Hernandez e-mailed he couldn't release the information, but I could get it from somewhere else. So I did.

If there was a committee meeting last week, I would have seen the report, heard Dr. Harper's recommendation and have written an advance article in the newspaper so the taxpayers could be aware that the board would be looking at the information and discussing it.

Unfortunately for the taxpayers, there was no committee meeting last week so I did my duty as a journalist to get the information to them since your district did not have the information on its website.

Valley View School District posts the board packet online before board meetings. You can look at www.vvsd.org as a reminder if you wish. You will see personnel information on who will be hired as well as who is retiring is included. There is also detailed information before the meeting on what will be presented so taxpayers can review the information that the board is also reviewing.

After listening to Dr. Harper's comments last night, I have a concern. Are you saying that the taxpayers have no right to the information the board is reviewing until after the meeting - which then in some cases is too late? That means the public does not have a right to an advanced story prior to the board meeting.

Are you also saying the board should not have the opportunity to discuss with their constituents your recommendation before they act upon it?

Dr. Harper said: "I think it is blatantly unfair for the board of education to be reading the superintendent's recommendation in the paper days or even hours before you have an opportunity to act upon it. We will continue to extend the courtesy to seven elected members of the board and not release that information prior to them to having an opportunity to discuss it, debate it and make some decisions upon it in an open meeting," he said.

Could you please explain why?

To the board: My question is - Are you going to let Dr. Harper release full packets to the media so they can write an advanced story prior to the meeting. Don't you want your constituents to be able to reach out to you before you make a decision on an issue?

I am writing a story about the lack of information available to Plainfield School District taxpayers before board meetings. While it's nice to have the information and presentation on the district Web site today it really doesn't serve the public now that the board has made its decision.

The story will run tomorrow. Please respond by 4 p.m. today. Thanks! Cathy

Catherine Ann Velasco

Plainfield School District's response on Wednesday afternoon:

Cathy,

First and foremost, District 202 is dedicated to open, honest and efficient communications with our community. We have gone to great lengths in recent years to increase and improve communications at every level. We've added online tools, web sites, public meet and greet opportunities, publications and more to give our taxpayers and families more and better access to district staff and the Board.

For you to even suggest that we're somehow trying to keep anything from the public is unfair and inaccurate, at best.

That being said, it is a longstanding practice here to give the duly elected Board of Education members -- who are themselves members of the public -- the courtesy and respect of receiving and digesting information that they will discuss and act upon, before adding the obligations of public and media scrutiny. We have been doing it this way for years as you well know. Frankly, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense why some districts would publish or share information ahead of time (like personnel reports, for example) that might, and often does change, thereby creating more confusion and in some cases, needless embarrassment.

As I told you on Friday, the public would get the turf report on Tuesday through us, and through the media, including you. And that's exactly what happened. I sent out an Education Partners email newsletter to 28,000 email addresses at 9:30 p.m. and you posted your story on line after midnight. As I also told you, I understand and respect your wish to do an advance story. But our first obligation is to the Board of Education.

You capture Dr. Harper's comments from last night very well. He said what he said for three reasons:

1. To reiterate to the Board our established and longstanding procedure and protocol re: releasing Board information

2. To let the other reporters know that we have this procedure, and intend to hold to it

3. To reassure the Board that we did, in fact, follow our procedure and protocol.

As I said in my email Friday evening, Board members can do whatever they want with the information they receive. It's fine if they want to release information -- as, clearly, someone did by giving you the reports ahead of time. Good for you and kudos for your journalistic tenacity.

But the administration is not going to usurp the Board's authority to conduct its own business as elected representatives of the community by giving the media information before the Board gets it, unless the Board tells us to do so. So far, it has not.

Thanks.

Tom Hernandez
Director of Community Relations
Plainfield CCSD 202

What do you think? Should Plainfield School Board release board packet information after the board receives it so the local media can write stories to alert the public to an upcoming board meeting?

Before laying off seven grounds employees as part of its deficit reduction plan, the Plainfield School Board agreed not to install turf at its four high schools.

After hearing a presentation, the board had little discussion on the issueTuesday night but quickly decided not to move forward and they put the turf issue to pasture.

"At this point, we will be asking the administration to put the turf aside and continue to work forward to fix the fields," said school board President Stuart Bledsoe.

School board member Michelle Smith asked what the district was going to do about the poor practice fields, saying her child got hurt on the district's field and now must visit an orthopedic surgeon.

"We're going to be basically shutting down a field for a year to allow us to basically take it back down to dirt, take out the bad soils, renovate the soils and replant the grass and let the grass grow properly for a year before we allow play ... on that field," said Joel Murphy, director of facilities.

