Huntley library interviews director hopefuls

Many employers require two weeks' notice from workers who jump ship.

Huntley Area Public Library Director Virginia Maravilla gave her employer about eight months' notice when she announced earlier this year she plans to resign at the end of November.

This week, the library board is interviewing four candidates to replace Maravilla, who will have served in the top post about 11 years.

The new director will take over a library that has grown rapidly in the past decade and will help determine how the library will accommodate that growth even as taxpayers have shot down two recent tax increases.

As soon as the library board makes a decision, I will let you know.

Salaries now online: In case you missed it, the state now requires all public school districts to post its administrators' compensation online on an annual basis.

Somewhat surprisingly, I was able to find the compensation report for every school district I cover when I checked their Web sites last week.

In my estimation, some administrators were making a lot of money; others probably weren't making much more than an editor at the Daily Herald.

But don't take my word for it.

From now on, whenever a school efficiency hawk claims administrators are paid like "captains of industry" or the administrators themselves say they're paupers compared to their corporate counterparts, you can go to the salary report and form your own opinion.

Wrecking balls fly: When you're my age, many things are before your time.

That includes the building next to Dundee-Crown High School that formerly housed the deLacey Family Education Center.

The center for at-risk preschoolers moved to its current location next to Carpentersville Middle School in early 2006, before I started writing about Community Unit District 300.

In about a week, the old building will be no more than dust in the wind. District 300 is demolishing the building to create new practice fields and parking for the high school.

District 300 leaders say the upgrades will help put Dundee-Crown on a level playing field with the district's other two high schools and eliminate a hangout for kids up to no good.

The new parking spaces should be ready in the spring of 2010, while the athletics fields are expected to be complete a year later, according to the district.

Tough decision ahead: Many parents and teachers in Cary Elementary District 26 are holding their breath before the district's scheduled finance committee meting on Oct. 13.

At that meeting, the District 26 administration is scheduled to present its recommendation for closing a school next year to erase an estimated $1.8 million budget deficit.

I will let you know what the administration recommends and what the finance committee and school board ultimately decide.