The 21 Ledger

We’re excited to announce that the 2025-2026 academic year calendar is now live! Families can plan ahead for the upcoming school year.

The full calendar, featuring all important dates and holidays, is available on the District 21 website. We encourage families to review the calendar and plan accordingly. We’re looking forward to another successful year of learning and growth in CCSD21!

We are excited to invite all middle school families to our first Family Learning Program event of 2025: "Get Connected! Tools for You and Your Family" at 6 p.m. on January 28 at Holmes Middle School! This informative session will introduce parents to essential tools available in our district, including ParentSquare, PowerSchool, Varsity Tutors, and Google Classroom.

Discover how these platforms can help you stay informed, support your child’s academic journey, and foster better communication with teachers and staff.

Check out these flyers for more information, and click the button below to register!

• English
• Spanish
• Russian
• Ukrainian

Winter weather is here, and staying informed about school updates — including closures or schedule changes — is more important than ever. ParentSquare is your go-to tool for receiving timely alerts and staying connected with our district and your child’s school.

With ParentSquare, you’ll get:
✅ Instant notifications for school closures and delays
✅ Important updates from teachers, principals, and district leaders
✅ All communication in one place — no more missed messages!

If you haven’t already, download the ParentSquare app today on your mobile device or visit ParentSquare.com to ensure you never miss an update. Stay warm, stay informed, and stay connected!

We want to inform you about a recent data breach involving our third-party database platform we use for student records, PowerSchool. While we understand this news may be concerning, we are pleased to report that our district’s systems and data WERE NOT IMPACTED. Many other school districts across the country fell victim to the cyberattack and we have confirmed that our security and protocols successfully protected our student records.

We take our commitment to privacy and security very seriously, and have put many safeguards in place to protect the data and systems we are entrusted with. Much time and resources have been invested in the past several years to increase our cybersecurity posture to be able to protect district resources and information from cyberattacks such as this one.

Rest assured that we continue to monitor the situation closely and remain committed to safeguarding your information.

We are so excited to kick off our eighth year of Brad’s Bookworms!

Congressman Schneider’s initiative is devoted to the importance of encouraging children to read. The development of literacy skills among children is one of the most important lessons children learn in and out of school not only for personal development but for the doors literacy opens as well.

Even more important is maintaining those skills. And so, Congressman Schneider is excited to announce that this year, from now until February 1, 2025, children in grades K-5 in D21 are welcome to participate in Brad’s Bookworms!

Students are asked to read 10 books and log their progress with help from their parents, siblings, grandparents or other guardians. Once they have read 10 books, fill out the online submission form here.

Did you know...? Thinking about staying home? Research shows that students who miss more than 10 days a year are 20% less likely to graduate on time. By coming to school each day they aren’t sick, your student is staying on track for graduation.

The ACCESS Assessment for English Language testing window is January 15 to February 21. This is an assessment required by the state of Illinois that measures the students’ academic English language proficiency. Only students that qualify for language services will be taking the test. This assessment helps schools see the students' growth in their English language development and helps our district determine program support. If you have questions about this assessment, you can contact our Language Services Department or your child’s school. For more information, please click on the links: English, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian.

Did You Know… As a district we are proud to celebrate the diversity of our learning community! Some of the recognitions taking place during the month of January include: New Year’s Day, Epiphany/Three Kings Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Holocaust Remembrance Day. 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.

Do you speak and read Spanish? Do you enjoy working with children? Here’s your chance to make a meaningful difference in a student’s life!

Whitman Elementary School (133 Wille Ave, Wheeling) is seeking Spanish Reading Buddies to support students who are struggling to read.

Volunteer Hours:

• Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays
• Choose from 9:30 to 11 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.

All volunteers will receive training to confidently assist students.

Questions? Call 847-520-2805 or visit the flyer below for more information.

While classrooms sat quiet and hallways empty during winter break, Community Consolidated School District 21 was anything but idle. Teams of workers mobilized across the district to tackle vital upgrades and improvements aimed at enhancing school facilities and creating better learning environments for students and staff.

Data breaches happen all the time. Chances are, you've been part of one!

Visit https://haveibeenpwned.com/ and enter an email address to see what data breaches it's been a part of, and what information might be out there.

You can test the security of your passwords by typing them at Password Monster (no really, it's safe! honest!). The longer a password would take to crack, the safer it is.

Remember to always use a combination of capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Make your password 15 characters or longer to be extra secure, and use a different password for every account!

The last Friday before winter break was a flurry of activity across the district, as schools celebrated the season with sing-a-longs, in-classroom celebrations or special visitors. Check out some highlights below!

Join us in celebrating the incredible creativity of our middle school students at the One Grove Gallery Middle School Art Exhibition from 6-7 p.m. on Wednesday, January 22, at Buffalo Grove High School!

This showcase will feature a variety of artwork from talented students across all three of our middle schools (and Thomas Middle School in AHSD25), including paintings, sculptures, digital art, and more!

Check out the flyer below for more information!

The spirit of the holiday season glowed a little brighter at Twain this year, as the elementary school’s annual Giving Tree initiative wrapped up by embracing 58 students and their families. The community-based program, inspired by the children’s book of the same name, asks individuals or organizations to collect donations or organize drives to provide gifts, necessities or support to people in need, with a particular emphasis on children and families facing hardship.

The livestream video of the December 12, 2024, meeting of the Board of Education can be viewed here.

The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on January 16, 2025, at 7 p.m. at the District 21 Community Service Center and Administrative Office.