Editor’s note

“We are too smart to be this dumb about education,” says Bob Ogden, part of the group “Save CCPA” that is working to reverse the District 186 school board’s unfortunate decision to close the Capital College Preparatory Academy. Save CCPA is using the all-American approach of appealing to the ballot box – trying to elect candidates in the April 9 school board election who favor a better approach to budget cutting. (See Patrick Yeagle’s report on page 8.) If you still don’t know how your candidate stands on school issues, there are candidate forums March 22 and April 2. Springfi eld Park District board seats are also up for election April 9, but so far candidates have little or nothing to say about the loose fi nancial practices that have gone unchecked by the current board. (See “Red fl ags aplenty,” by Bruce Rushton, page 9.) The park district could use some citizen involvement, CCPA-style, to hold candidates’ feet to the fi re. – Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher