Roman Berger - Senior Reporter
Hello, I'm Roman Berger, and this is my first year with the 42Fifty Staff team. I am currently a Senior at Oswego High School, and plan on writing lots of articles related to the news or opinion sections. You can contact me by emailing 42Fifty@sd308.org and putting my name in the subject line. We welcome comments on our articles and feedback on our publication!
To be fair, Oswego has a long history of growth and development. This has brought more businesses and better education to the community, which has tremendously expanded the desire for movement into the village.
However, with more people comes a greater strain on the local infrastructure, specifically our roadways.
“With the construction of new subdivisions in the area, roads have been ripped up and repaved, creating traffic issues,” said Oswego citizen Joe Labuda. “Periodically, I've had to take longer detours, extending the time for commuting to work and running errands.”
Oswego continues to grow with a population of over 35,000 people, and as new developments are being built along Wolf’s Crossing and along Route 34, more pressure is added to the area’s infrastructure.
One such site is the former Traughber Junior High School, locally known as "Old Traughber," which has been used as the Oswego 308 Center, YMCA, and Senior Center. It has earned a lot of attention recently as it was sold by SD308 and is to be demolished and replaced with a residential development.
JM Development initially proposed the development to the Village Planning and Zoning Commission Sept 4. After the Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended not to approve the plan, JM Development revised it and proposed it to the Village Board of Trustees on Oct. 21, where it was unanimously approved.
Recycling practices at OH have shifted noticeably over the past several years, with the school moving towards a paper-only system. While OH previously maintained multiple bins for a variety of recyclables, staff members say those options have been removed for different reasons surrounding cost and labor limitations.
“To my understanding, we do just recycle paper," said AP Environmental Science teacher and Environmental Action Club (EAC) sponsor Zachary Horn. "A few years ago, we had other bins for plastic and aluminum as well, but my understanding is that those were removed due to mainly labor and budget issues, we didn't have enough people to collect both bins, so we had to streamline."
As the number of materials accepted in the school's bins has narrowed, questions emerged about whether the change was related to district-wide budget adjustments. A Freedom of Information Act request filed helped to determine which waste company the district contracts with and what the recycling program costs.
In most school districts, a phone policy of some sort has been in limbo throughout the last decade, in regards to how much freedom students get with their phones in the classroom.
So far in the '25-26 school year, departments at OH have created new practices for classroom management regarding cell phones. The Math, Science, and Foreign Language Departments have all gone with the same idea: students will place their phones in a designated area during class time, as instructed by the teacher.
“[[Within]] the first two weeks of school, [[teachers]] have seen everybody actually talking to each other, kids are [[having]] better communication and discussion, which has been a big push over the past couple years,” said Jon Roth, the Science Department Chair.
A new restaurant has paved its way in downtown Oswego over the summer, replacing Tap House Grill, a small restaurant chain across Kendall County which closed its doors at the Oswego location back in February.
With Taco Dale coming to...