Northwest Herald from Woodstock, Illinois • Page 13

Nst Just Joking (cEmdoIs feel otodhi of growffi Districts find ways to cope "I think we're going to see things leW, eling off," Fox River Grove Superintend dent Ron Davis said. "There are still a homes that need to be built, but I don't think that's going to increase the number of students that much." But most school officials'are paying close attention to population growth. More transfer students arrive throughout; the year, limiting classroom and auxiliary space. Se GROWTH, page 8 Most schools are facing growth spurts. Early enrollment figures show small, moderate and substantial increases in student population and there are no signs of it stopping.

"A lot more families are moving into the county," said Mary Noe, guidance director of Marengo High School District 154. Noe said she expects about 640 students will be enrolled at Marengo High School this year, up from last year's 612. Since August, the school has acquired 32 new students. "This year, we've had more families from out of state and Chicago," she said. "(Students) parents are either transferring jobs or wanting a better area to live.

And there are good schools out here." Fox River Grove District 3 and Wonder Lake's Harrison District 36 schools were the only ones seeing a slight decline in total enrollment. District 3 dropped from 665 students to 655. Harrison School has 493 attending this year, down 18 from last year. 'A Joe King Curiosity keens dad By DAVE RETSECK a. The Northwest Herald It does not matter if two, 20 or 200 students are filing into McHenry County schools.

J. Simon Franks cam wM Senator notes crowd in McHenry County new for Democrats i By OWEN R. BRUGH Herald News Service WOODSTOCK Jack Franks said he believes he will have something in common with former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon after the November elections: winning in districts dominated by Republicans.

Simon, a presidential primary candidate and Illinois Democratic elder statesman, spoke to an overflowing crowd of supporters Saturday during a fund-raising SIMON i. Deborah Y. Cannon The Northwest Herald Nathan Staller, 8, puts all his weight into his swing as he attempts to ring the bell at one of the many attractions at the Church of Holy Apostles first International Fall Festival. The festival, which features food, raffles, dancing, a beer garden and games, continues through this evening. International flavor McHenry church's fall festival features German heritage perplexed It was a perfect summer day and my 3-year-old son and I were taking advantage of the weather to enjoy a walk around the block.

We were chatting about the birds, the trees and Sammy Sosa's chances of winning the home-run title when I noticed he had become unusually quiet. Looking down at him, I realized that his mind, and his hands, were somewhere else. Ah, the joy of discovery on a young child's face. Usually it is one of the great gifts of parenthood, to observe such moments. Not so this time.

Never mind that Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan likely never were more impressed with their discoveries than Dustin was with his. This was not a magical moment. As a veteran parent I knew better than to make too big a deal out of this, but it definitely was something that needed to be addressed. "Ummm. Dustin, what's the matter, got an itch?" I asked as casually as I could.

he replied. "Something hurt?" I asked nonchalantly. "Nope," he said, just as coolly. "Well, then what are you doing?" I persisted. "I'm just checking it out, Daaaad," he said giving me a withering look and using a tone that makes me shudder at the thought of this kid as a teenager.

Now, I have heard all of the lectures and read all of the parenting articles that say this is a perfectly normal behavior. However, I would love to see how those so-called experts would handle it in aisle 3 of the supermarket. And aisle 4, and aisle 7 and again by the frozen foods. That magical moment of discovery has turned into a full-fledged expedition that shows no sign of ending soon. Our first strategy was to simply ignore it, hoping that this new fascination quickly would fade away.

Yeah, right. Then we took to trying to correct him gently, explaining concepts like privacy and appropriateness as simply as we could and being careful not to say or do anything that might harm his self-image. That worked almost as well as PlanA. Finally, after a few dozen embarrassing moments in public, we have fallen back on the tried and true method of screaming at the top of our lungs and making threats that we never actually could carry out. It is a two edged sword: on the one hand, it has proved rather effective; on the other, we probably have scared the kid for life.

We are hoping that by the time he has to go into therapy to sort out the psychoses we are inflicting upon him, he will be old enough to have his own insurance plan. Anyway, we are hoping that strategy can get us through to winter when snow pants and mittens will help to keep him from pursuing this new l)Obby on a full-time basis. Of course, there still is the frightening prospect he might never grow out of this. If that's the case, it likely will limit his career options. He could become a baseball player (such behavior not only is tolerated, but apparently expected), a pop-staging sensation (hey, look what it did for Michael Jackson's career), or he could become president of the United States.

