Seven monks from St. Procopius Abbey filed a lawsuit against Benedictine University alleging that the university denied them several rights as members, including the right to interview presidential candidates and vote for the new president. The monks object to being excluded from the selection process that led to the appointment of Michael Brophy as the new president. University spokeswoman Mercy Robb said the university welcomes clarification from the lawsuit.

1. D
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 Big Picture • Local Focus $1.00
Paddock Publications • 143rd Year • No. 252
DuPage County
dailyherald.com
By Justin Kmitch
jkmitch@dailyherald.com
Seven monks from Lisle’s St. Procopius
Abbey filed a lawsuit Monday against Benedic-
tine University’s board of trustees and its presi-
dent, William J. Carroll.
In the complaint, filed in DuPage County,
the monks allege the Lisle-based university has
denied them several of their rights as members
of the university, including the right to inter-
view job candidates and vote for the universi-
ty’s new president.
The board of trustees announced June 9 that
Michael A. Brophy, president of Marymount
California University, had been selected as the
Benedictine’s next president, to replace the
retiring Carroll.
“I do not object to the selection of Dr. Brophy
as the next president, but we do strongly object
to the process by which he was chosen. The
members were not even allowed to interview
the candidates for the position,” St. Procopius’
Abbot Austin Murphy, who is also Benedictine
University’s chancellor, said in a written state-
ment. “The exclusion of the members from
this important process is contrary to our gover-
nance policies and this pattern of behavior by
the current board of trustees must be remedied
immediately.”
University spokeswoman Mercy Robb said
the university welcomes the clarification
sought by the suit.
Monks sue
Benedictine
over rights
See Sue on Page 6
Chattering students stream through the front door at Sunny Hill Elemen-
tary School in Carpentersville.
They pass Principal Irma Bates, playfully tugging on each other’s back-
packs and scampering toward the cafeteria, where a hot breakfast awaits.
“Hola, hello, hello, hola,” Bates calls over the din, welcoming her nearly
400 students in their
native language.
Although not gen-
erally recognized as
an academic high-performer, Sunny Hill — where 94 percent of students
are considered low-income — is a standout when measured by the Daily
Herald/WBEZ Poverty-Achievement Index, which assesses school perfor-
mance based on income.
At Sunny Hill School in Carpentersville, where 94% of the students are low-income,
the formula for academic success starts with making sure kids have enough to eat.
B r i a n H i l l / bhill@dailyherald.com
Nora Carranza works with parents at Sunny Hill who are learning English. More than 85 percent of the student body is Hispanic.
‘YOU HAVE TO
BELIEVE IN KIDS’
MORE ONLINE
See how
your schools
measure up at
dailyherald.com/
lowincome
GUEST VIEW
An award-winning
teacher of
low-income
students on
helping students
find “what
success feels
like.” Page 8.
YOUR VIEW?
Write us a letter —
see how on Page 8.
Meeting the challenge
TODAY: A school
that beats the odds
DAY 3: Chaos to successDAY 1: Lower income,
lower outcome
DAY 4: What next
“These are all our kids.”
— Sunny Hill Principal
Irma Bates
A Carpentersville school with
94% low-income students is
nevertheless making the grade.
How Tefft Middle School
transformed itself from a
school in chaos to one chil-
dren call “life-changing.”
Exploring the strong ties
between poverty and
achievement.
Policymakers on helping
low-income children
succeed; State Supt. Tony
Smith talks about the larger
implications of poverty.
B r i a n H i l l / bhill@dailyherald.com
• Follow the series at www.dailyherald.com/topics/Generations-At-Risk #GenerationsAtRisk
Our Promise To Our Kids
Generations at Risk
By Melissa Silverberg • msilverberg@dailyherald.com
At Illinois schools with 90 to 100 percent of
their student body classified as low-income,
only 38.4 percent of them on average met or
exceeded standards on 2014 state standardized tests.
At Sunny Hill, however, 56.4 percent “passed,”
making it one of the few low-income suburban
schools performing significantly higher than others
with similar demographics. What’s more, Sunny Hill
has been above the average since 2010.
Parents and teachers say the commitment of time
and resources well beyond the average school day is
what makes Sunny Hill students succeed against the
odds stacked against nearly all of them.
Sunny Hill is very different from the rest of Bar-
rington Area Unit District 220 schools. More than
half of the students speak a language other than Eng-
lish at home. Nearly 30 percent of them are classified
under special education guidelines and have indi-
vidual education plans. More than 90 percent of the
students are minorities — Hispanics make up 84 per-
cent of the school body.
Bates ticks off the challenges: Students who come
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100%
NEW ISAT
CUT SCORES*
ABOVEAVERAGEBELOWAVERAGE
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
NEW ISAT
CUT SCORES*
ISAT percent
meets/exceeds
Percent
low income
Percent
minority
Sunny Hill Elementary School
As traditionally compared to all other elementary schools,
Sunny Hill’s ISAT scores don’t stand out.
But compared to other schools with a similar percentage of low income
students, Sunny Hill has had rising ISAT scores even as their share of
low-income students has increased. In 2014, they were in the top ten
percent in the state among schools in the same low-income range.
How Sunny Hill compares to the average
How high or low Sunny Hill’s ISAT score is compared to the average for
all schools with similiar percentages of low-income students, according
to the Daily Herald Poverty-Achievement Index.
DAILY HERALD
* Starting with 2013 scores, the state raised test cut scores. Generally, student scores didn’t
change but those same scores may not have met the new state standard.
Source: Daily Herald analysis of Illinois State Report Card data
0 = AVERAGE
But compared to other schools with a similar percentage of low-income
students, Sunny Hill has had rising ISAT scores even as its share of
low-income students has increased. In 2014, it was in the top 10 per-
cent in the state among schools in the same low-income range.
* Starting with 2013 scores, the state raised test cut scores, making it tougher for students to
meet or exceed state standards.
See Believe on Page 4
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Index
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Business 3-1
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Actor vs. athlete
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Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. — South
Carolina’s governor declared
Monday that the Confederate
flag should be removed from
the Statehouse grounds as she
acknowledged that its use as a
symbol of hatred by the man
accused of killing nine black
church members has made it too divisive to
display in such a public space.
Gov. Nikki Haley’s about-face comes
just days after authorities charged Dylann
Storm Roof, 21, with murder. The white man
appeared in photos waving Confederate flags
and burning or desecrating U.S. flags, and pur-
portedly wrote of fomenting racial violence.
Survivors told police he hurled racial insults
during the attack.
“He hoped his actions would start a race war.
We have an opportunity to show that not only
was he wrong, but that just the opposite is hap-
pening,” Haley said, flanked by Democrats and
Republicans, blacks and whites who joined her
call.
“My hope is that by removing a symbol that
divides us, we can move our state forward in
harmony, and we can honor the nine blessed
souls who are now in Heaven,” Haley said.
The massacre inside the Emanuel African
Methodist Episcopal Church has suddenly
made removing the flag — long thought politi-
cally impossible in South Carolina — the go-to
position, even for conservative Republican
politicians.
Haley was flanked by Republican U.S. Sen.
Lindsey Graham, now running for president,
as well as South Carolina’s junior Republican
‘Symbol
that
divides’
S.C. governor calls
for Confederate
flag to be removed
Nikki Haley
See Symbol on Page 7

2. Page 4 Section 1 Daily Herald Tuesday, June 23, 2015Our Promise To Our Kids
D
Continued from Page 1
to school hungry are more
likely to get sick and be less
able to concentrate. Parents
who don’t speak English can’t
help their children with home-
work or expand their vocabu-
lary in conversation. Students
who aren’t sure where they
will sleep each night are more
likely to skip school and fall
behind.
Sunny Hill administrators
can’t change the demograph-
ics, but they are willing to go
well outside the normal school
day to give their kids a brighter
future.
“Instead of saying we can’t
control what happens outside
ofschool,wesay,‘Whatcanwe
do?’”Batessaid.
What Sunny Hill and Dis-
trict 220 try to do is address the
difficulties students face, in or
out of the classroom — provid-
ing healthy food to get families
through the weekend, employ-
ing teachers who make home
visits, and turning the school
into a community hub with
dental clinics for families and
ESLclassesforparents.
“We do a little bit of every-
thing,” Bates said. “This is not
justabouttheschoolday.”
Classes stay small
After the free breakfast, stu-
dents move to classrooms,
some bilingual and some
English-only.
Class sizes at Sunny Hill are
small — 15 students on aver-
age per third-grade class ver-
sus the district average of 20
— which allows for more indi-
vidual attention and small
group work. Bilingual classes
are required by state law to be
smaller yet, just 80 percent of a
school’sregularclasssize.
Marisa Guzman’s bilingual
fourth-grade class is work-
ing on shoe box dioramas of
homes, and the kids are plug-
ging in batteries and circuits to
learnaboutelectricity.
A student asks a question
in one language and Guzman
answersintheother.
To accommodate the large
number of students who are
learning English, three-fourths
of the staff are certified in ESL
and many are native Spanish
speakers, including the front
office personnel who talk with
parentsdaily.
Sunny Hill children are not
expected to forget Spanish but
to improve their skills in both
languages.
“It’s good for the brain,”
Bates said. “We are trying
to create bilateral, bilingual
learners.”
Second-language learn-
ing is a lifelong endeavor, said
Bates, who spoke only Spanish
until she was in kindergarten.
Born to northern Mexican par-
ents in Laredo, Texas, her fam-
ily migrated north to Chicago,
settling in the Lakeview-Wrig-
leyville area. “It’s something
that is always going to be a part
ofyou,”sheadded.
One boy in Guzman’s class
has installed a tiny bunk bed
in his diorama. He points to
anotherboy.
“I sleep with him,” he says.
The two aren’t related, but like
many in the school their fami-
lies have doubled up to save
onhousingcosts.
Nikki Trudeau’s first-grade
class is playing reading games
on school laptops, technology
many don’t have access to at
home.
High school and middle
school students in District 220
have iPads or MacBooks they
can take home to help bridge
the digital divide. Next year,
some elementary students will
getthem,too.Lastyearthedis-
trict started a program called
Project Horsepower that works
with Comcast to bring the
Internet to the homes of low-
incomestudentsforfree.
Kelly Mayorga’s second-
grade bilingual class is read-
ing a story in Spanish about a
bird and learning how to ask
good questions related to what
they’ve read. Before starting,
one student says in English,
“I’mgoingtotrymybest.”
The rest of the class gives
himaroundofapplause.
Mayorga moves from small
grouptosmallgroup,checking
theircomprehension.
It’s time for a snack and
Mayorga asks who didn’t bring
onefromhome.
While most of the class pulls
out yogurt, bananas or granola
bars, four students raise their
hands.
Mayorga quietly distributes
pretzels she has stored in her
classroom closet to those stu-
dentswithoutandgoesbackto
thelesson.
Above and beyond
In a small classroom, where
college banners hang over-
head, a group of 10 students
works on algebra problems.
This is Nancy Kontney’s fifth-
grade advanced math class.
The multiplication tables are
paintedinorangeandblackon
the wall outside the classroom.
Kontney and her students did
thatthemselves.
“In this kind of school
there’s not a lot of attention for
the gifted students, but they do
great things,” said Kontney,
who teaches reading and math
inSpanishandEnglish.
Kontney taught for more
than 20 years in another Dis-
trict 220 school but asked to
transfer to Sunny Hill. In 2008
she was named a Golden
Apple winner as one of the
best teachers in the state. “This
(school) is the best kept secret
inthedistrict,”shesaid.
Kontney’s reading class
studies “Crossing the Wire,” a
novel about crossing the bor-
der from Mexico to the United
States, and “House on Mango
Street,” about a young Latina
growingupinChicago.
Before last year Kontney
had never been able to place
any of her students in middle
school honors math. Last year
she sent four; next year she will
send eight. For the first time
this year she took Sunny Hill
students to a districtwide Math
Olympiad competition. They
didn’t win, but that’s not why
theywent.
“We have to widen the
doors of education for them
and show them what’s pos-
sible,” she said. “You have a
whole world out there wait-
ing for you and it goes beyond
Carpentersville.”
That’s why Kontney and
another teacher, Lori Ford,
organize trips to colleges for
their elementary students,
many of whom have never
seenacollegecampus.
Not too long ago, Arturo
Guerrero was one of those stu-
dents. His parents never went
to college. They never got past
sixth grade. But growing up,
Guerrero constantly heard
how important education
wouldbetohisfuture.
“They came to this country
so I could have a better life. My
dad always said he didn’t want
me to work a manual labor job
like him,” Guerrero remem-
bers. “Whenever I didn’t want
to do my school work they
wouldremindme.”
