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Chicago Tribune
03-07-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Portage residential TIF for police raises likely to start in November
The Portage Redevelopment Commission plans to discuss in detail plans for its first residential tax increment financing district later this month. Redevelopment Director Dan Botich and others have been hammering out a plan with developers of six different subdivisions, Botich told the commission during a meeting June 26. A public hearing on the plan will be scheduled for Aug. 28, following approval of a schedule at the RDC's July 24 meeting. The Portage Township assessor, Portage Township Schools Superintendent Amanda Alaniz, School Board President Andy Maletta, neighborhood associations and impacted property owners will all be briefed on the plan, Botich said. The process of establishing a new TIF district involves approval by the RDC, then the City Council, then the RDC again. Once the council makes a decision, the RDC will schedule another public hearing to confirm it. That should get money rolling into the city's coffers as soon as November, Botich said. That revenue is important as a means to pay for the police raises approved by the council last month. Without that money, the city wouldn't be able to afford the raises. It's a complicated financing structure, but essentially, developers would pay 25% of the fee up front to the city to cover public safety and other needs. The remaining 75% of the money would be used to cover bonds issued to pay for infrastructure improvements. That 25% fee would disappear when a subdivision is 80% completed, providing an incentive for developers to move quickly to sell the lots. 'It's a very creative financial method in order to have dollars come back to the Redevelopment Commission,' Botich said. 'It's a lot to take in right now,' he said, but he plans to present everything at the July 24 meeting. 'We've been working on this for a while, and it's been very complicated and very complex,' he said. Mayor Austin Bonta said affected local taxing districts are being notified already to make sure they're aware of how this works. Botich said an economic development analysis has already been run for two of the subdivisions and will be used on the others. 'We have made great strides moving forward. We want to make sure this is done correctly,' he said. 'We have all our ducks in a line, and we're getting everything ready.' Because a TIF captures money that would otherwise go to schools, the RDC has a grant program to ease the pain for schools. At last month's meeting, the RDC granted $250,000 to Portage Township Schools to help pay the cost of iPads for students in grades 2 and 8. With a total of about 1,000 students, at $400 apiece, that leaves the RDC paying about two-thirds of the cost, Botich said.
Chicago Tribune
18-04-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Federal farm-to-school funding withers, devastates school lunch programs
Dawn Kelley, director of food services at Portage Township Schools, was at an event intended to celebrate the success of the National Farm to School Lunch Program when she found out the federal program's funding was canceled. It turned into a funeral dirge for the program instead. In Northwest Indiana, the program has allowed the Northwest Indiana Food Council to provide 2 million pounds of fresh foods to 134 schools, she said. The program transformed school lunches in the three years since it began. Nick Alessandri, director of food services at River Forest Community School Corp., leafed through invoices to see how much the district has benefitted this year. 'It's right around $80,000,' he said. Listening to the farm-fresh products will make a person hungry: Ground beef, hamburger patties, pork shoulder, breakfast sausage, Canadian bacon, sausage links, eggs, lettuce, whole tomatoes, various produce, probably 16 varieties of apples. 'We do participate in the Local Food for Schools program at Yost Elementary School and it is very disappointing that this program is being cut. Yost is our only school that qualified to participate, but amidst rising food costs and inflation impacting every aspect of our operation, every little bit helps. It's frustrating to say the least,' Duneland School Corp. Director of Child Nutrition Tammy Watkins said. At Portage, breakfasts have included real maple syrup and local honey for granola bars, Kelley said. The students love the difference the food has made. 'It's a huge effect on them. They notice the difference in the quality,' Alessandri said. 'We get fresh broccoli, they're cleaning me out,' easily consuming 70 to 80 pounds of it during lunch, Alessandri said. They can taste the difference between fresh fruit and canned or frozen, he noted. 'My meal counts go up every year.' From August to October, then April and May, River Forest students have enjoyed the salad bar with fresh produce from the program. Alessandri was hired the year the federal program began. With fresh food, there's less waste. Frozen vegetables often get dumped in the trash because they have less flavor, he said. 'Every day we're doing some stuff from scratch here,' he said. 'I invested time with my staff, showing them some things.' Portage's food service program has also involves a lot of scratch cooking. The district has won numerous awards for its food service program recently. Students have been able to try a lot of different foods than they normally would have, Kelley said. At Fegely Middle School, Principal Ann Marie Caballero introduced students to arroz con pollo, a Mexican chicken and rice dish that was one of her grandmother's specialties. Arroz con pollo's January debut on the school lunch menu was part of a push for Portage students to experience various ethnic foods. Melissa Deavers, director of communications and community engagement at Portage, said her young daughter is a picky eater but has tried new foods because of the fresh ingredients. 