2/4/22 Enews From CCSD93

Dear Friend of CCSD93,

Messages From

Superintendent Hill:

As you know, each year in December we give a Satisfaction Survey to CCSD93's parents, students, and staff members. Respondents answer questions and provide 10-scale ratings across a wide range of categories encompassed in the educational experience. The resulting data is examined district-wide and at the school level and compared with previous years. This helps us understand what is working well within the district and better target where to focus efforts for improvement to provide the very best education to the children of our community.

I’ve previously shared this year’s elementary and middle school student results. Today, I share our parent data. With a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of 3%, the data should very accurately reflect the feelings of our parents. Here’s a look at the overall parent data.

From last year to this, we observe either consistent scores or upward trends across most categories, with notable growth in the areas of overall satisfaction and computer technology. Results across the board remain firmly within the high end of “good” and into the “excellent” rating categories, as defined within the survey and displayed in the scale in the image above. We continue to acknowledge that the state of the pandemic and its resulting impact on our school experience plays a significant role in the attitude trends throughout the past three years.

By tracking trends from year to year on individual questions, we find opportunities for improvement and causes for celebration. For example, a decline of 3.56% of parents from last year to this rated CCSD93’s preparation of students for the world of work as satisfactory. Conversely, we find positives in parent responses for many areas, most significantly in questions related to student progress. An increase of 5.97% of parents expressed satisfaction for their school’s effectiveness in keeping them informed about their child’s academic progress, and 5.01% more agreed with the statement that their child’s teacher(s) have met with their child to talk about goals to make them a better learner.

Principals, Building Leadership Teams (BLTs) and district administrators will continue to dig into the data and make action plans for areas identified as needing improvement. While we generally find the results positive, there are always opportunities for growth. Additionally, we acknowledge that these results do not speak for each individual parent. We will continue to work to support all students and families as best we can moving forward.

Find out more about the Satisfaction Survey by visiting www.ccsd93.com/satisfaction, where you can also compare school and district-wide data across years. I will highlight staff results in this space in a couple of weeks.

A Note About Inclement Weather Decision-Making Process

On Wednesday, our community faced wintry conditions that were very much on the borderline of whether we would be able keep schools open or close schools and transition to an E-Learning Day. From our experiences during the pandemic, we know that in-person learning will always provide superior educational opportunities to remote learning. As educators, our obligations to our students and our community demand that we strive for the best educational delivery method possible under the circumstances while maintaining the safety of all. It is with this lens that we approach decisions related to school closures.

To provide parents with a little more background on that decision-making process, after reviewing weather forecasts, our D93 team communicates with the county and local villages to determine their ability to clear the streets. We ensure that our dedicated custodians and buildings and grounds crew can clear our parking lots and sidewalks. We collaborate with the bus company to ensure that they can safely transport our students. We review the absence report to determine our coverage for the day. I communicate and collaborate with the other DuPage County superintendents to ascertain their stance. We review data on where our D93 staff members live and how the weather might impact their commute. We consider our parents who must go to work and can’t leave their children home alone as well as the number of students who are provided breakfast and lunch each day in our schools who might not otherwise have meals available to them. Deciding whether or not to close schools is an imperfect science, but we try our very best to balance all of the factors above to come to the best decision possible.

As the forecasts updated and snow finally began to fall on Wednesday, it became evident that thanks to the efforts of our villages, our transportation provider, our custodians and buildings and grounds crew, and our educators, our students would be able to safely travel to and from school to receive an in-person education. For this reason, our schools were open for in-person learning.

COVID-19 Reminders

Our goal remains to not only ensure the health and safety of our students and staff but to minimize the amount of days missed due to exposure at school. CCSD93 continues to follow the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) Revised Public Health Guidance for Schools for matters related to risk mitigation strategies and student and staff quarantine and isolation. This information has been supplemented in recent weeks by information shared by ISBE and IDPH during seminars with school nursing personnel. Here are a few important related reminders for our families.

