The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 4

A4 THE PANTAGRAPH, Saturday, Nov. 27, 1993 Livingston group helps parents deal with effects of divorce TONY PARKER Pontiac bureau chief PONTIAC Divorced parents have an additional opportunity to ut their "Children First" through a group designed to help adults deal with the problems divorce creates for their children. The "Parenting After Divorce" meetings that began earlier this month grew out of written from participants in the First program. Children First became mandatory in June 1992 for divorce-'seeking parents with minor chil dren, said Faye Leach, who is a facilitator for both Livingston County programs. After watching six five-minute Children First videotapes during two hourlong sessions with a mediator, many of the more than 250 participants said they hadn't fully realized how divorce affects their children.

That feedback led to formation of the new group, which is operated by the Livingston County Commission, on Children and Youth and takes a deeper look at many of the same issues. "I think we don't look at kids having real problems until they are such problems we're desperate," Ms. Leach said. The Parenting After Divorce group, which meets from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays of every month, focuses on those problems and strategies for preventing them.

The meetings are at the Salvation Army Community Room at 112 N. Division St, Pontiac. "Children don't know how to deal with pain, but they sure know how to misbehave," said Ms. Leach, adding that she hopes the program will "help these parents to see their kids as just normal children experiencing pain." The meetings are very informal and are open to divorced adults with children and others who have close contact with the children, such as grandparents or one of the parent's boyfriends or girlfriends. Area residents can participate in the meetings at any time, because there is no specific beginning or end to the program.

Each meeting includes time for discussion of problems, brainstorming for problem-solving options, sharing of ideas and experi ences and refreshments. Guest speakers also will be scheduled periodically, Ms. Leach said. "The format can be different every single night It's trying to meet the needs of the people who are there," she explained. Topics for discussion are almost limitless, but Ms.

Leach said some likely ones include visitation schedules, child support changes in behaviors or moods, dealing with two households and two sets of rules, the normal grief cycle and ways to resolve anger and resentment Funding for the group's activities comes from donations made by the United Way of Pontiac, Community Chest of Dwight, United Community Fund of Fairbury, Saint James Hospital, the Paul Panno Memorial Run, Institute for Human Resources, The Salvation Army and the Livingston County Commission on Children and Youth. Members of the Parenting After Divorce organizing committee are Ms. Leach, Joseph Delaney Norma Oberholtzer, Joe Ron-aldson, Gina Popp, Jack Bristow, Stephen Tock and Carol Flessner. Strike possibility looms in districts With support pacts 'Prior to the strike, she (Tri-Valley teacher JoAnne O'Dell) had always been an excellent teacher. After the strike (the district said) she's no longer an excellent teacher they lowered her rating all the way Ralph Perillo, IEA field representative WmmL XJA ftc.

-m Tr PantagraplVSTEVE SMEOLEY Signs of winter Above, a cow slowly grazed west of Danvers in a pasture that was covered with ice after yesterday's freezing rain. Below, Ice covered weeds along a farmer's driveway. Right, Jenny Viano, a sophomore at Coal City High School, managed to cheer for her team despite frigid temperatures yesterday afternoon at the Illinois High School Association Class 2A football championship at Hancock Stadium in Normal. Jenny wore earmuffs, thick knit gloves and a scarf to stay warm while Coal City went on to win the 2A title. By KAREN HANSEN Pantagraph staff I All Central Illinois teachers' 'unions have contracts for this School year, but the possibility of a strike still exists in one district Two area support staff unions Remain without a contract Fieldcrest support staff and Bloomington District 87 teaching assistants.

In Fieldcrest, the two sides will begin mediation, and one union official said there is a potential for a strike. Meanwhile, a recent arbitrator's decision said the Tri-Valley school district violated its teachers' contract for an unfavorable evaluation given to a teacher active in the union's 1992 strike. In Fieldcrest, about 60 members of, -the support staff union have been without a contract since the district's inception in July 1992, according to Ralph Perillo, field representative with the Illinois Education Association in Bloomington. 1 A bargaining session this week failed to produce an agreement and, as a result, the two sides will begin mediation. When asked about the possibility of a strike, Perillo acknowledged the possibility exists and added, "We're doing everything we can to avoid it, but it takes two parties to make a settlement" Disrupt classes A strike of support staff which includes cooks, custodians, secretaries, teaching assistants and bus drivers could disrupt classes.

But Superintendent Jerry Chris-tensen was optimistic the two sides could come together. "I've been around union rhetoric," he said. "They go around painting doom and gloom. That's part of their strategy." Perillo said the main issue is putting staff members from the three former districts Minonk-Dana-Rutland, Toluca and Wenona on a single salary schedule. Right now, he said, employees still are being paid on schedules from their old districts, which differ as much as $8,000 annually "for people doing exactly the same job but in a different building," Perillo said.

