An active shooter drill, which will not involve students who are on spring break, is set from 8 a.m. to noon Friday, at Barrington High School, officials announced.
Barrington police and fire personnel will conduct the drill in conjunction with Barrington Area Unit District 220 employees. Officials said passers-by should not be alarmed if they see significant police and fire activity, including helicopters near and around Barrington High.
Posted in 220, Community Alerts, District 220 referendum, Politics, School Districts | Leave a Comment »
The race for Barrington Community School District 220 Board of Education includes five contenders running for three available seats in the April 2 election, in addition to the referendum on the ballot that asks voters about a multi-million spending plan.
Angela Wilcox, who has been a board member since 2015, is the lone incumbent.
Board President Brian Battle decided not to run again, ending a stint on the board that began in 2003. He’s stepping down, he said, because he has met many of the goals that he set for himself throughout his tenure.
“We established solid financial footing for School District 220 and, when I got to the district, it was annually on the financial watch list of the Illinois State Board of Education,” Battle said in December when he announced he would not seek re-election
Read more here.
Posted in School Districts, 220, Taxes, Board of Education, Agendas, 2019 Elections, Property Taxes | Leave a Comment »
A brick and glass modernist house in Barrington Hills designed in the mid-1960s by Ed Dart, one of Chicago’s great modernist architects, is on the market for the first time in more than 25 years.
Dart, whose best-known work is the soaring 74-story Water Tower Place, also emphasized the vertical element of this house on Brinker Road, letting it complement tall trees on the site. Both inside and out, he used Chicago common brick for an earthen connection.
The interior’s ample windows of glass and long catwalks on the second and third stories “give you sweeping views of the trees and the lake from any angle,” said Giacomo Antonini, who owns the 3,900-square-foot house on 6 acres.
“It still delights me,” 28 years after he bought the home with his now-deceased wife, he said.
Read more from Crain’s Chicago Business here.
Posted in Real Estate, Resident Spotlights, Topics Of Interest | Leave a Comment »
Four of five candidates vying for three seats on our Board of Trustees along with at least two-dozen residents attended the recent League of Women Voters (LWV) candidate forum held at the Barrington Area Library. The LWV has released a video of the hour-long forum that can be viewed here.
The LWV has also released a video of Barrington District 220 pitch for the $185 million referendum to be voted on by residents on the April 2 ballot. A recording of that video can be viewed here.
Posted in 2019 Elections, 220, Board of Education, League of Women Voters, Organizations, Politics, School Districts | 2 Comments »
A five-bedroom, 20,513-square-foot mansion on 22 acres in Barrington Hills sold Monday for $4.4778 million — the highest-priced sale in the village since 2012.
Built in 1999, the three-story, lodgelike mansion on Woodhaven Lane has 6 1/2 baths, seven fireplaces, a leaded-glass front door, a great room with 30-foot domed ceilings and floor-to-ceiling panoramic windows, a three-story, free-floating hickory spiral staircase that is enclosed by a glass turret, a two-story custom kitchen, a first-floor master suite with a spalike limestone bath, and a walkout lower level that has a pub, a wine wall with three chilling units, a home theater, a billiard room with a stained glass ceiling and an indoor gym.
Read more here.
Posted in 2019 Elections, Real Estate, Topics Of Interest | Leave a Comment »
Two candidates for trustee advocate “live steaming” (broadcasting) for Board of Trustee meetings as well as some committee and commission meetings. May be a good idea, but at what cost?
Barrington CUSD 220 has been streaming their board meetings for many years. We’ve attended a few of those meetings, and there are usually at least two or more people working the camera(s), computer(s) and microphones.
Much time is spent setting up the equipment long before the start of each meeting, and then breaking down the setup afterwards.
Clearly, Village Hall meetings needn’t be this elaborate. Costs to live stream meetings have decreased given advances in technology, such as YouTube, but are they really cost effective? The answer is NO for our Village, and here’s why…
We’ve watched numerous District 220 meetings from the comfort of our homes using their YouTube channel. A counter on the screen indicates number of viewers at any given time, and that’s when the reality of true resident apathy hits home!
Approximately 9,000 students attend District 220 schools. Tens of thousands of potential viewers reside in communities from Tower Lakes to Hoffman Estates to Carpentersville to Deer Park and beyond, but for all that the District pays to live stream their meetings, can you guess how many viewers are actually tuned in? Nearly none!
We observed on average only 5-8 people watching a typical District 220 meeting. Chances were that 1/3 were students, 1/3 were reporters or salespeople and the rest too lazy to drive to the meeting. 5-8 people! (Imagine viewership in a community of only 4,200 residents – maybe 1 or 2 viewers for a meeting?)
Recordings are available on demand, so it is likely District 220 residents watch the meetings at their convenience, and as common sense might suggest, viewer totals per meeting may become more acceptable, but still not cost effective.
Barrington Hills has invested time and money in audio recording equipment to accommodate residents who cannot attend meetings. Recordings are usually available for review a few days after each meeting.
So, for those advocating live streaming meetings on the Village’s dime, we suggest a more cost effective alternative for those wanting the service.
Invest their own money for the ability to live stream meetings, and sell it to residents who wish to subscribe to your service. Chances are they won’t because they’d lose money from the start, which begs the question, why are they asking our Village to subsidize their personal (and likely selfish) needs?
Posted in 2019 Trustee Elections, 220, Board of Elections, Deception, Ethics, OP/Ed, Politics, School Districts, Village Government | 1 Comment »
Bryan Croll, Debra A. Buettner and Brian D. Cecola
In keeping with what is becoming something of a tradition in otherwise bucolic Barrington Hills, voters are being treated to a feisty race for the village board in the April 2 election.
Three trustee seats are up for election, and cameras seem to be a campaign focus one way or another.
We did not endorse Cecola and Croll when they first ran in 2015, but they have delivered on their campaign promises. Spending has been cut as has the village property tax levy, and the village website has been improved.
We endorse them for re-election. Buettner is a potentially good teammate with sound judgment and experience. She wins our endorsement, too
Read the full Daily Herald endorsement here.
Posted in 2019 Trustee Elections, Finance Committee, OP/Ed, Politics, Roads & Bridges Committee, Village Board, Village Government, Zoning Board | 2 Comments »
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