Fremont Focus

Fremont School District 79 in the midst of building a shared vision for our future and setting meaningful goals as we draft our 2023-2027 Strategic Plan. In the first phase of the plan development, we held focus groups with staff, students, parents, and community members. We accumulated 70 hours worth of feedback from approximately 450 students, parents, staff, and community members ages 8-80+ via our Superintendent Entry Plan meetings.

The information shaped our January strategic planning survey, which we are pleased to say resulted in over 1,000 responses (survey reports available online).

Upon thorough review of the survey results, it was encouraging to see how many priorities aligned across constituent groups. Key themes emerged relating to student growth and achievement, social and emotional health and well-being, and recruitment and retention of staff. Alignment was evident in priority areas such as:

• managing stress while building resilience;
• development of critical thinking skills;
• engaging in hands-on real world problem-solving;
• having an emotionally safe and respectful environment; and
• opportunities for student leadership.

Our narrowed focus on the Fremont community’s priorities is driving our efforts forward, with the goal of taking Fremont School District 79 to the next level. Please make plans to join us at one of our upcoming parent focus group meetings (see below) to further help inform how we institute these priorities within our schools.

This collective, community effort, anchored by ongoing communication and fiscal responsibility, ensures our strategic direction builds momentum. There is an exciting future on Fremont’s horizon!

• February 2 - ELL/Bilingual and Parent Outreach Night (event flyer), 6:30 p.m. (Fremont Elementary School)
• February 9 - Parent Focus Group (RSVP form), 7 p.m. (Middle School DEN)
• February 15 - PTO Meeting, 6 p.m. (Middle School DEN)
• February 20 - Presidents Day (No School)
• February 21 - Parent Focus Group (RSVP form), 7 p.m. (Middle School DEN)
• February 27 - Board of Education Meeting (live stream); 7 p.m. (Middle School DEN)

After extensive study of both the educational and financial impact on full-day kindergarten, the FSD79 Board of Education voted to discontinue charging tuition for the full-day kindergarten program. Beginning in the 2023-2024 academic year, free full-day kindergarten will be available for all children in FSD79.

By eliminating tuition, more students are able to enroll in our full-day program and benefit academically, socially, and emotionally. These changes are possible due to favorable cost management by the District, as well as the availability of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds.

Kindergarten registration for 2023-2024 academic year is currently open. Please click here for more information. In the event a family still wishes to enroll their child in half-day kindergarten, this option will remain available.

If you have any further questions, please contact Stefan Ladenburger (sladenburger@fsd79.org), Elementary School principal, or Cathy Park (cpark@fsd79.org), Elementary School associate principal.

In an effort to connect the FSD79 Board of Education and the community, the District is creating a summary of monthly, regular Board meetings. To view a recap of the January 23 meeting, please click here.

Fremont School District 79 is encouraging parents to pre-register for the tuition-based preschool program for the 2023-2024 school year.

Please fill out the Tuition-Based Preschool Program 2023-24 form to show your interest in enrolling your child in this program for Fall 2023. The cost is $3,500 per year without transportation and $3,750 with transportation. FSD79's tuition-based program runs 2.5 hours a day, 5 days a week, and follows the 2023-2024 Fremont school calendar. Certified staff prepares students for the Fremont kindergarten program.

Questions can be directed to Carol Bennett at cbennett@fsd79.org or at 847-949-2720.

We invite you to join us in shaping the future of Fremont School District 79. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Trisha Kocanda is hosting another round of parent strategic planning input sessions as a follow-up to the fall sessions.

Over the last six months, we have accumulated 70 hours worth of feedback from approximately 450 students, parents, staff, and community members ages 8-80+ via our Superintendent Entry Plan meetings. All of these interactions resulted in a set of themes and proposed areas of focus, many of which aligned across the different constituent groups. These themes were presented at the January 23 board meeting. This information shaped our recent strategic planning survey, which resulted in over 1,000 responses from our parents, community members, and staff, as we asked them to prioritize our vision and goals for the future.

We are excited to share our findings with you and have you inform the goals and vision for the District’s next Strategic Plan. Please make plans to join us for one of these upcoming opportunities:

Thursday, February 9 – 7:00-8:00 p.m., Fremont Middle School DEN

Tuesday, February 21 – 7:00-8:00 p.m., Fremont Middle School DEN

Childcare for individuals ages 3+ will be provided by Fremont Middle School students.

