School Busses

People have asked why we have school busses parked at the Lakeview Campus this year. Some people have even said, “I like seeing the busses at school.” While others have asked “Why are they parked at school?” The fact is that the area where we have stored the busses for the past five years has been under renovation as the property was sold and our parking area has been relocated. Our new area is almost ready for occupancy and we hope to return the busses to their Frontage Road location in Darien within the next two weeks.

The District operates 14 school busses and they have been parked near the Darien Public Works facility south of I-55 since the sale of the old Center Cass School in 2000. We have been working with the City of Darien to develop a joint use facility with the City, Park District and School District. We have just recently agreed to a new five year plan to keep the busses stored at this site.

Parent Connect

A new service offered to parents of students in grades 3-8 this year is the Parent Connect Program. This program allows parents and students to have 24/7 access to the grades and school information. Over the past three weeks we have offered training programs and support for parents to set up their individual secure accounts. Initial response from parents and students has been very positive. Let us know how you are doing with your Parent Connect. Should you have any problems making a connection to this system do not hesitate to contact one of our principals; msmith@ccsd66.org, kliles@ccsd66.org or pwindsor@ccsd66.org or our technology coordinator kkucera@ccsd66.org

Special Education Rules

A move by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to modify existing rules governing special education is generating a great deal of controversy throughout the state. ISBE has proposed new rules to implement changes to the Individuals with Disabilities Act reauthorization of 2004. Three areas of controversy are; class size requirements for children enrolled in special education classes, timelines to complete case study evaluations and Response to Invention (RTI). Final comments on these proposed rules were received on 9/15/06 and will be considered by ISBE at a meeting on 9/20-21/06. The proposed rule changes are problematic for many because although the changes are driven by federal legislation, the federal government does not establish rules to govern its laws. I feel that ISBE is rushing to adopt rules to fix things that are not in need of fixing. The potential increased cost for additional teachers could be catastrophic.

The larger part of the special education issue is FUNDING. Although special education services are mandated by the state and federal government, these entities do not adequately fund these required services leaving the local school systems that are already strained by tax caps and limited state support to bear most of the cost for these much needed services to disabled children. The federal government has a target to fund 40% of the costs of these programs but currently funds less than 20% of the costs through a variety of grants. The State of Illinois also is notorious for its lack of support for public education in general and special education in particular. Illinois ranks near the bottom in state support of public schools and funds special education personnel on a formula last revised in 1985. The reimbursements for “extraordinary costs” associated with special education have dropped dramatically since 2004 when the reimbursement formula was changed to a block grant formula that gives the City of Chicago 29% of the funds right off the top. Costs for special education programs easily can rise to four times the cost of a regular education student. Most local schools easily expend $3 or $4 for every dollar of reimbursement they receive from the state and federal governments. These necessary expenditures place a great burden on local school districts.

I will share more on school funding in general in a future entry.

Governor Blagojevich’s Education Plan

Governor Blagojevich's election campaign has released the Governor’s new education plan to be implemented should he be re-elected. The plan is extensive and points out what the Governor perceives as the high points of his educational program during his first term. The plan calls for an additional $6 million in new funds for support of public education. I encourage you to review this document to review the Governor’s proposals. At first blush there are many appealing ideas in this plan but little detail about sources of revenue to fund these new programs. It is my opinion that the Governor has fallen into the habit of using tomorrow’s revenues to fund today’s programs. This pattern will soon leave the state with no additional forms of revenue and create economic hardship throughout the state. You can find this document at: http://iasaedu.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/09/18/450e247ecfd2?in_archive=1

Special Education Rules

A move by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to modify existing rules governing special education is generating a great deal of controversy throughout the state. ISBE has proposed new rules to implement changes to the Individuals with Disabilities Act reauthorization of 2004. Three areas of controversy are; class size requirements for children enrolled in special education classes, timelines to complete case study evaluations and Response to Invention (RTI). Final comments on these proposed rules were received on 9/15/06 and will be considered by ISBE at a meeting on 9/20-21/06. The proposed rule changes are problematic for many because although the changes are driven by federal legislation, the federal government does not establish rules to govern its laws. I feel that ISBE is rushing to adopt rules to fix things that are not in need of fixing. The potential increased cost for additional teachers could be catastrophic.