Guerrero is well on his way
to that better life. He just fin-
ished his freshman year study-
ing computer science at the
UniversityofIllinoisatUrbana-
Champaign with the help of
loans, scholarships and the
37 credit hours he was able to
earnwhilestillinhighschool.
He still keeps in touch with
Ford and comes back to Sunny
Hill to share his experience
withthestudentsthere.
“There’s no reason not to
try,”hetellsthem.
That doesn’t mean there
aren’tchallenges.
One third-grader who
recently moved here from
Mexico earned the highest
score in the school on a recent
math assessment, but her lack
ofEnglishisholdingherback.
“We have to unearth it. We
have to figure out what to do
to make that child successful,”
Kontney said. “It’s not because
they’re not smart. It’s about
breaking through the barriers
theyface.”
To assist them, Kontney and
many other teachers at Sunny
Hill make home visits. This
year she focused on families
of her third-grade math class
— bringing learning games
for them to play at home and
encouraging parents to model
and teach as they go through
theday.
“They are very loving, but
... their first priority is work-
ing and putting food on the
table,” she said. “It’s powerful
to go into their houses and feel
likeyouareapartofthefamily.
They share their tamales with
me.”
More than a school
On this Thursday morn-
ing, seven parents sit around a
tableinthebasementofSunny
HillSchool,learningEnglish.
Believe: Parents get language lessons, too
PROFILE
Sunny Hill Elementary School
2014 enrollment: 477 | Grades served: K-5
Student demographics
White 10.5%
Black 2.1%
Hispanic 83.9%
Asian 0.4%
Multiple races 3.1%
Native American,
native Hawaiian, other 0
Per pupil spending
Instruction: $9,039
Operations: $15,040
Low income*
(Eligible for free
or reduced-
price lunch)
93.5%
LEP
(Eligible for
bilingual
education):
50.1%
IEP
(Eligible for
special ed
services):
29.8%
* Also includes students who live in substitute care or whose families receive public aid.
Source: Illinois State Report Card data
DAILY HERALD
PROFILE
Sunny Hill Elementary School
2014 enrollment: 477 | Grades served: K-5
Student demographics
White 10.5%
Black 2.1%
Hispanic 83.9%
Asian 0.4%
Multiple races 3.1%
Native American,
native Hawaiian, other 0
Per pupil spending
Instruction: $9,039
Operations: $15,040
Low income*
(Eligible for free
or reduced-
price lunch)
93.5%
LEP
(Eligible for
bilingual
education):
50.1%
IEP
(Eligible for
special ed
services):
29.8%
* Also includes students who live in substitute care or whose families receive public aid.
Source: Illinois State Report Card data
DAILY HERALD
B r i a n H i l l / bhill@dailyherald.com
Sunny Hill parent Melchor Nevarez says he takes his own
English studies as seriously as his son’s grades.
See POVERTY on Page 5
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3. Continued from Page 4
Nora Carranza, teacher
and parent-liaison, leads
them through a workbook
lesson that will help them
run errands. They learn the
English words for cashier,
mechanic and waiter. They
practice ordering coffee.
In the back of the class-
room six siblings too young for
school play with blocks under
the watchful eye of a volun-
teer, so their parents can come
to class without worrying
about affording a baby sitter.
“I need to learn Eng-
lish because I live in a coun-
try where that is the first lan-
guage. I need it to talk to my
son’s teachers, his doctors,
everywhere,” said Melchor
Nevarez, the only dad in the
class of seven this morning.
Nevarez takes his own grades
and attendance at ESL classes
as seriously as the education
for his fourth-grade son.
The adults move from
beginner to more advanced
classes and have a gradua-
tion at the end of the year to
celebrate.
Araceli Sanchez has seven
children in District 220
schools, including one at
Sunny Hill.
“I need to help my chil-
dren with their homework
and communicate with their
teachers,” she said.
While parents are down-
stairs, about a dozen volun-
teers are in the school caf-
eteria packing bags of food.
Apples, pudding, oatmeal,
tuna, granola bars and canned
goods, all donated by grocery
stores such as Mariano’s or
collected by Barrington Chil-
dren’s Charities, are put into
350 bags. Nearly every Sunny
Hill student will take one
home that afternoon to sup-
plement the family’s food for
the weekend.
The program, Blessings in a
Backpack, is in its third year in
District 220. Many volunteers
packing the bags are recipi-
ents themselves.
