D15 Family Newsletter
September 8, 2023
Dear District 15 Families,
I am so thankful that we’ve had such a terrific beginning to the school year and hope you and your child(ren) have felt the same way. Thank you for your part in the success of our opening weeks of school. Our schools are humming along and continue to be great places for our students to learn and grow.
Want to thank a staff member that is going above and beyond in their efforts as a D15 employee – consider submitting a nomination for Those Who Excel.
Those Who Excel / Teacher of the Year Nominations
Each year, the Illinois Board of Education (ISBE) opens nominations for the Those Who Excel and Teacher of the Year state awards.
This year, District 15 is opening the nomination process to all parents, staff, and administrators in District 15. Please view this form for additional information regarding the categories for the Those Who Excel awards and the qualifications for the Teacher of the Year recognition.
Nominations are due Friday, September 22 at 12 pm. The District will then review all nominees and one District 15 employee will be selected for each category to move forward as the District nominee. District nominees will receive an email with information and next steps. Nominate an amazing educator today!
Board of Education Meeting
Reminder - 2023-24 Parent/Student Handbook
If you’re a new District 15 family, each month you will receive this family newsletter. We will share important District and departmental information and reminders. If you are a returning D15 family, welcome back for another school year! It has been great to not only see our students again, but we always appreciate the opportunity to see and connect with our families. Thank you for being active members of our D15 community.
As always, I very much appreciate your continued support of all things D15.
Your Partner in Education,
Laurie Heinz
MOVING 15 FORWARD
In case you missed it, check out the first episode of Moving 15 Forward News which includes a few of our students reporting about construction projects at their school!
SAFETY
Safety Drill Opt-Out
District 15 is strongly committed to school safety. Each year, schools are required by the Illinois School Code to conduct the following drills:
Three evacuation drills. One of the three evacuation drills must be supervised by the fire department.
One bus evacuation drill.
One severe weather/shelter-in-place drill.
Two law enforcement (lockdown) drills. One of these two law enforcement drills must be a staff-initiated lockdown. The schools also conduct an annual drill review meeting with principals and representatives from police and fire departments to continuously improve each school’s readiness to respond to an emergency and/or crisis situation.
House Bill 2400 (The School Safety Drill Act) states:
All lockdown drills will be announced to all school personnel and students prior to the commencement of the drill.
Schools will provide sufficient information and notification to parents and guardians in advance of any lockdown drill that involves the participation of students.
Schools will provide parents and guardians an opportunity to exempt their child for any reason from participating in the walk-through lockdown drill.
Schools will provide alternative safety education and instruction related to an active threat or active shooter event to students who do not participate in a walk-through lockdown drill to provide them with essential information, training, and instruction through less sensorial safety training methods.
Building administrators will notify families of upcoming drills at least one week in advance of the drill. If you prefer your child does NOT participate in the yearly required lockdown drills, please complete this form. Please submit one form for each of your children you are opting out.
National Emergency Alert Test - October 4 at 12:20 pm
On October 4 at 12:20 pm, a national emergency alert will go out on every TV, radio, and cellphone in the United States. As this alert will take place during a school day, we wanted everyone to be aware of this TEST emergency alert before its scheduled date. The test will last approximately one minute and will not be repeated. Staff will pause instruction for the minute it takes place and resume once the alert has passed.
We will share this information via our school announcements the week of the TEST so students are prepared when the distinctive emergency tone sounds along with the following message, “This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET. This is only a test. No action is required by the public."
On cell phones, it will come as a text message, “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”
Phones that have the main menu set to Spanish will see the following message, “ESTA ES UNA PRUEBA del Sistema Nacional de Alerta de Emergencia. No se necesita acción.”
While it is not ideal that this test is taking place during the school day, following the recent situation in Maui, we all can appreciate an emergency notification being tested to ensure it’s working properly.
NUTRITION SERVICES
Free & Reduced Applications
Thank you to all of the families that have completed an Application for Free and Reduced Lunch or the Application for Fee Waiver. Our staff is working on processing applications daily. Families can find the Application for Fee waiver and the Application for the Free and Reduced Lunch on the District website.
Payments for Breakfast/Lunch
Please note that money can be sent to the school that your student attends to be put on their breakfast/lunch account. Please make checks out to Nutrition Services and add the student's name to the note. Money can also be added to your SchoolCafé account.
TRANSPORTATION
To all families that ride our buses -- thank you for your patience and understanding as we work out the kinks that every new school year brings. If you have not done so already, please register for the StopFinder app which will have your child(ren)’s bus route information. We are still adding students to bus routes as they register which may cause your pick-up/drop-off time to change. StopFinder will have the most up-to-date information on your route.
Due to the bus driver shortage, we are still experiencing difficulty covering all routes daily. We apologize for the late buses, but we have been forced to double up some of our routes to cover routes that we do not have an assigned driver. We are constantly trying to recruit, train, and hire additional drivers to address the shortage.
Last week we notified families if their application for paid transportation was granted or denied. To reduce the number of routes on each tier, we have filled out buses to or near capacity this year. We were only able to grant paid transportation requests on a very limited basis due to the limited spots that were available on routes. We evaluated each request on a case-by-case basis, as to whether or not we had an open seat on a current route to be able to approve the request.
If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to Dr. Claire Kowalczyk at kowalczc@ccsd15.net.
BUSINESS / OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE
Student Fees were due June 1, 2023
District 15 charges a book rental, material, and technology fee to help defray the cost of educating more than 11,000 students. Fees are to be paid at the time of registration. Students who enroll late may pay the fees in the school office when they register.
2023-24 School Year:
Kindergarten: $90/student/year
Grades 1-6: $165/student/year
Grades 7-8: $180/student/year
Grade 8 Graduation Fee: $15.75/student
Student fees were due June 1, 2023 for the 2023-24 school year. An invoice is not sent home. Please see below for payment options (cash, check, credit card, or e-check.
Cash payments should be made by the parent in the office of the child's school where a payment receipt will be issued.
Check payments should be made payable to "CCSD15," and can be mailed to the District Office: Community Consolidated School District 15, 580 N. 1st Bank Drive, Palatine IL 60067-8110, Attn: Student Fees. Please note the student's name, amount paid, and parent's name should be included in the payment envelope. Returned check fee charge is $25 per check.
Credit card or e-check payments may also be submitted through Infinite Campus. You will need your Campus Parent portal email address and a valid credit card number. If you need assistance with your Campus Parent Portal email address, please call your child’s school for assistance. Parents who do not have Internet access may come to their child's school to process their credit card payments. A small convenience fee is added for credit card processing.
If your child is approved for the Free & Reduced-Price Meals Program, student fees will be automatically waived. All applications for the Free & Reduced-Price Meals Program should be sent to your child’s school or the Nutrition Service Dept.
Students who are homeless or are from low-income families or families experiencing financial hardship may request a student fee and fine waiver.
Questions regarding student fees can be directed to Iwona Mirek, Business Department, 847-963-3023, mireki@ccsd15.net.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Job Fairs
Join District 15 for an upcoming Job Fair -- You can apply onsite!
Dates: Every Wednesday through September
Location: ESC - 580 N. 1st Bank Drive, Palatine, IL 60067
Time: 11:00 am- 2:00 pm
Please contact Jamie Randell (randellj@ccsd15.net) or Andy Elbert (elberta@ccsd15.net) with any questions.
COMMUNICATION
District 15 has a free mobile app!
The D15 Mobile App allows parents quick access to important school and district information, including important school alerts, Campus Parent, the D15 Bullying Tip Line, lunch menus, class schedules, parent/student handbook, staff directories, district and school news, and more.
The District 15 mobile app is available in the App Store and Google Play! To download the free app, search for "CCSD15."
To see integrated student information on the app, click the "student information" button and log-in using your email address and your Campus Parent password. If you are unsure of your password, please visit Infinite Campus and click "forgot password." If you are still having trouble, please contact your school's main office for assistance.
If you are NOT a parent or staff member of District 15 and would like to receive notifications when school is closed and other district news, download the free mobile app to receive push notifications.
Go to Notifications, Settings, and choose the schools you wish to receive push notifications from.
TEACHING, LEARNING, & ASSESSMENT
Supporting Your Students at Home with EPIC School Plus
Starting the 2023-24 school year, all students at District 15 have access to EPIC-Books for Kids! EPIC is a website that offers access to books online for free. This resource can be used nonstop for students to a digital library of over 40,000 premium books. Follow these steps to learn how you can access this resource on your home devices.
EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
Mental Health Awareness Programming
Mental Health Awareness programming will begin in grades 5th-8th grade starting in October. Your building principal will be sending out a separate communication which will outline the details of this program. We are hosting a virtual and in person parent night to learn about the program that is being offered to your student(s). Here is the informational flyer in English and Spanish. We are encouraging families to pre-register using this link. We look forward to seeing you online or in person at Winston Elementary School on September 26th.
FastBridge
Each year, District 15 carefully monitors each child’s academic progress. Part of this monitoring includes using a series of quick, standardized tests using the FastBridge Assessment System. This data, combined with information from other assessments, is used to guide instruction and assess growth. All students in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade take FastBridge assessments in the Fall, Winter, and Spring of each school year. FastBridge uses brief measures of early literacy and math at the Kindergarten and first grade levels. These brief assessments provide data on an early learner’s reading and math development. The FastBridge assessments typically take less than 10 minutes per student, but the data gained provides teachers with insights and suggestions to help address each child’s needs.
Fastbridge test results for students in kindergarten through second grade, from the fall, winter, and spring testing periods, will be available to parents via the Infinite Campus Parent Portal. The results for Fall will be posted mid-October. When you log into the Infinite Campus Parent Portal you will need to select "more" from the dropdown window and then select "Assessments".
To learn more about each assessment and how to interpret your child's scores please visit our district website.
The Boys and Girls Club is Hiring Youth Development Professionals
Please see the flyer for additional information.
ONE-FIVE FOUNDATION
One-five Foundation Looking for Trustees
The one-five Foundation is looking for additional trustees for the 2023-2024 school year. If you know someone who would make a good trustee, please share the one-five’s website with them for more information or to apply!
COMMUNITY
Palatine Chamber of Commerce Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA)
Do you have a junior high school student who has aspirations to be their own boss? Encourage them to apply to be a part of the Palatine Chamber of Commerce’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy! Applications are due 9/18/23. Details and the application are available at www.palatinechamber.com/yea.
CALENDAR
Updated 2023-24 Official School Calendar
November 7, 2023 is now a half-day of school/teacher half-day institute day
May 23, 2024 is now the last day of school
View the updated 2023-24 Official School Calendar.
Upcoming Dates:
September 13 - D15 Job Fair
September 13 - Board of Education Meeting
September 14 - Gray M. Sanborn’s 75th Birthday
September 20 - D15 Job Fair
September 25 - SPARK Event
September 26 - Mental Health
September 27 - D15 Job Fair
October 9 - No School (Indigenous Peoples’ Day)
October 10 - No School (Teacher Plan Day)
October 11 - Board of Education Meeting