The larger part of the special education issue is FUNDING. Although special education services are mandated by the state and federal government, these entities do not adequately fund these required services leaving the local school systems that are already strained by tax caps and limited state support to bear most of the cost for these much needed services to disabled children. The federal government has a target to fund 40% of the costs of these programs but currently funds less than 20% of the costs through a variety of grants. The State of Illinois also is notorious for its lack of support for public education in general and special education in particular. Illinois ranks near the bottom in state support of public schools and funds special education personnel on a formula last revised in 1985. The reimbursements for “extraordinary costs” associated with special education have dropped dramatically since 2004 when the reimbursement formula was changed to a block grant formula that gives the City of Chicago 29% of the funds right off the top. Costs for special education programs easily can rise to four times the cost of a regular education student. Most local schools easily expend $3 or $4 for every dollar of reimbursement they receive from the state and federal governments. These necessary expenditures place a great burden on local school districts.

I will share more on school funding in general in a future entry.

Our Most Valuable Resource

The most valuable resource in any successful school district is PEOPLE! We are fortunate to have a dedicated, well trained and professional staff to work with our students. This school year will mark the end of several outstanding careers in Center Cass School District 66 as we prepare for the retirements of nine of our most dedicated and long serving teachers. These employees have provided over 260 years of service to the children of the Center Cass community. Our commitment and efforts will be to employ high quality teachers to continue the traditions these teacher have established. It will be a difficult task to begin to replace the talent and knowledge these people have brought to our community.

Those employees retiring in June of 2007 include:

Name Began service

Carole Adams 1978
Nona Jones 1982
Barb Ulie 1981
Sue Guinand 1979
Linda Hrjesa 1987
Barb Edmonds 1968
Bob Hodac 1982
Peggy Krezel 1972
Martha Smith 1975

Fall Sports

The fall sports season is underway. Lakeview students are competing in Girls Volleyball, Football, and Cross Country. Come out a see our students play! Schedules are available at our Web site, www.ccsd66.org under Lakeview Junior High School. Go Spartans!

School Finance 2006

School funding continues to be a hot topic in Illinois. This past summer the governor announced a plan to sell or lease the state lottery to fund education. In my opinion this is not a good idea. The state already receives over $650 million dollars per year form the lottery that goes to education and selling or leasing the lottery would only bring a short term increase in revenue. I believe that public education is one of the most important functions of the state. Education should be funded through stable sources of revenue such as income tax, property tax and sales tax. The current administration has increased state funding or education during the last three years by selling assets, omitting pension fund payments and using future revenues to find current operations. I think this is a dangerous trend for the state. The State of Illinois currently ranks 48th in the entire nation in the state funding of public education. At some point in time the State needs to develop an equitable plan for funding local schools. The amount of money expended to educate students throughout the state varies greatly and causes inequities in the educational programs for students.

Center Cass School Dist 66 will adopt a balanced budget for FY 07 in September. We are fortunate that we have been frugal and careful with our expenditures living within our means while several districts in our area are suffering severe financial difficulties. In DuPage County it is common for many school districts to operate on a majority of local funds such as property taxes rather that rely on state support. In the 2004-2005 school year our revenues were derived from 85% local sources, 14% state sources and less than 1% federal sources. It is easy to note that the State of Illinois does not meet the obligation of supplying 50% of the cost of public education.

The area of school finance is a very complex issue with many distinct components that impact funding. In future entries I will discuss some of these elements such as EAV, tax caps, general state aide and state funding formulas.

AYP Information

I am happy to report that Center Cass School District 66 students achieved Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the third straight year in a row on the ISAT tests for No Child Left Behind requirements. Results this year were delayed because the test vendor did not deliver test materials in a timely manner in the spring and also experienced significant delays and problems with the scoring of these tests. These issues have raised many questions about the validity of the testing program and the results. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has already cancelled a portion of the contract with the test vendor. The vendor’s original test will continue to be used but will be printed, delivered and scored by a different company.

Our teaching staff worked diligently to prepare all students for these tests. We are happy to note that students with special needs also met AYP in the areas of reading and mathematics this year. The extra focus on test preparation by our dedicated teachers appears to have made a positive impact on our test results. As of the end of August we are still awaiting detailed information about the performance of our students on this test. When this information is received it will be analyzed and reviewed by the administration and teachers. Based on this analysis any needed changes to the current instructional program will be made. We strive for continuous improvement.

Welcome New Staff Members

We are happy to introduce several new faces to our school community for the 2006-2007 school year. They are:

Karen Onarato, First Grade
Donna Cirjakovich, Fourth Grade
Kristy Shabino, Special Education
Kimberly Montes, Psychologist
Sarah Wagner, Science
Candy Papanicholas, Health/PE
Gail Cuzzone, Special Education
Tom Vana, Custodian
Dennis Baker, Custodian
Anita Hart, Secretary
Sandy Knight, Technology Assistant
Kathy Pappas, Stenographer