“Sometimes we don’t have
things to make, but a can of
soup or tuna, we can make a
meal out of that,” said Petra
Aguillera, through a transla-
tor. Her grandson is in fourth
grade at Sunny Hill. “We’re
very grateful.”
Angela Cook, president
of the Sunny Hill PTA, helps
pack the bags and deliver fruit
to classrooms. Her daugh-
ter will bring home a back-
pack for them as well. Cook
goes to the local food pantry
once a month, but she said the
weekly help from the school is
a source of relief.
“The fact that we have extra
food is wonderful,” Cook said.
“It helps make up for what we
can’t afford.”
Cook also delivers contain-
ers of grapes to each class-
room as part of a grant-funded
program the school does on
Tuesdays and Thursdays to
get more healthy food in their
students’ diets, as studies
show obesity is more common
among children in poverty.
District 220 frequently
holds districtwide programs
at Sunny Hill rather than Bar-
rington High School, as Sunny
Hill parents are more com-
fortable coming to what has
become more of a community
hub than a school.
“We work with what the
parents can do,” Bates said.
That includes holding confer-
ences as late as 9 p.m., having
school improvement nights
in two languages and hosting
events on Friday nights when
parents are free from work.
Students can take home
any books they want from the
Free Little Library, unique to
Sunny Hill, and return them
any time.
The school nurse acts as an
intermediary to make sure
families, documented or not,
know how to get health insur-
ance or immediate care. Free
family dental clinics are set up
at the school several times a
year.
The school day ends at 3:40
p.m., but more than a quarter
of Sunny Hill students stay an
extrathreehourstoparticipate
in the Boys and Girls Club,
paid for with federal Title I
money. Families pay $25 for
an entire year of the program,
which includes supervision,
tutoring and dinner for stu-
dents five nights a week.
“There are some standard
things that we take for granted
that a child in a middle-class
environment has,” Bates said.
“What they don’t have, we try
to provide.”
Opportunity gap
For all of Sunny Hill’s suc-
cess, there still is a long way to
go. Nearly half of the students
are still scoring below stan-
dardsonstatetests.
Bates said all the interven-
tion at school still can’t solve
every problem for these chil-
dren, who often have big-
ger issues to face than mak-
ing sure their homework gets
doneeachnight.
“Children bring everything
to school,” she said. “Some-
times their mind isn’t nec-
essarily at a math lesson;
it’s, ‘Do we have a safe place
tonight?’”
The achievement gap often
seen at schools like Sunny Hill
is not about ability, Bates said,
butopportunity.
Low-income families don’t
visit museums or libraries
very often, and parents aren’t
home as much to expose their
children to reading, books or
activities that are common in
higher-incomehouseholds.
“It’s not just the size of the
house. It’s the experiences
our kids are lacking,” Kontney
said.
Students can quickly fall
behind when learning doesn’t
happen at home, but Bates
refuses to use that as an
excuse.
“Some might say that these
are things they should be
learning at home, but we can
teach them,” she said. “A lot of
teachersherehavereallytaken
ownership for the children
here.Theseareallourkids.”
Teachers run after-school
activities, paint their own
classrooms, text-message par-
ents and stay in touch beyond
thewallsoftheschool.
It’s not unusual for them to
attend a quinceañera for a for-
mer student, or help fill out
financial aid forms and college
applications.
“It’s a little nontraditional,”
Batessays,“butitworks.”
“It is all about reaching
excellence in academics, but
you won’t be able to get to the
learning if you don’t make a
childfeelcomfortable,getfood
in their stomach and address
theirbasicneeds,”shesaid.
Bates said other schools
with low-income students can
achieve their results, but only
with a more holistic approach
toeducation.
“You can do it, but you have
to believe in kids,” she said.
“You have to believe they
are capable of truly reaching
excellence.”
Daily Herald Section 1 Page 5Tuesday, June 23, 2015 Our Promise To Our Kids
A
Poverty: Volunteers help ensure kids are fed
ON THE AIR TODAY
Sunny Hill
Principal Irma Bates is
a guest on “Morning
Shift” from 9 to 10 a.m.
on WBEZ public radio,
91.5-FM.
B r i a n H i l l / bhill@dailyherald.com
Volunteer Tracy Mylin of Barrington carries bags filled with food out of Sunny Hill Elementary in Carpentersville for students to
take home over the weekend.