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Restructuring path not all uphill for failing schools.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Catherine Edman

cedman@@dailyherald.com

Fire the staff, perhaps even the principal.

Reopen as a charter school.

Hire a private firm to operate your public school or find another way to otherwise significantly restructure.

Those are the options a number of DuPage County high schools are staring in the face this year: They're the penalties for failing to meet No Child Left Behind criteria a fifth consecutive time.

While they are admittedly ominous solutions, at least one school that's already met with the state says officials are willing to make them more reasonable.

The restructuring reality isn't nearly as punitive as it first appears, they contend.

Glenbard East High School Principal Bob McBride said he got two important messages from the Lombard school's first restructuring meeting.

First, the Illinois State Board of Education doesn't "have the desire to come and take over the schools, and they don't have the means." Next, the state wants to act as an intermediary between the schools and the heavy-handed federal sanctions.

In a meeting with media earlier this month, Carol Diedrichsen of the ISBE acknowledged as much.

"This is the first year...