Fremont Focus

In the spirit of educating our students on the importance of selflessness and service, Fremont School District 79 participates in a wide variety of service projects, spanning across all of our schools. The value of giving back is especially magnified this time of year. With that, we'd like to highlight a sampling of some of the service projects in which our Fremont community participates.

• In October, the fourth-graders visited Bernie's Book Bank where they sorted and organized books to prepare them for donation.
• Also in October, the fifth-graders volunteered their time at Feed My Starving Children where they prepared and packaged meals to assist in feeding malnourished children around the world.
• Middle school students who are a part of the Mundelein After School Coalition collected turkeys to donate to over 80 Mundelein-area families for Thanksgiving, while also participating in a road cleanup event.
• Seventh-grade students donated and collected items this fall to benefit an area homeless shelter.
• The Middle School Student Council has been making and selling bracelets to show their support for a teacher who has been battling health issues.
• Coming up next week, the grades 1/2 and 3/4 multi-age classes will be participating in their annual field trip to Target in Mundelein (pictured) where they will be purchasing items for donation to the Fremont Township Food Pantry.

This is just a portion of the service efforts in which the District participates with other grades set to take part in other projects in the coming weeks and months. Service is ingrained in our District goal of a Safe, Healthy & Connected Culture and we look forward to continuing to give back to our community.

In alignment with the Strategic Plan goal area of Talent Recruitment & Development, Fremont School District 79 is participating in the BloomBoard teacher degree and certification program. The District's participation is funded through the Illinois Teacher Vacancy Grant. BloomBoard works with higher education institutions to offer residency-like degree and certification programs that develop educators’ skills and advance their careers through a unique on-the-job learning model. To learn more about the program, please watch the video below.

Please read the following newsletter for detailed information, but here is a summary of key dates for quick access:

• December 13 - Early Release Schedule (MS dismissed at 2:13 p.m.; ES/IS dismissed at 3:08 p.m.)
• December 18 - Board of Education meeting (live stream), 7:00 p.m. (Middle School Media Center)
• December 20 - Early Release Schedule (MS dismissed at 2:13 p.m.; ES/IS dismissed at 3:08 p.m.)
• December 20 - PTO Meeting, 6:00 p.m. (Middle School Media Center)
• December 22 - Wednesday Early Release Right at School and Transportation registration deadline (see below)
• December 22 - January 5 - Winter Break (Students Not in Attendance)
• January 8 - Teacher Institute Day (Students Not in Attendance)
• January 10 - Early Release Schedule (MS dismissed at 2:13 p.m.; ES/IS dismissed at 3:08 p.m.)
• January 15 - No School (Students Not in Attendance)

Registration is now open for Wednesday after-school (3:08 - 4:08 p.m.) childcare program for K-5 students following winter break.

PLEASE NOTE: This registration will cover January 10, 2024 through the remainder of the 2023-2024 school year. Registration no longer will be occurring in four-week increments. In order to register your student(s) for after-school childcare on Wednesdays throughout the remainder of the school year, you must do so by December 22. Please review the following two-step registration process:

FOR CHILDCARE

To participate, families must register via the Right at School website by Friday, December 22.

FOR BUS TRANSPORTATION

If 4:08 p.m. bus transportation home is necessary, parents must complete this form for every child needing bus transportation by Friday, December 22. These bus routes are run similar to activity buses with neighborhood group stops. If you do not register your child(ren) for bus transportation, you are committing to picking your child(ren) up each week.

It is important to note that requests made after December 22 cannot be accommodated due to our need to devise a safe supervision and transportation plan.

The next meeting of the Fremont School District 79 Board of Education will be held Monday, December 18 at 7:00 p.m. at the Fremont Middle School Media Center. The meeting will include the following presentations:

• Professional Learning Communities Update
• Preliminary 2024-2025 Staffing Plan

In addition, there will be information presented regarding the Ivanhoe Village development. A live video stream of the meeting will be available via the District’s YouTube page. The stream will go live shortly before the start of the meeting. Recaps of previous Board meetings can be found here. The Board meeting agenda and materials can be accessed here. Board materials are available by noon on December 18.

As the District continues to address safety and the bus driver shortage, a transportation task force was created consisting of parents, bus drivers, and administrators. The goal of the task force is to create safer and more efficient bus routes, inclusive of parent input. The task force is evaluating a number of potential solutions for how to best support the District’s safety and efficiency goals, which may result in the reduction of some bus stops to also hopefully alleviate the potential risk of accidents. Formal recommendations will be reviewed and discussed in January. We will continue to keep families apprised of the developments.

