District 100 School Board Meeting Summary

This is a summary of the District 100 board meeting that occurred on September 23, 2009.

1. Education improvement - District superintendent Stan Fields talked about the investment in technology the district has made to improve education in the district. The district created a vision statement in March of 2009 that stated the district wants to rank within the top 25% of the districts of the state of Illinois as evidenced by testing. Currently, District 100 is ranked in the top 66%. The district has invested in new technologies. Last year, the district purchased 750 new workstations at a cost of $565,000. This year the district has budgeted $270,000 for more technology purchases. Federal stimulus money will be used to purchase some of this technology. Last year, the district piloted 19 classrooms using Smart Boards and has budgeted $625,000 this year to purchase more smart boards. 80% of the budget of the South Berwyn education foundation will be used to purchase more Smart Boards. The district has also hired 28 new certified staff and invested in 726 hours of professional development for certified staff. The district has implemented a program where they have two certified staff teaching in the same classroom at the same time in an effort to reduce class size. It was stated that, with this investment, the district will be holding teachers and principals more accountable and that teachers and principals clearly understand that the district expects an improvement in test scores.

2.Performance Dashboards - D100 will be deploying a reporting system to the public that will graphically depict test scores, attendance and district performance, similar to the NIU Education website. It has graphs that can be filtered in a variety of ways to depict the district's performance on attendance and tests and can drill down to school level data and daily attendance data. All data will be aggregated data and will not be down to the student level. The dashboard is expected to be available to the public on October 15, 2009 throught the district website.

3. STI - STI is a system that allows parents to log in through the internet and find out about their children's grades and attendance. The district expects all student information to be available on STI by November 2, 2009. The district has also implemented an EAI-like system interoperability software package to automate the exchange of data between its various systems rather than transfer data manually from one system to another. The district expects this to save time and cut down on errors. The district expects to deploy the interoperability software by the summer of 2010.

4. THINKLINK - The district has installed and is deploying a new technology for assessments called THINKLINK. It is an online assessment tool that is based on Illinois standards and can be tailored to a particular child. It provides immediate quantitative data on what areas a child is strong in and where a child is weak. The greatest advantage of THINKLINK is that teachers can immediately spot areas to help a particular child rather than wait 6 months for test results. The assessments are very detailed in matching up with ISBE standards and the reporting features are impressive. It was stated that in previous years, teachers and principals could only give qualitative information about how they felt a student was progressing. With THINKLINK, teachers and principals have accurate quantitative data that is up to date and can be used for predictive analysis.

5. Enrollment - Enrollments have held steady over the previous year. There has been a total increase of 8 students in the distrct. Enrollment for the district this year will be 3,657 students. There are 436 students enrolled in the 7th grade - 220 students at Freedom Middle School and 216 students at Heritage.

6. Financials - As of August 31, the district has received $3 million dollars in revenue (10% of budget) and incurred $5.1 million in expenses (14% of budget). The district has $4.7 million in its fund balances. Most of the revenue has come from the state. Most of the expenses have come from summer construction projects and the purchase of new computers ($276K for the computers). It was stated in the meeting that the state of Illinois has passed a new law requiring that all employee salary and compensation be listed on a website by October 1. District 100 expects that they will meet that deadline. It was also stated that the state "suspended" the usual state rules on funding and sending money to the districts because of the financial situation that Springfield is in with its budget.

7. Building and Lifesafety - The board was presented a report by Green and Associates about building and maintenance issues that the district needed to address. The report categorized problems as high, medium and low priority. High priority items should be addressed in the next 12 months. Medium priority items in the next 5 years and low priority items in the next 10 years. The cost of the high priority items was $84K; the cost of the medium priority items was $776K; the cost of the low priority items was $746K. Jim Swicionis made the suggestion that the board ought to do a building plan and cost out what it would take to either build new buildings or re-vamp existing ones. Hiawatha was used as an example of a building that was getting very old and would need a lot of maintenance in the next 10 years. The construction project at Pershing to address the flooding problem and the installation of new windows at La Vergne has been completed.

8. AYP - AYP is the way the state measures how well a district is doing in terms of meeting state education standards. District 100 is on the state's education watch list because the district has failed to meet the state's standards for 2 years in a row. Last year, the district did not meet the state's standards in 4 categories. It was reported that this year, the district is meeting the state's standards in all categories except for the category of educating physically and mentally challenged students.The district has a 34% rating where as the state standard is 37%. A district must meet the state standard in ALL AYP categories in order to be taken off of the watch list.

9. South Berwyn Education FOUNDATION - The South Berwyn Education FOUNDATION made $8,000 on the circus. The FOUNDATION is having a fund raiser at the Skylight restaurant on Friday, October 17. The South Berwyn Education FOUNDATION also had a presence at OktoberFest. Board President Joanne Zendol stated that the South Berwyn Education FOUNDATION has been in existence for almost 20 years and has raised $660,000 dollars for District 100.

10. District Improvement Plan - The board approved the District Improvement Plan, as required by state law. Some highlights from the plan included the use of new technologies such as SMART boards, addressing special education problems and hiring new reading specialists.

11. Board meeting schedule - The board approved a new meeting schedule that would include having more than one board meeting per month.

