March 2024 Family Newsletter (English)

SUPERINTENDENT'S MESSAGE

Dear CCSD21 Families and Community Members,

Welcome to March! As we (hopefully) officially welcome spring, I wanted to share with you a number of updates we have this month, many of which can be found over the next few pages.

First and foremost, I wanted to take some time to congratulate the more than 250 students who took part in this year’s spelling bee! It was no small feat to host all of these competitions at each school, and it was amazing to see these students take it upon themselves to compete to become our district’s top speller. I also wanted to congratulate Will C., an eighth grader from Cooper Middle School, who emerged victorious from the final competition held at our administrative office earlier in February. He now moves on to the 14th Annual North Cook ISC Scripps Spelling Bee later this month, so good luck! We’re rooting for you!

We also wanted to celebrate some of our staff who were recently recognized with Those Who Excel awards from the Illinois State Board of Education This includes Abby Pillow, Jaime Steinike and Brenda Theisen from London Middle School, and Jeremy Holtmeier from Tarkington Elementary School We’re tremendously proud of these four, along with all of our previous recipients

Other highlights:

● A reminder about the 5Essentials Survey, a culture and climate survey that is currently available

● A preview of our upcoming School Safety Week, which is running from March 20-22

We are really looking forward to March being a very successful and strong month for the district, and we’ll see you in April!

Respectfully,

Dr.

Michael Connolly

Superintendent of Schools

Watch the full video message here: Message from the Superintendent – March 2024

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER…

● Monday, March 18 – Preschool Non-Attendance Day

● Tuesday, March 19 – No School, Election Day

● Thursday, March 21 – Board of Education Meeting, 7 p m

● Monday, March 25 to Friday, March 29 – No School, Spring Break

● Monday, April 1 – Classes Resume

BUSINESS OFFICE UPDATES

● Introducing ParentView! In continued partnership with our transportation provider, First Student, we are delighted to announce the upcoming launch of the ParentView app, a powerful tool that will allow you to see real-time tracking of our school buses. Read more about it here.

Tel 847-520-2707

COMMUNICATIONS UPDATES

C ng Director of Communications cassandra.young@ccsd21.org Tel 847-520-2728

● Join us for a free Community Resource Fair! Our goal is to connect CCSD21 families with local resources available in our community More than 30 vendors will attend the free fair, which is scheduled from 5-8 p m on Friday, March 15, at London Middle School Play games, create crafts, enjoy a treat and find resources! Read more about the fair here For a Spanish version of the flyer, click here

● Four CCSD21 educators among ISBE’s honorees for extraordinary contributions to education: The Illinois State Board of Education’s Those Who Excel & Teacher of the Year program honors educators who have made significant contributions to the state’s public and nonpublic elementary and secondary schools. Read more here.

● Cooper’s Jazz Band I takes top honors at Jazz in the Meadows: The band placed first in the middle school division, which saw 14 other programs – including those at Holmes and London – also perform Read more here

Spring is Here (contributed by Sofia Horwitz, communications intern and senior at Buffalo Grove High School): Spring is officially here as we roll into March! The sun is beginning to shine through and melt winter away. The new grass sprouting and new flowers blooming makes it impossible to ignore that spring is the time for a fresh start. Read more here.

Micheal DeBartolo Assistant Superintendent for Finance & Operations/CSBO micheal debartolo@ccsd21 org

COMMUNICATIONS UPDATES (CONT.)

● ICYMI! Some of our eighth graders recently explored the heart of American history and democracy through a trip to Washington, D.C.! Here are some of their favorite pictures from the trip.

● Celebrities visit Riley! Third graders in Mrs Abel’s and Ms Zawadzki’s classes researched, wrote and dressed up as famous people for second graders to learn about Read more here

EQUITY & LEARNING UPDATES

Beatrice Reyes Childress Assistant Superintendent for Equity & Learning beatrice.childress@ccsd21.org

Tel 847-520-2743

● Take the 5Essentials Survey! Students, teachers and parents across Illinois have an opportunity to participate in the annual statewide survey, which is designed to generate a detailed picture of the inner workings of your child’s school. Read more about the survey here and visit this link to take the survey.

● Cooper eighth grader wins District 21 Spelling Bee: After an I-N-T-E-N-S-E 20 rounds of competition, Will C emerged as the victor of the bee, which was held on Feb 7 in the Community Service Center and Administrative Office Read more here

● ICYMI! We made a little video about the Chess Club at Longfellow Elementary School Check it out!

● Camp Invention STEM Camp is Back! Camp will be held June 10-14 from 9 a m to 3:30 p m for CCSD21 students entering grades 1-6 in the fall Look for an email early next week with more details! The application link will also be sent via ParentSquare at 6 a.m. on Friday, March 8.

● Let’s Celebrate!

Did You Know… As a district we are proud to celebrate the diversity of our learning community! Some of the celebrations taking place during the month of March include: Read Across America, International Women’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Greece’s Independence Day, Holi: Festival of Colors, Casimir Pulaski’s Day, Beginning of Ramadan. If you’d like to learn more, click on the links! If there is a celebration that we missed, don’t hesitate to reach out and share it with our Language Services Department.