Students Must Stay Home When Symptomatic or When Exposed While Unvaccinated

It is critically important that children are kept home from school during the following circumstances:
When they have experienced exposure to a positive COVID-19 case and are unvaccinated.
When experiencing any of the following symptoms:
Fever of higher than 100.3° F or chills
New cough
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
Fatigue from unknown cause
Muscle or body aches from unknown cause
Confusion or change in mental status
Pale, gray or blue skin, lips or nail beds
Repeated shaking with chills (rigors)
New onset of moderate/severe headache
New loss of taste or smell
Sore throat
Nausea or vomiting
Diarrhea
Persistent chest pressure or pain
Inability to wake or stay awake
Congestion or runny nose

Updates on Exposure, Isolation & Quarantine

Students who are isolating with a positive COVID-19 test must stay home for a minimum of 5 days. They are able to return 5 days after the onset of symptoms (or 5 days after specimen collection date if no symptoms are present), if the following criteria are met:

They are fever free and symptoms (if present) are improving.
They are kept from the proximity of students or staff who are immunocompromised or at high risk for severe disease.
Six feet of physical distance is maintained during circumstances when masks need to be removed (e.g. for lunch) until 10 days after symptom onset or positive test.

Students who have been a close contact to COVID-19 and are not fully vaccinated must stay home for a minimum of 5 days. The following applies to these students:

Should test on day 5, if possible.
Should immediately isolate if symptoms develop until a negative test confirms symptoms are not caused by COVID-19.
Six feet of physical distance must be maintained during circumstances when masks need to be removed (e.g. for lunch) until 10 days after exposure.

While fully vaccinated close contact students are not required to quarantine, they also must maintain six feet of physical distance during circumstances when masks need to be removed (e.g. for lunch) until 10 days after exposure.

Depending on each school’s lunchtime circumstances, the six feet of distance required in the situations described above may unfortunately impact opportunities for students to attend school. Please know each of our schools working to accommodate students as best as possible while following these requirements to ensure safe school atmospheres. School administrators and nurses will continue to guide parents through these requirements as cases and exposure arise. Thank you for your continued partnership and patience.

Update on Mitigation Strategy Lawsuits

I shared a couple weeks ago that rulings were expected soon on lawsuits filed by parents and staff members across the state challenging state mandates related to mitigation strategies of masking, testing and vaccinations. While CCSD93 is not named in the suits, the rulings are expected very soon and may or may not impact CCSD93. Once the judge’s decision is made, we will review it and I will reach back out if CCSD93 is impacted.

Elsie Johnson Starts School-Wide Book Read on Building Friends & Community

I was so pleased to be invited to Elsie Johnson School today to help kick off the school’s One Book One School" event. I joined Principal Weber, Assistant Principal Karas and a mystery squirrel friend to deliver the book Nuts to You, a story of building relationships and community, to all students. I’m excited for the entire school to dig into the book together!

Please review the information below for more of the latest from CCSD93, and enjoy your weekend!

Sincerely,

Dr. David H. Hill

Superintendent of Schools

CCSD93

Spring Student-Led Conferences for all grade levels will be held on March 3 and March 17, 2022. Visit www.ccsd93.com/conferences to sign up today!

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Attend Free Online Parent Presentation from Glenbard Parent Series

Glenbard Parent Series provides terrific, free programming for today's parents. You're invited to attend this upcoming parent program virtually. Mark your calendar and visit www.glenbardgps.org for more!

2/10 Board of Education Meeting Preview

CCSD93’s next Board of Education meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 10 at CCSD93's District Office, 230 Covington Drive in Bloomingdale. All community members are invited to attend. The following are among the agenda items.

There will be a Board Salute to Sportsmanship Award Winners from the wrestling, cheerleading and boys basketball seasons at both middle schools.
The Board will review their 2019-21 Board Goals.
The Board will review their new 2022-24 Board Goals.
The Board will review a new Customized Board Policy Draft Manual for first reading.
Dr. Hill will provide an update on the Portrait of a CCSD93 Graduate process.
The Board will review student assignment information and staffing projections for 2022-23.
The Board will vote on the approval of a lease agreement with Apple for MacBooks for the 2022-23 school year.
The Board will review CCSD93’s Superintendent Succession Plan.
The Board will review the employee work year calendars for 2022-23.

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