Christensen said the district wants to phase in the uniformity. "The board is saying that's too much of a jump," he said. In addition, Christensen said, the union supports a fair-share provision, which would require nonunion members to pay for union services. The board opposes that 1 The union also wants insurance available for people working a minimum of 25 hours a week; the board believes 30 hours should be the cutoff. Overall, the two sides are about $50,000 apart in their last propos- Eclipse again shifts eyes to night sky By CHERIE KNAPP Pantagraph staff Last year, Mother Nature's Christmas gift to Central 111-inoisans was such a big hit that she decided to give it again just a little earlier.

Illinois State University Planetarium director Carl Wenning said a total lunar eclipse will occur just before 11 p.m. Sunday to entertain late-nighters. Although witnessing the eclipse of the moon is fairly rare, he said Twin City residents "just got lucky" last year when one occurred in December. 1 They're rare because they might take place during daylight hours or occur on the other side of the world. If the sky is clear Sunday night Wenning said, the event can be observed by the unaided eye.

But if a person wants more assistance in seeing the eclipse, the r- ftp 'I JJN als, the superintendent said. The union's last offer included a 15 percent salary and benefits increase over three years. The district's offer totaled 13.5 percent A date for the first mediation session is expected to be scheduled next week, Perillo said. Meanwhile, the picture is brighter in District 87, where between 50 and 60 teaching assistants also are negotiating their first contract The school district and the union will meet Tuesday. Mike Gibler, another field representative with the IEA in Bloomington, described the session as a "potential settlement meeting." Some issues left Most of the contract language has been completed, Gibler said, adding some issues dealing with seniority and the definition of the workday still must be ironed out In the Tri-Valley school district matter, an arbitrator recently found the district violated its teachers' contract after giving one teacher active in the union's 1992 strike an unfavorable performance review.

"Prior to the strike, she had always been an excellent teacher," Perillo said of JoAnne O'Dell, former president of the Tri-Valley teachers' union. "After the strike (the district said) she's no longer an excellent teacher they lowered her rating all the way through." The union filed a grievance, and this month an arbitrator found the district in violation of its contract The arbitrator ordered the district to cease the activities and a copy of the order was placed in Ms. O'Dell's permanent file with the evaluation. An attempt to contact Superintendent Louie Boward for comment was unsuccessful. Perillo described the ruling as "a fairly significant case because it deals with the aftermath of a strike.

"It's a major victory for the union because the district was using the evaluation to take a reprisal," he said. SOURCES: Astronomy Magazine and World Book Twin City Amateur Astronomers will sponsor a telescope observing session at 10:30 p.m. Sunday in Ewing Park, on Jersey Avenue between Towanda Avenue and Linden Street in Normal. A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon strays Into the earth's I I ttlfl Kvjv rs I -wa a The PantagraprVDAVIO PROEBER police Sgt Gregory Slaughter. Five people on the ground were injured.

Two police officers and another person sustained slight burns and smoke inhalation trying to rescue the plane's occupants, Slaughter said. They were taken to the hospital for treatment One additional person was treated for smoke inhalation and another refused treatment The names of the dead and injured weren't immediately available. The plane was registered in Arizona and based at Santa Monica Airport, Slaughter said. A man who answered the telephone at the airport referred all queries to Santa Monica police. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

u- ill IM 2 killed when plane hits Calif, apartment building mm Tha PantagraphSTEVE 8MEDLEY What to look for 9:27 p.m.: Full moon contacts outer part of Earth's shadow, the penumbra. Moon may appear to change color. 10:40 p.m.: Moon enters dark, inner part of Earth's shadow called the umbra. Small bite appears on moon's left edge. a.m.: Moon completely hidden within umbral shadow.

12:50 a.m.: Left edge of moon appears as It emerges from Earth's umbra. 2:12 a.m.: Moon emerges from penumbra. SUN EARTH MOON .4. Moon's orbit Earth's shadow AP when the moon has moved directly into the center of the earth's shadow and is illuminated by a small amount of residual light Sunday's eclipse will begin around 10:40 p.m. with totality occurring around 12:02 a.m., and concluding around 2:12 a.m.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) A single-engine training airplane crashed into an apartment building yesterday and burst into flames, killing two people and injuring six. The Italian-made Marchetti M260 aircraft had just taken off from Santa Monica Airport about IVi miles east of the building when it clipped a power line, slammed into a carport and caught fire, witnesses said. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze. "It was like an earthquake, but an earthquake with a whole lot of shaking and a whole lot of screaming," said building resident Steve Reed, 39.

"It looked like the building was on fire." Two people on the plane were killed, and a third, a man in his 20s, was taken to a hospital with critical injuries, said Lunar eclipses happen when the Earth is directly between the sun and the moon. The moon gradually darkens as it passes into the Earth's shadow. Encyclopedia shadow and seems to disappear. But according to Wenning, the moon is faintly visible, because the earth's atmosphere will bend a small amount of sunlight onto the moon's surface. The total lunar eclipse occurs 1 i.