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CCSD66 Notes

Friday, December 22, 2006

Winter Break Activities

People often wonder what happens at school during the winter break period. While students and teachers are on vacation our custodial crews will be busy cleaning and preparing the building for the spring term. In this short period of time, our crew will scrub and re-wax most tiled floors (gyms and multi-purpose rooms). They also will steam-clean carpets in hallways and heavy traffic areas throughout each building, as well as remove stains in other areas. All classroom furniture is washed and classrooms cleaned from top to bottom. Washrooms are also scrubbed and cleaned. When students and teachers return on January 8th the buildings will be sparkling. Thanks to our wonderful custodial team!

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Happy Holidays

On behalf of Center Cass School District 66 please accept our best wishes for a Happy Holiday and Prosperous New Year. School will be on winter break from December 25, 2006 until January 5, 2007. Classes will resume on Monday, January 8, 2007. During the break the District Office will be open on Tuesday – Thursday each week from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Friday hours will be from 8:00 a.m. until noon.

Happy Holidays!

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Educational Caucus

The new Educational Caucus has been called to Springfield for a rare meeting to set goals for the coming legislative session. This may be the year that we will see some movement from the state in terms of funding reform for public schools. The caucus will be meeting Wednesday and Thursday this week to hopefully set goals for the new session. There is a train of thought that says that this is the last chance to get the funding situation fixed so that the funding issue is off the table so not to interfere with a run for governor by Attorney General Lisa Madigan. With the leadership of Speaker Madigan there is a good chance that we will see some movement in this area of finance if he is indeed preparing the way for his daughter and a possible run for governor.

Friday, December 15, 2006

State Superintendent of Schools

Rumors are circulating the state that Governor Blagojevich will appoint Kimberly Lightford (D) to the position of State Superintendent of Schools. Last Sunday on “At Issue” (WBBM 780) she discussed her interest in this position with reporter Craig Dellimore. Currently, Ms. Lightford serves as a Senator from the 4th District. She has served in the Senate since 1998 until the present. Senator Lightford currently serves on the following committees; Financial Institutions, Senate Committee of the Whole, Appropriations, Higher Education, Labor and was recently appointed to the new Educational Task Force. Ms. Lightford holds degrees from Western Illinois University and University of Illinois, Springfield. Other than an interest in public education and her service on committees dealing with education she has no formal background in public education or experience in public schools. Since the Governor now appoints the State Superintendent, he obviously can and will do what he pleases as he continues to manage ISBE via an underling. The appointment of Ms. Lightford may bring him additional political currency. What this appointment will bring the public schools of Illinois remains to be seen.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

State Financial Crisis

An article in the Springfield Journal Register on December 7, 2006 chronicles the latest in several reports of impending financial doom for Illinois. This article details a new report by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, an organization of business executives. This study calculates Illinois state government debt at almost $106 billion and makes recommendations to slash costs and increase taxes to avoid “an impending financial implosion.” The report says the state needs an additional $5.9 billion next year just to catch up on pensions and health insurance for future employees and retirees and to deal with a backlog of Medicaid payments. Naturally the governor’s office welcomes the report but dismisses it because they were not involved in the development of the report and therefore it is based on flawed data.

This is just one stronger signal that Illinois needs to develop a strong bi-partisan group to deal with the impending financial disaster looming. Efficiencies and other reductions proposed by the Governor will not be enough to solve this crisis. Additional revenue will also be needed.

You can read the article and download the entire 56 page report at http://www.sj-r.com/ and clicking on the December 7, 2006 issue or at www.civiccommittee.org/initiatives/StateFinance/FacingFacts.pdf

Monday, December 11, 2006

Educational Finance

I heard on the radio show “At Issue” (WBBM 780) on Sunday morning an interesting discussion about future funding for public education in Illinois. In the discussion group were several state legislators and an educational advocate discussing plans to address school funding in the next legislative session. This group of legislators represented both major parties and sounded committed to addressing this important issue in the new legislative session. It was also uplifting to hear them talk about making this a bi-partisan effort that they felt the general public is demanding. They also talked about how they will need at least $500 million to begin this effort. That amount of money is not available without a tax increase. It will be interesting to follow this group as the new legislature is seated next month. Stay tuned!

Friday, December 08, 2006

Where Did The ISATs Go?

As we enter the month of December we still have not received the results from the ISAT tests administered last March. You may remember the story of how Harcourt was given the contract to develop a new state achievement test, allegedly through the efforts of a crony of the Governor and the award was so late they ran into all sorts of problems attempting to deliver a test that was complete and on time for the March testing dates. Many districts received their materials late and found mistakes in the printing of the test booklet. Nevertheless, we did take the test and then the next part of this disaster took place as Harcourt tried to score the tests and return the results to district in the required timelines that would have had results back by May 2006. Naturally that did not happen and some tests were lost and then found. It has been a nightmare not only for school districts but also for the State of Illinois since we will certainly run afoul of the Federal Department of Education for not meeting any of their reporting timelines. The Illinois State Board of Education has tried to put a happy face on all these missteps by changing printers and test scoring companies. Newspaper reports this week, indicate that the high school tests had to be re-scored due to errors with the test key and those results will not be available until February of 2007.

In July, we were notified that our District had met AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) based on the scoring of our tests. Our Districts does very well on these tests and scores in the 80th and 90th percentile in students meeting and exceeding standards. This past year we had targeted our special education students to provide support and help to improve their performance on these tests and they also met AYP this year. In our District, the sub group that has the most trouble with the ISAT and meeting AYP is obviously our special education students who are forced by the state to take the same test as the rest of the students at their chronological age level. Obviously, this is not a rationale or well thought-out concept to expect children with documented disabilities to make the same gains and achieve at the same levels as students without handicaps.

The main difficulty we face by not having our test results is how to prepare for the 2007 administration of the ISAT. Last year’s test was a brand new test and without knowing how individual students have performed, it is difficult to make curricular corrections to our program to be sure that our students do their very best on these tests. Building principals are making plans for the 2007 test administration without all of the information needed to prepare our students. Hopefully we will not have any further problems in this area with the 2007 testing.

Monday, December 04, 2006

SnowDay Diary

I thought you might be interested in what happens when school is closed due to the weather. Planning for bad weather always begins at the first notice that there may be bad weather. In this case, on Thursday, area school administrators were beginning to talk about plans for Friday in case the predicted storm did become a reality. Most elementary school districts follow the lead of their high school when considering a school closing. In our area, I consult with Darien, Woodridge and District 99 schools when considering the closing of school.

Friday morning began for me when I went to bed Thursday evening, since I never sleep well when there is a chance of bad weather. After getting up every hour to look out the window, I got up and left the house at 4:00 a.m. and went on a driving tour of the District to check road conditions and the amount of snow that had fallen. During that time, I spoke with Dr. Eblen from District 99 and Mr. Brendel from Woodridge District 68 as to their plans. At the time, conditions were not too bad due to the fact that the hard snowfall had not started and we were planning to open school since the buses were running, the temperature was moderate and schools had heat and power. After a second call at 5:15 a.m., I returned to the streets to find that conditions had greatly deteriorated in the intervening hour. In further discussions with area administrators and the fact the schools in central and northern DuPage had begun to close, we decided that given the current conditions and the uncertainty of the length of the storm the most prudent action was to close school.
After the decision to close school is made, notifications are made to parents, employees, media and DuPage ROE. Employees and parents were contacted using our automated phone service and email. The Chicagoland Closing Center is contacted by an automated telephone program that then allows our closing information to be posted on television and radio. Once notifications have been made, we then focus on getting our custodial and transportation team in to clean up the snow. Sidewalks and emergency exits must be cleared before school can re-open and parking lots must be plowed and salted. Over the weekend snow drifts were plowed, driveways salted, buses started and buildings checked for heat to insure a smooth start for school on Monday morning. We are fortunate to have a dedicated and skilled team of people to prepare and protect our fine facilities.

Winter Festival of Bands

District 66 instrumental students participated in the District 66 Winter Festival of Bands held at Lakeview last Saturday. Students in the 5th grade Cadet Band, Concert Band and Symphonic Band performed in this festival and did an outstanding musical job. Adjudicator/Clinician for the festival was Mr. Scott Casagrande of Arlington Heights. Mr. Casagrande was most favorably impressed with the performance of our young musicians.

Special thanks to Mr. Hodac, Mr. Ohlsen and Mr. Tedeschi for their hard work in preparing our students for the day and hosting and organizing this festival.