To RSVP, please visit: https://forms.gle/4h6Gm6P9MRQGvBYMA

Fremont Middle School students had a wonderful time giving back to our community last week by providing tech support for some of the senior residents of Grand Dominion by Del Webb.

This fall, the District collaborated with external experts on a thorough security audit. The

result of this assessment produced a comprehensive report indicating areas for improvement and recommendations to enhance building security. The District is addressing the recommendations by completing them with our own staff as well as collaborating with the Lake County Sheriff's Office, Wold Architects, and FEA officials to address some of the bigger items that could be added to the Master Facilities Plan. To view an update of the District's efforts as it relates to the security audit, please click here.

This is an installment to accompany a series of communications regarding our implementation of standards-based grading across the district. Our District website has prior communications and additional resources posted.

As families continue to grow in their understanding of our standards-based grading practices, a good understanding of the academic levels of progression used in our classes is important. Here is a deeper dive into the meaning behind levels 3 and 4:

Level 4 (Extending)

What does this level mean? The student extends grade level expectations by deeply and independently applying and utilizing concepts and skills.

What does this level not mean? This level is not the equivalent to an “A” in a traditional letter grade system. While there is no direct comparison to a letter grade, any level 4 grades a student receives represents some deep and impressive understanding.

Level 3 (Meeting)

What does this level mean? The student demonstrates grade level expectations for concepts and skills.

What does this level not mean? This level is not the equivalent to an “A” (or a “B”) in a traditional letter grade system. While there is no direct comparison to a letter grade, any level 3 grades a student receives should be recognized as commendable understanding and achievement.

You can read about our academic levels, including Level 2 (Approaching) and Level 1 (Beginning) in our Standards-Based Grading Guidebook. Our goal is to use these levels to provide the most informative, objective, and clear reporting of achievement so that we may collectively promote continued student growth.

Fremont Intermediate School student had the opportunity to take part in a presentation on severe weather from Illinois Storm Chasers last week. The students were captivated and loved the awesome science experiments. Thank you to Fremont PTO for helping make it possible.

For all the most up-to-date news and notes regarding the Fremont PTO, please be sure to visit the organization's webpage.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

• The Fremont PTO would love to see you at our meetings this year! Meetings are on the third Wednesday of the month in the Middle School DEN at 6:00 pm. Our next meeting is on February 15. Here is the list of all meeting dates for the 2022-2023 school year.
• The Sweetheart Dance is back on February 11! See details below.

SWEETHEART DANCE

On Saturday, February 11 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. come enjoy a sweet evening of dancing with your special little someone (dads, granddads, uncles, or any other figure is welcome to escort). All ages are welcome to put on their best and pose with their adult for pictures. Refreshments and a craft will be available as well. See flyer for registration details.

VALENTINE'S DAY CLASS PARTIES

Party Hosts for the Valentine’s Day Class Parties have been assigned and notified. Each class party is designated 3 Party Hosts. If more than 3 parents signed up for a classroom party, volunteers were chosen at random. Please note: All remaining parents who have not been notified, have not been assigned to host a party will not be invited to attend the party.

ART AWARENESS VOLUNTEERS

It's not too late to be an Art Awareness volunteer! If you enjoy putting together projects for kids, we could use your help in the K-5 classrooms. As an art awareness volunteer, you simply put a project together that can be tied to an artist, schedule a time with the teacher to go in and present the lesson to the kids. The students absolutely love it and it only requires about 2 hours a month of your time. We have plenty of resources and supplies available for you to use. The classroom teacher is always there to assure you have a positive experience. You don't need to have a background in teaching or art. Contact Lauren Rollinger at lauren.rollinger@gmail.com

FSD79 offers local groups and organizations the opportunity to advertise their upcoming events in the Virtual Backpack. To submit your group's event for consideration, please submit a PDF flyer to publicrelations@fsd79.org. Check back regularly for upcoming offerings. Events that are upcoming include:

• Mundelein HS Town Hall

• Carmel Catholic HS Street Scenes Student Show

• Stevenson HS Patriot Recreation Education Program

• Saturday STEAMers

The next edition of the Fremont Focus will be distributed on Wednesday, February 22. This will be in addition to the weekly e-newsletters sent on Fridays from principals at the school level.

Address: 28855 North Fremont Center Road, Mundelein, IL

Phone: (847) 566-0169

Website: fsd79.org

Facebook: facebook.com/FremontSchoolDistrict79

Twitter: @FSD79

Instagram: @FSD79

YouTube: youtube.com/FSD79