As we plan for our future and launch our Educational Long-Range Facility Plan (ELFP), the District is forming a steering committee to refine and advise our plan throughout the year-long process. The committee will be inclusive of District administrators, board members, parents, community members, and teachers. This group will meet once per month, either in person or virtually. We have identified the first five meeting dates: 1/22, 2/28, 3/21, 4/29 & 5/29. We are seeking individuals with diverse experience and backgrounds to help us plot our future course. Please complete this form by January 10 to express your interest in being a member of this committee.

As a District, we are entering year two of full District implementation of standards-based grading practices and we wanted to reshare and highlight the SBG principles that are core to our work in this area. We highlighted three of our principles in the most recent edition of the Fremont Focus. Here are our next three.

Principle 4 - Not Everything Should be Included in Grades

What does this mean for my child(ren)? Students should not be penalized for early attempts in learning. Students are not graded as they are learning the information, but after the learning has occurred. Students need to have enough "practice" in order to be successful.

Principle 5 - Avoid Grading Based on (Mean) Averages

What does this mean for my child(ren)? A student should not be penalized for their early attempts to demonstrate learning and a teacher should not be limited in their ability to communicate student growth and attainment of learning targets. When reporting student progress on a standard, teachers can use any and all evidence to gauge a student’s progress. Averaging and algorithms are unnecessary in reporting whether or not a student has mastered a standard.

Principle 6 - Focus on Achievement, and Report Other Factors Separately

What does this mean for my child(ren)? A student’s academic achievement should be the only aspect included in their academic grade. For example, a student’s math grades should reflect their math achievement. Other important behaviors, such as completing tasks on time and organizational skills, during math should be reported separately. These behaviors are of the utmost importance to their success and should be explicitly, and separately, communicated in their habits of success category.

Our goal is for you to see these principles in action as we continue on our standards-based grading implementation journey together. Stay tuned for additional communications and feel free to visit our Standards-Based Grading webpage for further information.

FSD79 has immediate openings for the following positions:

District Office
Board Certified Behavior Analyst

Fremont Elementary School
Elementary School Principal (Grades K-2) (starting for 2024-2025 school year)
Special Education Teacher (Resource)

Fremont Intermediate School
Social Worker (Long Term Substitute)
Reading Specialist
Lunchroom Supervisor (Substitute)

Fremont Middle School
English Language Learner Paraprofessional (Spanish)
Special Education Teacher (Resource)

Transportation
Bus Driver

To learn more or for a complete listing of all current job openings throughout the District, please click here.

The development of STEM opportunities are embedded in the District's Strategic Plan. In collaboration with the Hour of Code, Fremont Elementary School students have been learning how to code BeeBots in Technology class to have them move proper distances and directions so that they draw desired shapes and create other forms of art.

Good luck to our 7th- and 8th-grade (pictured) boys basketball teams at Fremont Middle School as they prepare to wrap up their seasons at their respective conference tournaments next week!

ReferralGPS is a service providing assistance to our community in finding local mental-

health and substance use related treatment resources. The service compliments the

districts existing systems of support as a tool for student service teams and families to

connect with treatment. Along with a searchable database of treatment options,

ReferralGPS provides Care Navigation to assist families in triage and appointment

setting.

School district staff and families may access ReferralGPS in two ways:

1. Contact Student Services (social workers, psychologists, counselors) to seek out

treatment options

2. Visit this link at https://referralgps.com/find-help/FSD79 to search for

treatment resources or connect with a Care Navigator anonymously

The platform has the ability to filter by mental health concern, clinician gender/specialty,

location, and insurance acceptance. The service is available for all types of private and

public insurance options including PPO, HMO, Medicaid, and families that are

uninsured or underinsured.

ReferralGPS is available for use by District students, staff, and families at no cost. All

information entered on the ReferralGPS tool is completely confidential and securely

stored.

Please note, this service is an optional resource available by choice and is not

mandatory in any way. If you are interested in seeking counseling-related services at

this time, please consider reaching out to the Student Services team or visiting

https://referralgps.com/find-help/FSD79.

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 p.m. Our next meeting is on December 20. Here is the list of all meeting dates for the 2023-2024 school year.

To stay in the know of what Fremont PTO is up to, follow and tag us on social media:

Instagram: @fremontpto

Facebook: Fremont PTO

YEARBOOK INFO
Order your student's 2023-2024 yearbook. Use the correct school code from our flyer when you order!

WINTER CLASS PARTIES UPDATE
Party Hosts for the Winter Classroom 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 and have not been assigned to host a party will not be invited to attend the party.

Please visit the PTO webpage for the most up-to-date information.

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. Current offerings include:

• Mundelein Baseball & Softball Association
• Mundelein Soccer Club

The next edition of the Fremont Focus will be distributed on Wednesday, January 17. 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