When the federal government asked local governments to help to spread the word about this year’s census, Palatine officials knew just who to call: Rosi Allan, a teacher at Palatine High School, and the students enrolled in this year’s Leadership 2 class.
The leadership class, which began three years ago, requires students to plan and perform community service. In past years, Leadership 2 students have helped collect statistics and surveys for a Palatine annexation project. They also designed and helped implement the peer jury system used by the village to assist youths in trouble with the law.
“It’s just wonderful,” Sam Trakas, administrative assistant to the village manager, said of the school’s Leadership 2 program. “It is a great asset to the community.”
This year, the class is focusing on spreading the word about how important it is for local residents, particularly minorities, to participate in the 2000 census.
“The 1990 census was one of the worst in history, and we lost a lot of money,” said Jessica Lestor, an 18-year-old senior from Palatine. “Our goal is to target minorities because they were the highest percentage of people who didn’t answer the census.”
Lestor said she and her classmates learned from their research that only 40 percent of people in the United States participated in the last census and that local governments, such as Palatine, lost potential federal tax dollars because of low census counts.
To get more people to participate this year, the students, with the help of Allan and Palatine officials, decided to give presentations to students enrolled in English as a Second Language classes and advanced Spanish-language courses, to educate students about the importance of the census and to enlist volunteers to help non-English-speaking residents fill out census forms.
The students also drafted a letter about the census to all of the parents of Palatine High School students and created an in-school campaign for student volunteers to help out with the local Palatine census task force. So far, about 50 student volunteers have signed up to help.
Lastly, the leadership students conducted classes with special-education students enrolled in the school’s Secondary Work Experience Program to help them learn about how a census works and why it is important.
“We took a mini-census in the cafeteria . . . and we added up all the people,” Lestor said of her involvement with the work program students, who are mildly mentally impaired. “It’s very important to educate them about the census because they count too.”
John Kosovski, 16, a junior from Arlington Heights, hoped students would learn a lot about the census and its impact on government funding, especially with its slogan, “Don’t Leave Your Future Behind.”
He said Leadership 2 students plan to survey volunteers after the census is over to find out whether they followed through with their efforts.
“Before we even took on this project, I thought the census was just a numbers thing,” he said. “Now I know it involves education and that there are a lot of political aspects to the census.”