'Her palate has expanded so much,' Deavers said. Portage Township School Board member Lori Wilkie said it's important to be aware of additives, food dyes and other ingredients in processed foods that can have adverse consequences for some students. 'When you have fresh foods, you don't have these kinds of things,' she said. Scratch cooking with fresh ingredients takes skill. It's different with serving processed foods. 'I can hire a 10-year-old to kid to do this, and they'd probably do well,' Alessandri said. At South Haven Elementary School, second graders in the gardening club harvested lettuce Thursday from a hydroponics setup in the school's sensory-friendly room. Connie Melton, club sponsor, watched the kids put on plastic gloves to handle the lettuce leaves. 'Pick from the back for me. Get those big leaves,' she said. Occasionally, one of the leaves got a taste test. Either finish it or throw it away, Melton said. That leaf can't be put in with others harvested. Every 28 days, the lettuce is ready to harvest. The leaves are either added to a salad bar for the kids or served to the staff for salads. The gardening club is limited to second graders because older students tend to get involved in different clubs, Melton said. The gardening club for second graders began three years ago. 'Our courtyard needed some love,' she said, so a sensory garden now allows students to smell, touch and see – and sometimes taste – things in the garden. 'It gives them ownership in the building,' Melton said. It also educates students on what growing their own food is like, Deavers said. 'This really gives them a look into different types of communities.' Portage has several hydroponic gardens throughout the district, three of them purchased through a $20,000 grant, Kelley said. Each produces about 25 pounds of food every 28 days. Not all the food served to students is fresh. 'We're not going to hand bread every chicken tender. We'd be here to midnight,' Alessandri said. But fresh food is better. The ground beef sourced from nearby farms is still pink, not a dull brown. 'Unfortunately, we're not going to be able to buy fresh ground beef. It's not in the budget,' Kelley said. For two years, Portage has provided free lunches and breakfasts to students. There's a cost to prepare the meals, however. The district gets reimbursed $2.84 per breakfast served and $4.45 per lunch. There's a complicated formula that goes into determining this that includes 48% of Portage students qualifying for free lunches based on household income. 'We had no notice' when the funding for the program was canceled, Kelley said. This is the last school year for the program. In Indiana, though, school budgets are for the calendar year. 'It's terrible. I don't really want to think about it. Right now, my plan is I don't know,' Alessandri said. The day he opened an email saying the program had been canceled was the day after the deadline for applying for various commodities through a different program. In 2011, first lady Michelle Obama got schools eating healthier. President Joe Biden stressed local sourcing of foods, which helps both children and local farmers. Biden created the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Farm to School Lunch Program. 'All of a sudden Trump gets in office, and it's like boom, we're not going to do it anymore,' Alessandri said. It's not that the Trump administration doesn't like the same ideas. On April 9, USA Today published an op-ed jointly written by Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollins and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touting Trump's Make America Healthy Again campaign. 'First, we are advancing buy American policies that will get food grown by American farmers into the hands of children and families through our nutritious food programs,' they wrote. Since then, Kennedy appeared with Indiana Gov. Mike Braun to promote the idea. But the federal program, still listed on the USDA website, remains unfunded after the end of this school year. 'If that's the case, then what are we doing? They're basically contradicting what they're saying,' Alessandri said. 'We have it right here in our back yard, and we're closing it down.' 'I just don't see the logic behind this,' he said. Kelley is urging people to write to their federal representatives in Congress, House and Senate alike, to urge that funding be restored for the National Farm to School Lunch Program. 'Our community really stands behind us,' Alessandri said. 'I just can't fathom why they're doing this,' he said of the USDA program ending. The $1 billion spent nationwide for the program is a drop in the bucket for the federal government but has made a huge difference in children's lives, Alessandri said. 'It starts from childhood, nutrition and getting kids to eat different foods,' he said. 'If that's what they're exposed to, that's what they're going to know.' Even if the program were being canceled, phasing it out would have made more sense, Alessandri said. 'It would be nice if we got even partial funding,' he said. Farmers aren't getting rich from the program. They've got to work hard to break even, he said. Farming is a difficult job. It also involves planning well before the season begins to figure out what crops to plant and who potential customers will be. 'It's really a crisis on our hands,' Alessandri said. 'I just don't see how they can take this away from kids. That's the worst thing about this.'