Hmm, faced with those options, I think I'd better start teaching the kid how to hit a curvebalL Joe King is a former Northwest Herald community editor breakfast at Pub on the Square. Because of overcrowding concerns, the more than 300 bipartisan Franks sup-" porters moved to the Square's gazebo to hear Simon and Franks speak. "I won in a district, when I started in politics, where (Democrats) are not supj: posed to win, and Jack is in the same situation," Simon said. "I wasn't supposed to have a chance. It was, a district like this where people will show independence and lift up a great leader," Before the rally, Simon stood outside the eatery, wearing a trademark green and black striped bow tie and greeting each Franks supporter as they walked over to the gazebo.

Simon is familiar with the uphill battle Franks must fight as Democratic candi-" date for the 63rd state legislative district When Simon ran for re-election to the51-Senate in 1990, McHenry County was one' of only two counties he did not carry. "When I was running for the U.S. Senate, we never got a crowd like this in McHenry County," he said. In his speech, Franks pledged to hold himself to three terms in the Illinois House. He also pledged to work for "real campaign finance reform," an issue close to Simon's heart.

To demonstrate the need for finance reform, Simon told a story from his Sen-i ate days involving legislation that was in a conference committee. Vw basketball skills in a free-throw-shooting contest. Or, they can race fish. The "Sharlr Attack" game has children scoop out a minnow and place it in a gutter filloa with water. "'We lip to call it a canal," said Rox-anne DuUum, resident "shark" keeper.

Therp are five gutters. Once each child has put a fish in their gutters, the fish race. The children use popsicle sticks to help move the fish along. "But they can't touch them with the sticks," Dullum said. For adults, the festival offers a beer tent, music and DJs all day.

Today a German band will play from 5 to 9 p.m. The festival also has a dunk tank. The Rev. Robert Sherry will be all wet from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. "I really think this has a lot to offer, I'm surprised it's this big," said church parishioner Lisa Coughlin, as she walked with her 6-year-old daughter, Theresa.

"Are you ready to win more awesome toys?" Coughlin asked her daughter! By BRIAN SLUPSKI The Northwest Herald When you have only been around nine years, it's hard to have established traditions. But, the Church of Holy Apostles is hoping to change that this weekend with its first fall festival. "This is our first annual German festival," volunteer Barb Schatz said with a laugh. "We're hoping to raise some money for the church, but the real goal is to bring the community together," she said. With the smell of bratwurst wafting through the air, German music playing over the sound system and men dressed in lederhosen selling beverages in the beer tent, it was hard to miss the festival's theme.

"We want this to be sort of an international festival, with a different country being represented every year," said Nick BegroWfczi vhb Organized the Hebron pulls "We're not doing this so much to make money, but to be a part of the community." Nick Begrowicz Event organizer "We're not doing this so much to make money, but to be a part of the community," Begrowicz said. "We're kind of out here by ourselves and I've had people say to me that they see this church on the corner, but they don't know much about it." The Church of Holy Apostles was established in 1989, Begrowicz said. Tl church moved into its building at S21 1 W. Bull Valley Road in 1993. The two-day festival ends today and goes from 12:30 to 9 p.m.

"Because we're such a young parish we have a lot of things geared toward kids," Begrowicz said. Children can test their marksmanship with a cork gun or show off their out stops 'V- Hebron High for homecoming parade School graduate of A 1930, Ethel -Pbpphagen, as the aid HebrtDh 'graduate of 193S, Mary Kuecker, make their way down St Albans Street during the high school's homecoming parade. Those who came to see the parade could view It again by walking a block east By BRIAN SLUPSKI The Northwest Herald HEBRON Residents on Saturday lined the street for Alden-Hebron High School's homecom-ing parade. "It's not a real big parade, but at least you get to see it twice," Terri Bohl said before the parade. The parade moved north on Illinois Street several blocks, then cut over to St Albans Street, heading south toward the high school.

This allows parade-watchers to walk a block east and see the parade a second time. As the parade began, the camcorders came out and children began to smile and wave, hoping to have a handful of candy tossed their way. "Half the town is in the parade, the other half watches," resident Mark Arthur said. a- As Arthur spoke, his two children, Leah, 6, and Alex, 4, tied shopping bags on sticks, and walked about waving them and saying, "We're in a parade!" See HEBRON, page 8 Deborah Y.Cannon.