A final and resounding "no" presented Mike Suhadolnik of Construx and the Savannah Green project with an even further uphill battle at Monday night’s DeKalb School Board Meeting.

School Board President Don Robinson said, without any arguments from the rest of the board, they support the resolution sent to the city council and planning commission to reject the Savannah Green project.

"This school district can’t afford new growth," Robinson said. "While it is a nice plan, I couldn’t possibly support it, and I hope I’m supported by the board members at this table."

Suhadolnik said in order to build the K-5 school within their proposed subdivision would mean sacrificing the space designated for the local community center. He said because property owners would have to pay taxes for the school, it wouldn’t be feasible for them to pay taxes toward two different facilities.

"We turned over to benefit the school district so that the money from these homes would go to the new school," Suhadolnik said.

He added that Construx is trying to appease its plan in a fashion that would suit DeKalb’s best interests. The plan would include a school for K-5; however, the major issue lies within the high school, not so much the grade schools. A problem school board member Mike Griesbaum felt could cause the high schools to overcrowd even further in the future.

School board member Don Gladden said he favored the development but his eventual disapproval of it rests on the poor timing of the proposal.

"The timing is abominable for us," said school board member Sue Hildebrandt.

Robinson told Suhadolnik that until the state’s funding changes or improves, District 428 would be a developer-unfriendly environment.

Once all voices were heard, Suhadolnik and the Savannah Green plan was given its final recommendation from the school board.

"The resolution says we oppose the Savannah Green development despite a gracious effort to build a school," Robinson said. "We bluntly reject your offer."

Not helping the Savannah Green argument were state numbers presented by Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance MeriAnn Besonen. The Illinois School Board ranks 48 in the share of school funding provided to the state’s school districts. Even more alarming is the 38 percent of money spent toward education in which by law the state is to spend at least 51 percent. Also, 81 percent of school districts in the state are operating on a deficit budget.

"To be honest with you, it looks bleak," said Besonen in regard to the future of the state’s spending toward education in correlation with its $5 billion deficit. "The education system needs a change."

Superintendent Brian Ali informed the board on the district’s impact with Mayor Greg Sparrow’s Growth Summit committee. At next Tuesday’s summit meeting, Ali said the school board would speak on their behalf.

Old man winter isn't allowing us to forget that he's still boss and will remain in the driver's seat for quite some time now.

Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow Sunday afternoon, which let everyone know that there are six weeks of winter still ahead.

NIU's staff meteorologist, Gilbert Sebenste, urges students to be extra careful today, considering it will be wintry and blustery all day long.

"It's going to be an absolutely nasty day," Sebenste said. "There won't be a lot of snow; however, there will be strong, gusty winds reaching 40 mph or maybe even higher. When that powdery snow gets stirred by those fierce winds, the feeling won't be all that pleasant."

Sebenste predicts that the snowfall should end by 9 a.m., with an accumulation of no more than 2 inches. Temperatures will drop into the mid teens for the remainder of the day, and the addition of strong winds will result in a wind-chill well below zero degrees. Today will be a classic bundle-up scenario, Sebenste said.

Students driving into DeKalb should try to avoid Annie Glidden Road north of town, and should use caution on Routes 38, 64 and 72.

"The strong winds blowing and drifting the powdery snow will lead to dangerous driving conditions," Sebenste said. "I recommend taking I-88 for both the commute to and from Northern."

On Monday, while many NIU students braved the foggy conditions on campus, students at Illinois State University in Bloomington had 50-degree weather, as well as severe thunderstorms.

"They were in the warm sector of the storm," Sebenste said. "We get this mess with fog, which is literally just clouds on the ground produced by a lot of Gulf moisture in the air. The fog should have dissipated Monday night as soon as the cold air arrived," Sebenste said.

Sebenste said we were lucky to miss the near blizzard conditions that parts of Wisconsin and Michigan had Monday afternoon.

The question that remains regards any possible warm-up for students who brave the trek to classes. According to Sebenste, there isn't one in sight any time soon.

"We might hit the upper 20s next Saturday," Sebenste said. "We are definitely in an icy grip of winter for the next 10 days."

This type of weather is normal for this time of year, Sebenste said. We usually don't see any type of increasing temperatures until about March, which means a whole month more of cold temps.