EQUITY & LEARNING UPDATES (CONT.)

● Terrariums: Our sixth-grade students have been learning about matter and energy in ecosystems and have been working on creating their own terrarium. Students participated in mixing the soil using coco coir, orchid bark, sphagnum moss, sand and worm castings. Students had a great time building their terrariums, adding plants and decomposers (pill bugs and springtails) to their terrariums, and measuring the carbon dioxide levels They are learning a lot about photosynthesis, cellular respiration and how carbon moves between things that are living and things that are not living Each student will bring their terrarium home to continue to observe the ecosystem they built Check out pictures from London, Holmes and Cooper!

HUMAN RESOURCES UPDATES

Robert Gurney

Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources

robert gurney@ccsd21 org

Tel 847-520-2724

Becoming a Substitute in District 21: We had some wonderful new sub candidates that applied to work with us this past spring and throughout the summer Many of these subs are from our community! We’re excited for these additions to our sub group but we’re not done yet. We are continuing to hire subs each month. Please let your neighbors and friends know that we are still hiring throughout the school year

Whether you want to help us out one day a week or every single day, the choice is yours. Apply here

We still have openings in our sub pool for the following positions:

● Secretary - $100/day

● Health Assistant - $100/day

● Teaching Assistant - $125/day

● Teacher - $137/day

● Long term teacher (more than 10 days in the same classroom) - $220/day

In addition, any subs who work 100 days this year will receive a $1,000 bonus at the end of the year

● How to Apply for a Short-term Substitute License

● How to Apply for a Short-term Substitute License

INFORMATION SERVICES UPDATES

Mike Frantini Chief Technology Officer

mike frantini@ccsd21 org Tel. 847-520-2732

● CCSD21 approves contract with WANRack for private fiver wide area network solution, services: The fully underground, private fiber lit ring network will provide the district with an extremely resilient and secure fiber network. Read more here.

Student Technology Media

Balance Tips: K-5 students were introduced to Digital Citizenship Mini Talks this month in the LMC and specials We encourage you to have a conversation with your student about their activity online–which apps they’re using, who they talk to, and who their online role models are It’s important to encourage transparency from your student so as situations come up, they’re not afraid to come to you for advice

Here are some helpful tips about media balance:

1. Have a family charging station in your living room or shared space for your student to charge their Chromebook, phone, smart watch, and/or tablet. This reduces the temptation to use devices overnight when they should be sleeping.

2 Consider Screen Time for Apple devices or Digital Wellbeing for Android These apps help your student keep track of how much time they’re spending on their phone or tablet, and you can set limits for them

3 Teach your student what it means to be balanced with tech They don’t have to be perfect: the key is self-awareness If they spend two hours playing games one day, for example, perhaps they limit themselves to just 30 minutes the next day

4 They should also pay attention to how games and social media make them feel If they’re getting anxious or overwhelmed, consider taking a break or temporarily deleting an app

SUPPORT SERVICES & SCHOOL SAFETY UPDATES

Kim Cline Assistant Superintendent for Support Svcs & School Safety

kim clilne@ccsd21 org

Tel 847-520-2717

● CCSD21 Bullying Policy and Restorative Justice Practices: Bullying, as defined by the National Center Against Bullying, is characterized by ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical, and/or social, targeted behavior that intends physical, social, and/or psychological harm. In CCSD21, we have adopted this definition to actively work towards fostering a safe and inclusive environment for all students. Read more here (scroll down).

● A Message from the School Resource Officers: Looking Back – As we march toward Spring Break, we would like to reflect and share some of the exciting activities we have done within the school district. Read more here.

● “Change Your Clock, Change Your Batteries!” As Daylight Savings Time is quickly approaching (Sunday, March 10!), our area fire departments wanted to relay the above message Newer detectors have a 10-year battery that will eventually make this message obsolete, but we’re not there yet! Read more here (scroll down)

● School Safety Week 2024: In our continuous efforts to maintain a safe and secure learning environment for every student, every day, we are dedicating March 20-22 as our Spring 2024 Safety Week! This initiative is part of our broader mission to ensure engaging, innovative, equitable and safe learning experiences for all. During this time, we will practice emergency scenarios based on the Standard Response Protocol, a comprehensive approach to safety that has been carefully developed and implemented across our district

The SRP drills are designed to prepare our community –students, staff and parents – for various emergency situations, providing clear, consistent instructions for different scenarios Read more about it here (scroll down)

BOARD OF EDUCATION

February 22, 2024 Board Meeting

The livestream video of the February 22 Board of Education meeting can be viewed here.

Next Meeting

The next regularly scheduled Board of Education meeting of Community Consolidated School District 21, Wheeling, Cook County, IL, will be held on March 21, 2024 at 7 p.m. at the CCSD21 Community Service Center and Administrative Office, 959 W Dundee Rd., Wheeling IL, 60090

537-8270

www.ccsd21.org