Vision, Breakfast, Instruction and Finances at District 100

If you missed the January District 100 School Board Meeting, you missed a lot! Lucky for you, CARES was there to take notes and report the most relevant items here.

1. DACEE: Bob Pauly gave a presentation on the DACEE committee. DACEE is the District Advisory Committee for Educational Excellence. It was formed 15 months ago and has 40 members. Its purpose is to advise and recommend to the district ideas on educational excellence. DACEE has gone through several stages:
a) Survey: DACEE sent out a survey to 200 community members asking people what they desired out of the Berwyn educational system. Ideas included more creative learning, turning the LaVergne center into an early childhood learning center, creation of a single K-12 district for Berwyn, create an environment where parents want to send their children to school in Berwyn, achieve high test scores, and create an environment where children will want to go on to college.
b) Vision Statement: DACEE proposed a vision statement to the Board of Education.

"District 100 will rank in the top 25% of schools in the state of Illinois as
evidenced by test scores."

The Board of Education approved the vision statement in March of 2009.
c) Research: The next stage was to conduct research and examine what successful school districts are doing. The committee broke into 6 sub-committees including Early Childhood Education, Community Involvement, Technology, Staff Development, and Magnet and Gifted Learning. Their methodology was to research best practices in that area, visit schools that implement best practices and then make recommendations. In the April/May time frame, the subcommittees will present recommendations to the DACEE committee and then will present their recommendations to the board in May.

2. School Breakfast Program: The district implemented a school breakfast program which aims to serve a "Grab and Go" breakfast during the first 15 minutes of class. Superintendent Stan Fields stated that each school and principal will determine the way that breakfast will be provided. Joanne Zendol, School Board President, stated that she had received several emails that were critical of the program. Dr. Fields stated that some people were concerned that there would be a loss of instructional time. Dr. Fields supports whatever approach that the principals chose for their school and he does not believe it will eat into instructional time.

3. One to One Access: The district will be implementing a pilot program where each student in a classroom will have their own laptop computer. It will be implemented for one 4th grade class at Piper (30 kids) and the 7th grade at Heritage (100 kids). A video was shown about how the children of today are used to receiving information via audio and video through devices such as iPods and video games. It was stated in the video that the tools schools use today (paper, pencil and books) do not match the way kids receive information outside of the school and that to engage the students of today, learning experiences must include video, audio, and other technologies. Computers being considered are Netbook and Apple.

4. Finances: Half way into the fiscal year, the district has received $23.5 million in revenue (58% of the budget) and has spent $21.5 (51% of the budget). The fund balances had $11.7 million dollars. ISBE has made some changes in the fund structures this year, requiring long term capital costs and other long term items to be segregated out from the operating accounts. The auditor believes the fund balance for debt was lower than he would have liked. Another change is that ISBE requires future liability due to health insurance given to retirees be documented. The auditor stated that the district would have a future liability of $500,000 due to this liability.

5. Instruction: The district is using a new assessment gathering technology for taking and analyzing test results. Many teachers praised the new system, saying it allowed them to see problem areas more quickly that they could then focus on and address in the classroom. For the entire district, scores have improved from 72% meets/exceeds in September to 82% meets/exceeds in January. Pershing School has seen a noticeable jump, going from 63.2% to 79.4% from Sept. to Jan. Emerson and Piper 4th grade math scores are over 90% meets/exceeds and Hiawatha was at 86%. Heritage was at 94% meets/exceeds in math for 8th graders and Freedom 6th graders were at 84%. In reading, the top scores were generally in the 80% to 90% range compared to 55%-65% range in September.

The next District 100 Board meeting is February 24th at Freedom School. Food is served and student awards are given AND you'll learn a lot about Berwyn Schools! Hope to see you there!