These links will give you access to detailed information on various legislative issues:
2008 Legislative Brunch
On April 28th, the IPPC Legislative Committee hosted the IPPC Legislative Brunch. We invited elected local, state, and national officials to allow District 204 residents to hear from legislators about issues that affect our district, schools, kids, and wallets. Topics ranged from education funding to the proposed acquisition of the EJ&E railroad.
Legislative Issues
EJ&E Railroad Acquisition
At the February 2008 IPPC meeting, the members voted to send a letter to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to state our opposition to the proposed acquisition of the EJ&E Railroad by Canadian National (CN) Railway. Copies of this letter were also sent to the elected officials who serve municipalities in our district.
Click here to view the letter.
The STB is a regulatory agency that has jurisdiction over rail line sales. They can approve the sale, not approve the sale, or approve the sale with certain requirements. One requirement that has been mentioned is to change the at-grade crossings to overpasses/underpasses.
In brief, the process they are following for this acquisition is:
- October 2007: CN filed an application to the STB to acquire EJ&E
- February 2008: The STB allowed public comment on the draft Scope of Study for the Environmental Impact Study. This gave us the opportunity to submit our position letter.
- April 2008: The STB is scheduled to make a decision on the competitive, transportation, and economic implications of the transaction on the national rail system.
- December 2008: Completion of Environmental Impact Study.
In April, 2008, a group of governmental entities joined together to create The Regional Answer to Canadian National (TRAC) to work together to fight against the approval of this acquisition. This group includes municipalities from DuPage, Cook, and Lake counties in Illinois and Lake County, Indiana.
You can read more about the STB at www.stb.dot.gov. There is also a wealth of information on the internet about this proposal. Many entities have spoken out with their own reasons for not wanting this acquisition to take place. Google EJ&E and you’ll find thousands of pages of background reading.
IPPC Position on Municipal Development
In September 2006, the IPPC wrote a position paper on municipal development.
The first paragraph of that paper reads:
Indian Prairie Parents’ Council respectfully requests municipalities within District 204 boundaries to judge the impact upon the school system when reviewing petitions to rezone Office/Commercial/Industrial-zoned properties to residential use. While our community is prepared (with the addition of a third high school) to absorb all students from current residential zoning, at issue are incoming requests to change zoning on non-residential acreage or any other parcel that would result in a net increase of students within District 204.
The position was adopted in January 2007. It was first presented to the Naperville Plan Commission in January 2007 in opposition to a proposal in which Pedcor Investments wanted the commission to rezone a parcel of land zoned for office use to residential to allow them to build a 120-unit apartment building. IPPC President Jean Donovan read parts of the position paper and asked the commission to deny the request. The request was unanimously denied. The paper is and will be presented when rezoning requests are made that would result in the addition of students into the district.
School-Based Polling Initiative
The Objectives of the Indian Prairie Parents' Council and Illinois PTA, in common with the purposes of National PTA, include references to the welfare and protection of children and youth. With that understanding, and in response to input from the District 204 community and our membership, IPPC initiated a School-Based Polling Initiative.
The goal of this initiative was two-fold:
(1) To educate the various stakeholders on the issue of School Based Polling and the additional safety concerns for children in schools used as polling places
(2) To gain endorsement from District 204 to schedule student non-attendance days on all future elections.
In August 2007, the Board of Education and Superintendent directed the calendar committee to schedule elections as non-attendance days on future school calendars, unless available options did not permit it. In that instance, District 204 Administration will work with the individual PTAs to increase supervision at the various schools used as polling sites.
Click here to view a presentation on this initiative.
Education Funding
Illinois Association for Gifted Children (IAGC)
"[We were told at a recent meeting that]
...there are more line items in the state budget than there are funds."