Chicago Tribune
15-04-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Portage launching virtual school for Northwest Indiana
Portage Township Schools is launching PACE Virtual Academy, aiming to draw students from across Northwest Indiana for online courses. The Portage Township School Board approved the plan Monday. 'This will be technically our second high school that we'll have here at Portage Township Schools,' Director of Communications & Communications Melissa Deavers said. 'This could be a really good option for kids in Northwest Indiana,' she said. The PACE (Personal Academics and Customized Excellence) plan calls for students to take four-week courses one at a time, earning the same number of credit hours as a semester at a traditional high school. Online instructors would be backed up by mentors at Portage High School to offer in-person support to help the students keep on track to finish one-fourth of the coursework every week. 'It's not just a virtual school. It's something that we're going to take very personally,' Director of Instructional Technology Tim Pirowski said. 'There is a little bit of a stigma with virtual education,' he said, but PACE Virtual Academy is being set up differently. 'A lot of these virtual schools set these kids up and say go, then they forget about them. We're not going to do that,' he said. With virtual schools, a common pitfall is to enroll students in six courses at a time, setting them up for potential failure, Pirowski said. Having them take one course at a time encourages deeper engagement. Beverly Hills-based is providing the actual teachers for the course, with teachers available 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. to help students and homework help available online 24/7, Associate Superintendent Michael Stephens said. Staff at Portage High School will serve as mentors, not instructors. 'What they are is a real Portage touch place for these kids so they know they have someone they can reach out to,' Stephens said. 'They kind of make it more of a human relationship than an instructional relationship,' he said. Mentors will be available to motivate students who seem to be struggling or provide advice. Students will have a separate entrance at Portage High School to meet with mentors or to have a comfortable space to do coursework, Superintendent Amanda Alaniz said. That's the primary reason the virtual school is targeted toward Northwest Indiana students. Driving to Portage from southern Indiana to meet with a mentor would be too burdensome, Deavers noted. Portage High School has lost about 300 students to other virtual programs in recent years, Pirowski said. Recapturing some of those students is one aim of the program. 'Education is not one-size-fits-all,' Alaniz said. 'PACE Virtual School meets students where they are and empowers them to learn at their own pace while still achieving and earning their high school diploma.' Offering flexible options, including hours, online makes graduating from high school more feasible for students who might not be able to complete their schooling at a traditional school. 'Life happens, whether it's kids that need to support their families and work' or care for younger siblings, Pirowski said. Pirowski went to virtual school graduations in Michigan. 'A lot of those families didn't even think it was possible to happen for them,' he said. 'Sometimes we expel these kids, they don't come back,' Pirowski said, so keeping them engaged with virtual instruction is a good option. 'We want to serve our kids, and we want to keep our kids here in Portage,' Pirowski said. Some Portage High School students are already taking classes online. 'It's a completely different model that we have going on here,' Pirowski said. 'We went with Subject because it's a more engaged platform,' he said. 'They want to be storytellers. They want to be known as the Netflix of education.' provides flexibility for accommodating special education students with individualized education plans, including eliminating one of the options on a multiple-choice quiz, Deavers said. 'Subject does have all their own teachers. They do all their own grading, they give all their own feedback,' Pirowski said. courses are unlike some competitors because assessments tend to be more dynamic than just multiple-choice questions, he said. Multilingual opportunities are available as well. School Board member Matt Ramian asked if PACE students would be eligible for athletics. No, Pirowski said, because there could be some issues with engagement after their sport's season is over. Deavers expects to begin a marketing campaign for the new virtual school on May 1. The first day of school is set for Aug. 18. 'I think this is really going to take off,' she said.
