Zend Framework How To: Handling checkboxes using Zend_Form and jQuery

class forms_CoolForm extends Zend_Form
{
    public function __construct($options = NULL)
    {
        parent::__construct($options);
        $this->setName('cool_form');
 
        $content = new Zend_Form_Element_Textarea('notes');
        $content->setLabel('Content')
                ->setAttrib('class','my_textarea')
                ->setAttrib('id','textarea_id')
                ->addValidator('NotEmpty')
                ->setRequired(true);
 
 
        $submit = new Zend_Form_Element_Button('button');
        $submit->setLabel('Go')
               ->setAttrib('class','my_submit')
               ->setAttrib('id','submit_id');
 
        $ispublic = new Zend_Form_Element_Checkbox('is_public');
        $ispublic->setLabel('Allow anyone to view this post?')
                 ->setAttrib('id','is_public');
 
        $this->addElements(array($content, $ispublic, $submit));
    }
}

<input type="checkbox" value="0" id="is_public" name="is_public"/>

$('#is_public').val();

if($('#is_public').is(':checked')) {
    temp_public = 'yes';
} else {
    temp_public = 'no';
}
//then you send temp_public to other functions -- AJAX stuff or DOM modification