theVoice rockfordchamber.com
19
January 2015
Marching steadily towards our goal Our progress can be measured So much of RPS 205’s capital comes from the people of this community. We have benefited from more than 25,000 volunteer hours already this school year. A year ago in this space, I shared lessons from the 20-Mile March, the story of two teams with starkly different approaches to reaching the South Pole. Roald Amundsen believed in a slow and steady march. His team reached the South Pole first, and they all survived. The other team followed more than a month later. They all died on the return trip. While we don’t push the limits of human endurance in the Rockford Public Schools, we have nonetheless been on the march. We have worked hard and worked collaboratively, focused on the goal of 21st century learning. We aren’t there yet, but we can measure our progress. We are on the march toward becoming a Ford Next Generation Model Community by 2016. In October, Rockford was named a Next Generation Learning Community by the Ford Motor Company Fund. The distinction celebrates the high school redesign in RPS 205 and paves the way for other communities to learn from us about how to start academies in their schools. It validates the hard work of our staff, students and partners to prepare all students for high-wage, high-skill jobs. We are on the march toward raising attainment. From 2013 to 2014, we saw year-over-year growth of nearly four percentage points in graduation rates. New data from the Illinois State Board of Education shows our freshmen students perform better than the state average in being on track to graduate. An on-track student is almost four times as likely to graduate, according to the state board. We are on the march toward vastly improved facilities. By a nearly 3-to-1 margin, voters in November approved a referendum that would allow us to build new schools with no new taxes. Thirteen additions are planned in the next phase of our 10-year facilities plan. We have already completed additions to six elementary schools, as well as new classrooms and a new field house at Auburn High School. New learning
spaces and a new field house are nearly finished at Guilford High School, while East plans to unveil its own renovation and field house in spring 2015. We are on the march toward a new strategic plan, Readiness 2020. The plan team will submit its recommendation to the School Board this
month.
administrators,
Teachers,
principals,
parents,
students
and other community members have collaborated on a plan that will align district priorities and set a direction for the next five years – and do it on one page. Finally, we are on the march toward providing more opportunities for children to receive quality early childhood
education.
Through
a
federal grant awarded to Illinois, we will be able to provide 120 full-day PreK experiences for the community’s most at-risk 4-year-olds. We are proud of the strength of our program. The governor last year awarded RPS 205 with the Pre-K Gold Circle of Quality. No march is without missteps. While we still have healthy reserves and are in a strong financial position, the auditors gave us tough news last month. We finished fiscal year 2014 with an $8.8 million deficit. Expenditure forecasts have already been adjusted, and we are committed to a balanced budget in FY15. We remain proud, however, of the fact we have returned nearly $23 million to taxpayers since 2012. And we have done so in spite of flat local tax revenues for four consecutive years. So much of RPS 205’s capital comes from the people of this community. We have benefited from more than 25,000 volunteer hours already this school year. We know that nearly 4,800 volunteers – and community partners such as Sharefest and Alignment Rockford -are marching right alongside us. Armed with patience, commitment, problem-solving and critical thinking – the same skills we demand from our students – we continue our march. Thank you for your support along the way. Dr. Ehren Jarrett is superintendent of Rockford Public Schools. The views expressed are those of Dr. Jarrett’s and do not necessarily represent those of the Rockford Chamber of Commerce.