Tax Levy Update
The Board of Education heard from Ms. Fran LaBella, Associate Superintendent, on the tax levy options that will provide funding for fiscal year 2026. District 161 is eligible for the Property Tax Relief Grant, so we will once again be able to provide some positive relief to taxpayers, while still being able to offer high quality programs and services for our community. The Board of Education will discuss the tax levy again on Monday, November 11, 2024, before voting on the actual levy on Monday, December 2, 2024. This report covers a general overview of the available decisions and this presentation contains projection models and other information that you may find useful.
Construction Timeline
The District 161 Long Range Plan is in full swing and we are preparing for a lot of construction during the Summer of 2025. Because of the amount of work, we will need to push the start of the school year back approximately 2 weeks. While this will help the construction timeline, it may negatively impact families who have siblings attending a local high school or Parker students who take classes at HF High School. We are working closely with the HF administration to make sure that our students do not miss out on any important instruction next August. The plan is to present a draft of the calendar to the Board of Education in December for review.
Fall Data Presentation
Ms. Amabel Crawford, Director of Learning and Instruction, and Ms. Jackie Janicke, Director of Special Education, were excited to share the Fall Data Presentation with the Board of Education this week. This presentation shares school and district information about our Fall NWEA MAP and Aimsweb testing data. In addition, it contains behavior, attendance, and grade data that we use to identify and work with students who need additional support.
School Improvement Plan Updates
On a rotating basis, building leaders will update the Board of Education on the progress of their School Improvement Plans. As a school district, we are focused on maintaining clear alignment from the Board of Education all of the way to the classroom level. By frequently reviewing and discussing the work that is happening in our schools, the Board of Education and the community have an opportunity to hear about our improvement plans and to offer suggestions as needed. This month, Flossmoor Hills, Heather Hill, and Serena Hills reviewed their plans and the presentation can be found at this link.
Summer Academy Update
Every summer, we welcome students to continue their learning during our Summer Academy program. At our recent meeting, we discussed a presentation by Ms. LaTanya Bennett and Ms. Tamika Britten on the Summer 2024 experience. We are already preparing for next summer’s program and we are looking forward to being able to provide more focused student instruction using information and feedback from our standards-based grading process. We will be able to focus our efforts on the areas that our students need to develop the most to accelerate their learning.
Studer / Standards of Excellence
In order for us to increase the effectiveness of our school organization, we are partnering with Studer Education to refine our processes, gather meaningful feedback from our students, staff, and parents, and to assist with the development of a district scorecard that the Board of Education can use to track our overall progress. We are going to begin with the development of our Standards of Excellence [SOE]. The standards will guide how we work internally and how we serve the Flossmoor District 161 Community. This link will provide you with additional information, examples of some Standards of Excellence, and our next steps overall.
