District Newsletter

Our maintenance, custodial, and warehouse staff have been working harder than ever with all of the changes happening in our schools lately with #Moving15Forward. We hosted a gratitude lunch at Plum Grove as a small token of our appreciation for them. We truly cannot thank these teams enough for all that they do for D15!

Did you know? Attending school regularly helps students build stronger friendships and develop important social skills.
Tip: Encourage your child to join school activities and clubs that foster teamwork and peer connections. Consistent attendance helps your child stay engaged both socially and academically. Let’s work towards fewer than 9 absences this school year!

Some middle school families will notice a slight change in the timeline with 504 Annual Meetings this year. This year we are shifting meetings to be conducted within the first quarter rather than the first few weeks of school. This allows teachers to get to know the student better and determine if the accommodations are being used successfully within the classroom and/or if accommodations need to be removed or changed. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation through this slight shift in practice.

In the event a crisis should occur in one of our schools, it is important that you, as parents and guardians, understand our response protocol, starting with the terms we use. This information was shared earlier in the year, but we’d like to emphasize the terminology we are currently using.

• If a school is placed in a Hold, students and staff will clear the hallways and hold in their classroom or area. Students outside for recess or PE will stay outside. Students and staff will continue their normal routine in their location. We will call a Hold when we need to keep the hallways clear to attend to an individual, such as a medical emergency. In these instances, we will only be contacting the families of the students affected, we will not be sending a school-wide communication.
  

• If a school is in Secure, there is a situation in the community where the police or school officials believe it is safer to move all students inside the school. During Secure, students will continue learning but visitors will not be admitted to the school. Students will not be dismissed at the end of the day until law enforcement has determined it is safe to do so. All families will be notified when the building is in Secure and when Secure has been lifted.

• A Lockdown is called when there is an armed or dangerous individual in the building or a serious situation exists that could jeopardize the safety of students and staff. District 15 would call, text and email parents and guardians. We promise to communicate with you as soon as possible. Please be patient as our first priority will be the safety of our students and staff.

This fall all classes will be participating in Erin's Law Lessons that have been designed by mental health clinicians. These age-appropriate lessons have been created for general education, special education, and low incidence programs. All information regarding Erin's law is posted on our website. Your building principal will be sharing more correspondence with you as it gets closer to the presentations.

Students in grades 5-8 will start the Mental Health Awareness Program in October and finish in March. The theme for all grade levels is to provide a foundation of understanding and recognizing mental health. Fifth graders will learn about everyday and overwhelming feelings. There is a strong emphasis on help-seeking and coping strategies. Sixth-and seventh-grade lessons will provide an introduction to depression and promote good mental health and help-seeking strategies. Eighth grade will cover depression and suicide as well as good mental health and help-seeking strategies.

As a reminder, 2024-25 Student Fees were due on June 1, 2024. Log in to Infinite Campus to review your balance and make payments. Any questions regarding student fees can be directed to Kameswari Pullela, Business Department, 847-963-3065.

School board members are elected by their local communities during a non-partisan, consolidated election and serve four-year terms. The next consolidated election will be held April 1, 2025. For more information about school board elections, please visit our website.

The State of Illinois requires that a health examination be conducted within one year prior to the first day of school. The Health Exam Form is due on October 15, 2024. Please visit the Health Exams and Immunizations page on our website for more information.

According to Board of Education Policy 7:100 Health, Eye, and Dental Examinations, Immunizations, and Exclusion of Students and the Illinois School Code, students who do not provide proof of receiving the required immunization and/or exam are excluded from school on October 15. Students new to Illinois schools, who register midterm, are allowed 30 days following registration to comply with the health requirements. Each school nurse is able to provide community resources to families needing assistance with locating a provider to meet this state health requirement.

Did you know? Our new website can easily be translated into the 11 most common languages used in our district: Spanish, Ukrainian, Polish, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Telugu, Hindi, Bulgarian, Urdu, and Tamil.

To view our website in another language, to go to our website, click on the translation icon in the upper right corner, and choose your language of choice.

LEARN15 is a place where we list all learning opportunities for parents, where they can engage with school leaders, educational experts, and other parents—many delivered in-person, live streamed, or available on demand. Click here to check out upcoming Learn15 events.

Welcome to GoGuardian Parent! Our school has just granted parents access to GoGuardian Parent, a mobile app designed to provide parents/guardians insight and control over their student's online activity when on school-managed devices and accounts. First, the GoGuardian Parent app provides an overview of your children's online activity on school-managed devices and accounts - this overview includes the apps, extensions, documents, and websites your student visited. Second, GoGuardian Parent provides parents with an additional set of internet controls that can be set for out-of-school hours. GoGuardian Parent was created to help provide students additional educational support and is a companion to the classroom engagement and internet filtering tools that our school uses.

Please review our GoGuardian Parent Information document on how to download this app and sign in. This app uses the parent email that was used for school registration. Please contact your building’s secretary if you need to update that email address.

Language is an integral part of our identities and plays an important role in maintaining communication and relationships with families. Please check out this resource from WIDA (the WIDA consortium is a group of states dedicated to the design and implementation of high standards and equitable educational opportunities for English learners) in English, Arabic, Dari, Korean, Pashto, Chinese, Ukrainian, or Spanish for ideas to strengthen your family’s connections through language.

This event will be on October 15, 2024 virtually in English from 7:00-8:30p.m. This will be a two part event. The first part focuses on D15's Mental Health Awareness Program for students in grades 5-8. The second part of the evening will be a C3 (Community Connect to Care) presentation from Ascension about overall mental health and connecting it to care in the community. Visit the LEARN15 page the event details on our website.

Principals will be sharing out more communication about these presentations as the date gets closer.

There will be a virtual SPARK (Special Education Parents Accessing Resources and Knowledge) Meeting on Thursday, October 17 from 7:00-8:30 p.m. The meeting will cover applying DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) skills for better outcomes.

View the attached flier for more information.

The Early Intervention team at John Conyers Learning Academy is holding three free screenings (by appointment only) this school year for children up to 33 months old. The first screening date is October 23. Please see the flier or call Conyers Learning Academy (847-963-3400) with any questions.

You’re invited to Catch Up with Heinz! Our Superintendent, Dr. Laurie Heinz, invites community members to attend this open discussion-style meeting with her on Tuesday, October 29 from 1:00-2:00 p.m. The event will be hosted at Palatine Village Hall in Room A. This is a great opportunity to have meaningful conversations and come together as a community. We hope to see you there!

• October 9: Board of Education Meeting

• October 14: No school- Teacher Plan Day

• October 15: D15 Mental Health Awareness Parent Night (English)

• October 17: SPARK Meeting

• October 23: Free Developmental Screenings

• Oct 29: Catch Up With Heinz @ Palatine Village Hall

• Add dates up through the next scheduled newsletter, and sometimes a week or so beyond that include important events

• Nov 4 SPARK Meeting

• Nov 5 No School - Election Day

• Nov 6 - LEARN15 - IEP’s - The Basics & Beyond