12. Usual business - The usual business of approving the minutes of the last board meeting; approving personnel decisions; approving payroll and payables; approving the teacher assistant unit negotiation agreement; approving the custodian unit memo of understanding; formally voting to recognize that there are 8 schools in the district (several board members questioned the state's rationale for this requirement); attending meetings and conferences; met with the mayor to talk about traffic problems; met with the "Clean Green Berwyn" committee on educating kids about litter; attended ABC meeting to discuss the H1N1 virus; DCFS training; DACEE is working on best practices. The district received a letter from the state of Illinois stating that the Regional School District for suburban Cook County has been abolished and that all correspondences that went to the regional office should now go to the state.

The next board meeting will be on October 28 at the Pershing School.

What Has CARES Accomplished This Year?

Many of you received our recent mailing and have renewed your annual membership with BerwynCARES. Thank you! We appreciate your interest and could not have existed without the support of people like you. Over the course of the last year, we have continued working toward our mission of uniting residents interested in renewing and sustaining an enthusiasm, interest and passion for the education system in Berwyn.

Some of our Efforts and Accomplishments Over the Past Year:

*Donated over $3,500 to fund projects in Berwyn schools via "The Berwyn Challenge" with Donors Choose

*Awarded five $1,000 scholarships to students graduating from Morton West

*Sponsored and organized children's activities at Berwyn's OktoberFest

*Hosted two children's concerts at Fitzgerald's to raise money for school projects and college scholarships

*Continued the BerwynCARES blog, which addresses educational issues relevant to Berwyn

*Regularly attended school board meetings to make our voices heard on issues of importance to the school districts

*Publicly addressed the District 201 board when students were asked by teachers and coaches to work for the campaign of a local politician. CARES recommended that the board implement electioneering guidelines.

*CARES members actively participated in focus groups with District 201 on the search for a new school superintendent and new principal at Morton West

*CARES board members participate in District 100 advisory committees to help the District 100 create and execute its long term strategic vision

If you haven't already, we hope that you will renew your membership for this coming year! Please consider pledging at a higher level, knowing that BerwynCARES is committed to our mission.

Together we can make a difference!


Renew your membership today!

Very truly yours, The BerwynCARES Board of Directors

Sandy Cervenka Ted Korbos
Stacey Cortez Vicki Ledajaks
Susan Crowe Robert Pauly
Debbie Durrer Mark Titzer
Diego Estrella Shelley Titzer
Bridget Juister

CARES Unites Residents at Oktoberfest

BerwynCARES participated in this year's Depot District Oktoberfest with a membership booth and a craft table for young children to enjoy. There are many parents of young children who are eager to learn about the public school system in Berwyn and we were so glad to share information about our work.

Our mission of uniting residents interested in renewing and sustaining an enthusiasm, interest, and passion for the education system in Berwyn includes a balance of two main focuses:

1. An activism role that includes reporting on the major decisions made by our school boards and acting as a watchdog organization on behalf of taxpayers.

2. A supportive, fundraising role that provides grants to teachers and scholarships to deserving students.

If you are interested (and I hope you ARE!!) in joining our efforts on either or both of the above roles, please consider joining Berwyn CARES. Thanks to all who came out yesterday to learn more about BerwynCARES. It really was a great day!

Get Schooled

I saw this video and thought about the 25% of kids

IN OUR COMMUNITY

that don't graduate from Morton West on time. I thought of the 70%

AT MORTON WEST

who did not meet the Illinois learning standards on the Prairie State Achievement Test. We've got to do something about it.

Is There an Acheivement Gap In Berwyn?

The achievement gap in our country is well documented and so it goes here in Berwyn. The term "achievement gap" refers to the difference in achievement between groups of students, especially those groups defined by race, gender and socioeconomic status. For example, in one Berwyn Elementary School District, the state report card for 2008 shows that 65% economically disadvantaged 3rd grade students meet or exceed state reading standards compared to 75% for their non-disadvantaged peers. This achievement gap is also evident when comparing students by race/ethnicity with white students outperforming their non-white peers and Asian students outperforming all groups (87% of Asian students in the Berwyn district meet or exceed expectations!). The real story, though, is in the number of students exceeding standards. When you separate out this group, indicated by a 4 on the report card charts starting on about page 8, you'll see the percentage of economically disadvantaged students EXCEEDING expectations is about half that of the non-disadvantaged peers.

We KNOW there is an achievement gap. What educators and communities don't seem to know is what to do about it. Well, that is not entirely true.

I've referenced the article, "What It Takes To Make a Student" , before and continue to reread it whenever I am considering what solutions exist for Berwyn's challenges. Hey, Berwyn! Do we REALLY want to eliminate the achievement gap? Take the time to read the 2006 New York Times article and then Ask YOUR school officials what efforts are being made to eliminate the achievement gap. Ask YOUR school officials what support is needed from the community to ensure that ALL students reach their potential.

Open Play @ the Library

A new program at the Berwyn Public Library called Open Play @ the Library aims to address the importance of early literacy. Come join other families with young children for an opportunity to socialize, play and read age appropriate books with your child. There will also be two 15 minute music/storytime sessions given by Josephine Tucci. The program is open to families and/or caregivers with children ages birth to 3 years, it will be held from 10-noon in the Community Room every Friday starting September 4th. No registration is necessary and you can come and go as you please. If you have any questions, please call Josephine at 708-795-8000 ext. 3020 or email josephinet3@ berwynlibrary. net. Hope to see you there!!!!!