Chicago Tribune
29-01-2025
- Health
- Chicago Tribune
Porter County commissioners split 2-1 on appointment to health board
The Porter County Board of Commissioners appointed by a 2-to-1 vote Michelle Cherry, a Republican from Portage, to serve as the newest member of the Porter County Board of Health. Commissioner Barb Regnitz, R-Center, initially nominated Democrat Amanda Alaniz, of Hobart, the superintendent of Portage Township Schools, for the position, but her nomination died for lack of a second. 'I think she'll be able to bring a fresh perspective on public health,' Regnitz said. In her application, Alaniz wrote, 'serving as superintendent of Portage Township Schools, the largest district in the county with the highest rate of students experiencing poverty, I have witnessed the critical connection between poverty, health, and access to resources.' Alaniz holds a bachelor's degree in elementary education with a literacy endorsement, a master's degree in educational leadership, and an educational doctorate. Board of Commissioners Vice President Ed Morales, R-South, then nominated Cherry, a registered nurse with 27 years of experience in medical/surgical, pediatrics, neonatal intensive care, and nursing leadership. Cherry holds a bachelor's degree in nursing from Indiana University Northwest, a master's degree in nursing from Loyola University New Orleans, and a doctorate of nursing practice in nursing administration from Indiana University Indianapolis, as well as nurse executive advanced certification. She's the assistant director of risk management and patient safety for IU Health. Board of Commissioners President Jim Biggs, R-North, seconded Morales's nomination. 'I think that if you go through the three applications there's one that really stands out because of education and experience,' he said. Cherry's appointment was approved with the majority votes of Biggs and Morales, while Regnitz voted against her appointment. It was the first of two thwartings Tuesday morning for Regnitz. In what was dubbed 'A correction to the Commissioner Appointed to the Redevelopment Commission,' Regnitz was removed from that position, which she held throughout 2024, and was reappointed at the last Board of Commissioners meeting Jan. 7, and replaced with Biggs. Morales made a motion for Biggs to be put in the role and Biggs seconded it. The two passed the change, while Regnitz voted against it. 'Historically, the president of the Board of Commissioners has always been on it,' Biggs said. When asked if that was the case why Regnitz had been appointed to the position last year Biggs replied, 'I guess just being a nice guy. Barb was interested.' Biggs said the Redevelopment Commission is going to have a 'big year' with the possible arrival of data centers in Wheeler and other projects. 'We're going to have to meet more frequently,' he said. 'It's no reflection on the job that Barb did last year.' In other business, telecommunicator Ryan Wojda was honored with a Life Long Certificate for the 15 minutes of CPR coaching he provided by phone on Oct. 29 to the loved one of a 91-year-old man that 'prolonged this patient's life, which allowed his family crucial time with their loved one,' said Porter County E911 Director Debby Gunn. 'I can't imagine,' Biggs said. 'Good job. It's not until events like that you realize the importance of what they do.' The board also gave permission to facilities director Joe Wiszowaty to explore what it would cost to bring the main floor 1871 portion of the old Porter County Jail into shape for commercial leasing. The county has already done so with the adjoining Old Sheriff's Residence which received renovations to the first floor and is now rented out as a gift shop. 'I think in a lot of ways historical buildings function better when they're occupied,' said Kevin Pazour, director of the Porter County Museum which used to occupy both spaces, and advocated for the plan. Finally, the board unanimously approved a motion to set stricter parameters on county employees' accrual of comp time. Auditor Karen Martin brought to the board's attention the fact that comp time worth approximately $215,000 has accrued for county employees. The employee handbook dictates that comp time be used within two months, but that hasn't been happening. When asked if the county could pay out the accrued time rather than allowing time off, County Attorney Scott McClure said it was an option. 'Have we endeavored on that very often?' he asked. 'No.'
