Table of Contents:
Parent Partners:
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Over the last three months, the Board has held numerous meetings listening to reports and recommendations and making decisions on topics such as the Strategic Plan, budgets, tax levies, District assessment data, equity work, and curriculum. Parents and community members have shared concerns, asked questions, shared celebrations and praise, and encouraged the district to continue to strive to make the district and its schools even better for ALL children. The Board has asked important and thoughtful questions, set high expectations and guiding policies and continued to work together for the betterment of the District. The administration and staff have sought to listen, analyze, and make adjustments based on feedback and best practice. Many things have continued to improve and our students continue to grow and learn.
While it is always nice to hear good news and support (and I think we probably all need to get better about sharing the positive stories as we seem to be surrounded by so much negativity), it is important to hear the concerns and ideas from our community and stakeholders. Part of the educational process is exposing children to ideas and work that forces them to ask themselves questions like, “What does this mean to me, to others, to my community, to my country?” Families are the first and most important teachers of their children. They remain crucial “teachers and coaches” to their children well into young adulthood, some would argue that they are lifetime teachers and coaches.
In the same way, schools need parents, family, and community members to help us with our ultimate goal of educating our students. Sometimes this process is messy, sometimes it is contentious, but it should always be focused on the ultimate outcome: A strong educational system that prepares children for a rapidly changing world where they will one day be an adult and need to make substantive decisions.
As we wrap up another calendar year, I want to thank the parents who have supported the district and its children and teachers in so many ways. I want to thank the people who have asked the hard questions, who need more information to stay informed, who have sought to become more involved, to help forge the future of our district.
I am proud of the work our teachers, administrators, school board and various district committees have done to get us where we are today. We will seldom agree on all of the strategies, but I am hopeful that we can all agree that our number one goal is to send educated, compassionate, kind, forward-thinking children on to secondary school.
Have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!
Kyle
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We are pleased to announce the creation of our blog, focusing on news and updates from the world of special education in La Grange School District 102. The motto of our district is, "Every Child, Every Day...No Exceptions, No Excuses." Naming our blog, "Every Child," emphasizes the commitment of the special education department to strive to realize the potential of every child we serve.
Maintaining a blog provides us with the opportunity to showcase, discuss, and engage parents, staff, and community members. It also allows all of you to receive notifications whenever the blog is updated. Click the button below to access the website and subscribe to the mailing list.
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Dear Families,
With first trimester report cards behind us, we wanted to take a moment to seek input and feedback from families to help us make the D102 Standards Based Report Card more clear and relevant to both parents and students.To gather your feedback, we're using a tool called Thoughtexchange. This is not a traditional survey tool. Instead, you will be asked to respond to one open-ended question. You can add as many individual thoughts as you would like in response to the question. After you submit a thought you will be asked to consider and assign stars to some of the ideas shared by others (20 to 30 is ideal).
Your thoughts and stars are confidential. You can come back as often as you'd like to participate and, in fact, we ask that you do come back to star some of the new ideas shared since you first participated. The ratings will help us understand the most important areas to focus on as we refine the D102 Standards Based Report Card.
Click here to participate:
K-6 Elementary:
https://my.thoughtexchange.com/#992942094
7-8 Junior High School:
https://my.thoughtexchange.com/#214775650
Participation will be open until December 17th, 2019.
Thank you in advance for your help and input.
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The District 102 Board met on November 21 for its monthly meeting. The agenda and details of the meeting, including presentation materials and handouts, can be accessed by
clicking here
. During this meeting, the Board heard a presentation on the work that the kindergarten and preschool teachers are doing at Barnsdale Road. Principal Kathy Boxell, and Barnsdale teachers Mrs. Voras and Mrs. Bunda presented on the SEL (Social Emotional Learning) lessons that are being implemented to help students regulate and be present for learning. They also discussed the growing preschool program and visions for the future of both preschool and kindergarten in District 102.
Linda McShane, Director of Assessment and Chris Finch, Assistant Supt. For Teaching and Learning, presented the District Assessment data. The overall District scores have remained relatively stable over the last four years. Park Junior High and Cossitt School were both recognized as Exemplary schools, with ratings in the top 10% of schools in Illinois. While work continues to be done to ensure that all of our students are not only growing, but also achieving, the alignment between strong evidence-based curriculum, clearly defined priority learning standards aligned with the State standards, and a reporting system that aligns with the priority standards has created the appropriate strategy for continued improvement.
Diana McCluskey, Assistant Superintendent for Finance, introduced the District auditor who presented the audit data. The audit outlined the financial position of the District and provided evidence to the strengthened financial position of the District with fund balances exceeding 20% for the first time in several years.
Mrs. McCluskey then presented the Levy data outlining the Annual Levy report for the next tax year. The estimated tax rate for tax year 2019 is 3.916. This equates to approximately a $68 increase on the D102 portion of the property tax bill for someone who owns a home with a market value of $350,000.
Aside from approving monthly pay orders and strategic plan updates, the Board also approved the bid for installing a lift at Forest Road Elementary School to provide service from the first floor to the second floor of the building for students who require this assistance.
The next Board meeting will be held on December 12th, 2019.
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On November 8, 2019, Joe Gage (Park Assistant Principal) and Phil Abraham (Park Principal) presented “Master Your Schedule” in Nashville, Tennessee for the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE). The session was based on creating school-wide master schedules to meet the needs of all learners. They created a 3-step framework to organize thinking around creating the foundation, framing, and furnishings of a master schedule. The presentation was very well received and attended by over 140 middle-level administrators from across the country. This is the second time in two years that they had presented nationally on the development of master schedules. In addition, they presented at a smaller venue in Peoria, IL for the Illinois Principal Association (IPA) earlier in the year on the same topic with much success.
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INCLEMENT WEATHER/SCHOOL CLOSING/DELAYED START
As a reminder, we have created a late start schedule that will allow us to delay our start by one (1) hour in the event of questionable weather in the mornings. Buses will run one hour later and school will begin one hour later than normal times. The school day will end at the normal end time for the given day. In the event of a late start, please be aware that buses may still be delayed as they make their rounds.
If District 102 calls a late start, Right at School and BASE will also implement a late start and begin at 8:00 am at all schools. In the event that District 102 has to cancel after school activities, Right at School and BASE will also be canceled after school. We recognize the inconvenience this will cause and encourage parents to develop alternative afterschool plans for their children on the remote possibility that after school activities are canceled.
Determining whether we should have a late start or close the schools is not taken lightly. Many factors go into the decision including the safety of our students AND our staff. While the weather may appear less severe in our immediate area, our teachers drive in from all over the region. Their safety is an important part of our decision making.
In the event of a closing or late start, we will send out various forms of communication and update our website and main numbers in each building. Our alert system will alert you via emails, texts and/or phone calls if you have them in PowerSchool. You can always log into PowerSchool to update your email and/or phone numbers.
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On Monday, December 16th, 2019, we will be testing the D102 Alert Solutions platform. On this day, you will receive a text, email and/or voicemail from the District stating that this is a test.
More information to come!
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12/12 Board Meeting
12/23-1/6/2020 Holiday Break
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