Endorsements: Sepulveda, Reyes for Triton board

West Cook County voters will be asked to choose 2 of 4 candidates to serve on the Triton College board of trustees. We endorse newcomer Roberto Sepulveda and the incumbent Jay Reyes.

Sepulveda would bring a fresh, independent outlook to the board. Besides ensuring Triton provides a variety of programs to serve a large cross-section of its residents, he thinks the college should help them with job placement. He says he will use his business background to explore partnerships with corporations for job training. He also wants to explore why students are becoming disengaged with Triton. More importantly, he will bring a diversity of thoughts and ideas to the board without any of the baggage or influences that affect longtime board members.

When Reyes was appointed last year to replace veteran Merrill Becker who resigned, he told us Triton was like home for him. He majored in the political science at Triton before moving on to University of Illinois and John Marshall Law School. While at Triton, he was president of the Student Association, among other associations. 

Continuing with his message of home, Reyes said he wants to follow the college's continuing work with Achieving the Dream grants to help address remedial education concerns among students. He's interested in seeing the college pursue health-care-related fields such as nursing and pharmaceutical.

She is the executive director of Veterans Park District, serving Melrose Park, Franklin Park and Northlake. She also owns DAL Consulting, which seeks open space grants for her client, the village of Melrose Park. In 2009, DAL was paid $30,000 from Melrose Park. Over the past 11 years she has contributed $44,500 to campaigns, including Melrose Park Mayor Ron Serpico and Triton College Chairman Mark Stephens.

Longtime board member Donna Peluso, who was appointed in 1992, could not clearly state her vision for the college's future and said she was "thrown" by the question. Her background, her income and her elected positions are dependent on her political connections.

Another patronage concern is that Peluso's Triton board oversees the college's staff including Executive Director of Marketing Tom Olson, while Olson is commissioner and treasurer of Veterans Park District, essentially directing funds for Peluso's job. We find that symbiotic relationship very troubling.

Grasmick Touts AP Progress at Arundel High

The Maryland State Superintendent of Schools touted Arundel High School as an example of the success of Advanced Placement programs, while boasting of the state’s top ranking in the seniors scoring well on AP exams.

During a visit to Arundel on Wednesday, Grasmick praised school leaders and students for the increase in AP enrollment and the rise in test scores. Members of the College Board also said Arundel was a model school for how AP classes can boost the level of education across the board.

“We’re here at a school that's really functioning, and functioning well,” Grasmick said in remarks to students and staff in the school’s media center. “I want to commend the students for their dedication, because it's a rigorous requirement, and you've to put forth a lot of effort.”

AP courses are generally viewed as more rigorous than other high school classes. Many colleges offer credit for AP exam scores of “3” or better.

For the 3rd straight year, Maryland placed first in the number of seniors scoring a “3” or better on AP exams, at 26.4 percent.

Enrollment in Advanced Placement courses at Arundel High has risen in recent years, along with exam scores. The school reported a 79 percent increase in AP enrollment from 2008 to 2011, with the number of tests administered up 136 percent since 2006. The school also said there has been an 86 percent rise in the number of students earning score of three or better on AP exams.

“At this school, nobody gets wasted, because the principal, the superintendent and the teachers that work here all care about what happens,” said Peter Negroni, a senior vice president with the College Board.

Anne Arundel County Schools Superintedent Kevin Maxwell said the number of AP students going on to take the exam has risen from 70 percent to 84 percent.

“That’s tremendously high, and it gives you confidence that the instruction isn’t hit or miss,” he said.

Senior Molly Sinnott, the student government president at Arundel, took 14 AP classes during her 4 years at the school. She was recently accepted into Yale University, and thanks to credits from AP exams, she could enter as a sophomore.

Dijon Mason, a junior, said he believed the AP classes he is taken have prepared him well for college.

“I’ve learned that stuff isn't always going to be easy,” he said. “I learned that when I go off to college, things are going to be hard, but these are ways to prepare for it.”

Tightening education budgets have forced many schools to do more with less, but Grasmick said she hopes AP classes will be retained even as school funding remains flat or declines.  She said eliminating some honors and non-AP classes could allow current AP classes to remain.

“We have some teachers teaching honors classes and Advanced Placement classes … I think we have to motivate our students and give them support, and say ‘yes, you can handle this.’ We’re going to continue to promote this.”

Meanwhile, she said the state will continue to push for greater participation in AP classes by some minority students. While African-American participation in AP classes has risen in recent years, it still stands at about ten percent, while those students make up more than twenty percent of the total student body in the state.