Our Village Board of Trustees will be conducting their regular monthly meeting beginning this evening at 6:30 PM. Some of the topics on their agenda include:
[Vote] A Resolution of Proclamation Appreciating Patrick Hennelly for 22 years of Dedicated Service to the Village of Barrington Hills Resolution 22 –
[Vote] Resolution of Proclamation Appreciating Dr. Gwynne H. Johnston for 28 Years of Dedicated Service to the Village of Barrington Hills Resolution 22 –
5K/10K The Land We Love Run
The two gentlemen being recognized for decades of service on the Zoning Board of Appeals and the Board of Health have our utmost gratitude and respect for their commitment to the residents of our Village.
A copy of the agenda can be viewed and downloaded here.
At the April 5 Board meeting representatives from educational consulting firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates (HYA) gave a presentation to the Board which included the data collected during the first phase of the district’s strategic planning process “Framework 220”.
During Phase 1, HYA conducted seven focus groups with about 260 district stakeholders, as well as interviews with Board of Education members and district leaders. In addition, all community members had the opportunity to complete an online community questionnaire about the state of the district. A total of 3,751 stakeholders completed the questionnaire.Click here to view the results from Phase 1.
Phase 2 “Learner Profile Development” will engage a small group of stakeholders this month to help create a draft of a learner profile that articulates the critical skills Barrington 220 aspires to develop within its students.
Phase 3 “Strategic Plan Development” will engage a large group of stakeholders in a two-day summit on April 29 and April 30 that will focus on the development of the district’s mission, vision and strategic priorities.
“Earlier this year, Illinois lawmakers enacted emergency changes in the state’s election law that applied only to the Nov. 3, 2020 election. Designed to promote safe voting during the COVID-19 pandemic, these changes included expanded vote by mail, more early voting hours, and secure drop boxes for mail ballots.
As of Nov. 2, nearly 1.8 million mail ballots had been received by election authorities and more than 1.8 million people had participated in early in-person voting—meaning nearly 3.6 million votes were cast before Election Day. In 2016, early voting and mail ballots totaled about 1.9 million.
How did those changes work for you? What can Illinois learn from this election? With voting behind us, it’s time to consider whether any or all of the changes should be made permanent.
The Better Government Association would like your input to help shape recommendations for future elections. Please help us by taking our brief survey:
If you do not wish to use the survey form, you can still share your experiences; just send an email topolicyteam@bettergov.orgwith the subject My 2020 Voting Experience.
After announcing earlier this month that the new school year would start in-person with an option for remote learning, Barrington School District 220 officials revised that Wednesday and said it will now be all virtual.
“As guidelines from the Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois Department of Public Health, county health departments, and other health organizations continue to evolve, we have concluded the ‘Roadmap to Reopening’ as presented at the July 14 Board of Education meeting is not attainable,” Superintendent Brian Harris said in an electronic letter to parents and stakeholders distributed Wednesday.
Following that July 14 meeting, district families were given about 10 days to decide whether their children would attend school in-person – wearing masks – or spend five hours a day doing distance learning when the new academic year starts Aug. 20.
That had been the message Harris delivered at the board meeting as he presented the district’s Roadmap to Reopening plan to board members and nearly 900 viewers who watched the virtual meeting on YouTube. He said then that, “we really want to get all our kids back in a safe environment.”
But in his notification Tuesday, Harris said the only option, for now, is to drop the plan for kids to return to the school buildings.
Read the Chicago Tribune account of what happenedhere.
The Illinois Tollway is offering I-PASS customers in the Kane County region an opportunity to provide input on a Kane County project to improve regional mobility through the development of the Longmeadow Parkway Bridge Corridor improvement. The Longmeadow Parkway project is designed to alleviate traffic congestion in northern Kane County and relieve pressure on the existing bridges crossing the Fox River. While the Illinois Tollway is not directly involved in the development of the improvement, we are hoping that our I-PASS customers can provide valuable feedback regarding their travel habits and preferences.
The Longmeadow Parkway Bridge Corridor improvement is 5.6 miles in length and includes a new four-lane Fox River Bridge crossing and four-lane roadway with a median that passes through portions of the Villages of Algonquin, Carpentersville and Barrington Hills, as well as unincorporated areas of Kane County.
For completing the survey, Kane County’s consultant is offering entry into a drawing to win a $500 check card.
Following are some of the articles published by The Observer in November in the last few years. These articles, gathered from various publications and editorials, are noteworthy for residents in that they remind us of where we’ve been as a community.
Embattled horse farm owners say they have been complying with the Village of Barrington Hills zoning code and its president agreed, though neighbors still insist the farm is operating illegally and should be shut down.
Benjamin and Cathleen LeCompte, owners of Oakwood Farms in Barrington Hills, and Village President Robert Abboud said the farm has changed a few operation standards, and has been in compliance with the village’s Home Occupation Zoning Ordinance since February.
Read the TribLocal article published five years ago here.
An economic proposal to control horse boarding businesses – 2011
This Monday evening, November 14, 2011, the Zoning Board of Appeals will again take up the controversial subject of large-scale commercial horse boarding in our Village. Numerous proposals have been floated, rejected, and then floated again in recent memory. Who knows what will come out of Village Hall after Monday’s meeting. Here is an idea: If large horse boarding businesses are going to be allowed in our Village, at the expense of our quiet residential character, they should pay fees and taxes as businesses.
On October 22, 2012, The Observer published the Barrington Hills 2012 Resident Survey. Readers and subscribers participated, as did many of the more than eight hundred residents who received an invitation to take the survey via email. By the time the survey period closed on Sunday October 28, two hundred twenty-six residents had completed the survey, and eighty-four of them chose to provide their own personal comments and insightful observations based on their years living in the Village.
Revisit the Village survey results from four years ago here.
Better safe than sorry – 2014
Last month during a special Village Board meeting, the Board of Trustees had the opportunity to ask questions of three law firms who were invited to present their qualifications to serve Barrington Hills. Board members asked representatives of Zukowski, Rogers, Flood & McArdle their opinion on whether the Village should undertake legislation changing our Village Code related to horse boarding [Anderson II] when there is active litigation occurring between two private parties if such legislation might affect one party over the other.
David McArdle, a partner with the firm, responded, “We wouldn’t recommend that you pass a rule, pass a law, that favors one party over another.” When asked again in a different way, he stated, “We wouldn’t recommend that.” (A link to the recording of that discussion can be accessed here).
Season’s first snow is Chicago’s largest November snowfall in 120 years – 2015
The season’s first snowfall dropped as much as 17 inches across Chicago’s northern suburbs, and the total of 11.2 inches at O’Hare International Airport made it the largest November snowfall in 120 years.
District 220 has released their survey of the community to assist in their decision regarding what time schools should start in the 2017-2018 school year.
This survey will take less than five minutes to complete, and is available through midnight Saturday, October 1st. All comments in the survey will be presented to the District 220 Board of Education in a public document.
The Finance Committee will be meeting this evening at 6:00 PM. A copy of their agenda can be viewed here.
At 7:30, the Zoning Board of Appeals will be holding a public hearing on a text amendment proposal regarding Village horse boarding codes. Since we first posted this agenda on Friday (seenhere), some Riding Club members, including a handful of “radicals” in the herd, have taken to social media with an “urgent” call to attend this meeting, so it would be in the best interest of fairness that those who objected to the passage of the LeCompte/Anderson amendment to attend and perhaps speak.
We have not fully reviewed the proposal which the Zoning Board will be considering tonight, however we would like to remind readers of our observations in our December 2014 editorial — “Our views on the latest horse boarding text amendment proposal” — regarding the amendment petition that was ultimately passed by the Village Board in early 2015 despite valid objections voiced by many residents and a presidential veto. Click here revisit that editorial.
Barrington District 220 Release: The Input 220 Advisory Committee tasked with studying the idea of changing school start times will hold a public meeting at Station Middle School Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m.
Those in attendance will hear from Dr. Stephanie Crowley, Assistant Professor of Behavioral Sciences at Rush University Medical College. Dr. Crowley’s broad research interest is in the interactions of the circadian timing and sleep/wake systems.
Following Dr. Crowley’s remarks, the Input 220 group will share full results from the community start time survey and present three options for potential start and end times across all grade levels. These options will be shared with the board of education at its Tuesday, Feb. 16 meeting for consideration.
The Jan. 27 public meeting will be available to watch live online here for those unable to attend. The video will also be archived online.
According to a survey, parents, students and employees in Barrington School District 220 want classes to start later in the morning, allowing middle and high students more sleep.
The committee known as Input 220 sent the questionnaire out Nov. 12-30 and members are studying the results in offering final options to the Barrington Board of Education ahead of a February meeting.
The Illinois Tollway is offering I-PASS customers in the Kane County region an opportunity to provide input on a Kane County project to improve regional mobility through the development of the Longmeadow Parkway Bridge Corridor improvement. The Longmeadow Parkway project is designed to alleviate traffic congestion in northern Kane County and relieve pressure on the existing bridges crossing the Fox River. While the Illinois Tollway is not directly involved in the development of the improvement, we are hoping that our I-PASS customers can provide valuable feedback regarding their travel habits and preferences.