When that field is done, the high school will work on the next field. Murphy said this process will be easier at Plainfield North and Plainfield East high schools because they have additional practice fields.

After completing an investigation, Plainfield Superintendent John Harper recommended to the board that the district does not install artificial turf at its four high school stadiums, saying they did not find artificial turf to be more cost effective than natural grass.

It would cost the district between $2.3 million to $4 million to install and maintain turf at all four high school stadium fields over a 10-year period compared to $705,720 to $1.7 million to maintain natural grass over the same time period. Turf is expected to last 10 years before it has to be replaced.

The money for the artificial turf would have come from the $252.1 million construction funds provided by the March 2006 referendum. Those funds cannot be used to save jobs, but can improve school facilities.

School board member Mike Kelly said he couldn't live with installing artificial turf, knowing that the district has to lay off employees Tuesday night.

However, he believes artificial turf can be put on the radar screen when the district's finances are better. He also thinks the district should look at other things, such as installing a swimming pool and teaching foregin langauge at the middle schools.

"There are all kinds of things that are dreams that we really need to think about and put on the radar screen," he said. "We can't do it now ... from a fiscal standpoint, we can't," he said.

In other business, the board approved laying off seven grounds workers. The employees would be changed from full-time status to seasonal employees.
The district expects the employees will be laid off for about five months. However, employees will be able to plow snow.

Click below for data given to the board:

artificialturfpp.pdf

To turf or not to turf?

That's the question facing Plainfield School Board.

After completing a thorough investigation, Plainfield Superintendent John Harper is recommending that the district DOES NOT install artificial turf at its four high school field stadiums.

The Plainfield School Board is expected to discuss the report at its 7:30 p.m. Oct. 12th meeting at Central Elementary School, 22723 Getson Drive.

The district administration compiled lots of information for the school board, including analyzing the initial and long-term costs of installing and maintaining artificial turf compared to natural grass.

It would cost the district between $2.3 million to $4 million to install and maintain turf at all four high school stadium fields over a 10-year period compared to $705,720 to $1.7 million to maintain natural grass over the same time period. Turf is expected to last 10 years before it has to be replaced.

The district would spend less "man hours" on turf compared to natural grass. For a three-year period, the district expects to spend $23,688 to maintain turf compared to $207,691 which the district spent to maintain its four stadium fields.

Here's a detailed list on what the district has spent the last three years at its high schools on field maintenace.

Stadium Field Maintenace Cost Estimates.pdf

Here's what the district expects to spend to maintain artificial turf.

Artificialturf.pdf

Some board members had concerns with how many times games were canceled or moved because of poor field conditions.

Here's a survey of games that were moved to alternate fields or canceled.

Stadium Field Use Survey.pdf

The board had a heated discussion last month on whether to install turf while the district faces a $6.7 million deficit.

Out of the $252.1 million construction money, the district came under budget by $19 million when it built three elementary schools, John F. Kennedy Middle School and Plainfield East High school. That money can be used to repair buildings as stated in the referendum language. Some board members would like to use the money to install turf.

"While our finance department projects the balance in the construction fund to be approximately $15.5 million at the end of the current fiscal year, our operations department, having completed an in depth examination of our campuses and facilities estimates $28 million in necessary capital developments over the course of the next six years," Harper wrote.

Some of those expenses are:

- $1.1 million roof replacement at Timber Ridge, Heritage Grove and Drauden Point middle schools

- $220,000 - asphalt repairs at Plainfield Central High School

- $223,539 - varsity baseball field renovation at Plainfield South High School

- $100,000 asbestos removal and tile replacement at Indian Trail

- $128,000 - resurface playground parking lot at Grand Prairie

- $7,000 Plainfield North varsity baseball field repairs

"As a result of this investigation the administration does not recommend installing artificial turf on the playing surfaces of our high school stadiums," Harper said.

Stay tuned here to what the board says if anything during Tuesday night's meeting.

I'm always amazed at all the hard work students and parents put in for homecoming week.

This year, Plainfield saluted the Olympics in its 59th annual Plainfield Community Homecoming Parade held Oct. 2.

The winners are:

Reunion Class Float of 1963 (first place - only one place awarded per parade per year)

Elementary School Winners:

Charles Reed - First Place

Lincoln - Second Place

Elizabeth Eichelberger - Spirit Award

Middle School Winners:

Timber Ridge - First Place

Aux Sable - Second Place

Drauden Point - Spirit Award

High School Winners:

Plainfield South High School Athletic Boosters - First Place

Plainfield North High School Student Council - Second Place

Plainfield East High School Students and Staff - Spirit Award