District Digest

March 1, 2023

In this issue…

• Calendar Reminders
• 2023/24 Calendar Approved
• Committee of the Whole - Strategic Plan Update
• Hadley Designated as a School to Watch
  
• Residency Verification Process
  

• Churchill at the Science Olympiad

• Rock Your Socks
  

• Lincoln 3rd Grade Volunteers
  

• Dual Language Night | March 2

• 5 Essentials Survey Deadline

• GPS Offerings

• Friday, March 3 Institute Day - No School
  
• Friday, March 24 SIP Day - 11:30am dismissal for all schools (No Pre-K or Kindergarten attendance on this day)

The calendar for next school year was approved by the Board of Education at the February 21 meeting. Click here for the calendar. Clic para espanol

The Monday, March 6, Board of Education meeting will be a Committee of the Whole meeting. The meeting topic is "Strategic Plan Update - DEI Committee." Community members are welcome to attend and engage with the Board. Full meeting agenda will be posted HERE

March 6, 2023 | 6:30 p.m. at Hadley Junior High School

Hadley Jr. High has been recognized as a National School to Watch by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle School Reform and an Illinois Horizon School by the Association of Illinois Middle Grade Schools!

This is the second time Hadley has been recognized for their work in middle level practices. A staff committee completed a rigorous paper application explaining the areas of improvement between the past designation (2018) and 2023. In early February, a site visit occurred at Hadley with nine educators from around the state. They visited classrooms, met with teachers, parents, and students to better understand the school. A School To Watch is one that shows excellence in the following areas: Academic Excellence, Social Equity, Developmental Responsiveness, and Systems/Structures.

Congratulations to the Hadley community for this national recognition!

Staff Committee pictured below

Back - Principal Steve Diveley, Christie Frame, Kelly Johnson, Brian Leadaman, Assistant Principal Bob Guzzetti

Front - Kelly Hayes, Karla Montes de Oca, Beth Ewoldt

The district is again contracting with a third party vendor to automatically verify student address information. As was the case last year, we anticipate the overwhelming majority of our families will be electronically verified.

If your residency is electronically verified, you will receive an email confirmation and there will be no need to submit any additional paperwork to certify that you live within the district’s boundaries.

A letter will be sent to families whose residency we are unable to verify electronically. The letter will provide details on additional information you will need to provide in order to register your child for the upcoming school year.

Illinois law mandates that parents demonstrate residency prior to enrollment in school and allows for periodic verification to validate compliance with the law.

Please contact your school principal with any questions or concerns.

Thirty-five Churchill fourth and fifth graders participated in the Elementary Science Olympiad in Arlington Heights on Saturday, February 25. Ten teams brought home medals, and a great time was had by all participants. Congratulations to our Churchill students, who spent months preparing for this academic event!

For the past few years District 41 parent and Board of Education Vice President Jason Loebach has been distributing socks to all D41 staff and to various classes throughout the District to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day. He will be doing this again by visiting each school later this week to distribute the socks.

Along with handing out socks, he coordinates a Rock Your Sock Drive to further promote awareness of World Down Syndrome Day, which is March 21st, to promote inclusion for people with disabilities, inclusive practices, and to collect socks for People's Resource Center. Last year over 1,200 socks were collected and donated to the People's Resource Center. The goal is to donate more than last year! Donation boxes for socks are located at each District 41 school and the district office.

Rock Your Socks is a national awareness program to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day. People are encouraged to wear fun, mismatched socks to show how our differences make us who we are and bring us together. The reason for socks is that when held up, socks kind of look like chromosomes. The reason World Down Syndrome Day is celebrated annually on March 21st is that the cause of Down syndrome is a person having 3 copies of the 21st chromosome. Hence, 3/21.

Thank you, Mr. Loebach, for your work to raise awareness and for your generosity.

Thanks to Abraham Lincoln PTA, the 3rd graders at Lincoln had the opportunity to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children in Aurora last week. The students packed over 100 boxes of food! Their hard work provided more than 25,000 meals to hungry children around the world. Thank you to the PTA for providing transportation. Great job, Lincoln students!

New kindergarten families are welcome to come learn more about the District 41 Dual Language Program on Thursday, March 2, 6:30 p.m. at Churchill Elementary School, 240 Geneva Road in Glen Ellyn. Information will be shared in both English and Spanish.
To learn more about all of the language programs in District 41, click here.

All parents are encouraged to participate in a brief survey to help District 41 gather valuable data to inform school improvement. The Illinois 5Essentials Parent Survey is administered annually by the Illinois State Board of Education. The survey is open through March 31, 2023.

Please CLICK HERE to take the survey and choose “Parent Survey.” The deadline is March 31.

Each school needs at least 20 percent parent participation for a data report to be provided for the school. For more information about the survey, see below. Thank you in advance for your participation. Your feedback is very much appreciated!

WHAT IS THE 5ESSENTIALS SURVEY?

The 5Essentials Survey identifies five indicators that lead to improved outcomes for all students, including improved attendance and larger test score gains.

The five indicators that positively affect school success are:

1. Effective Leaders

2. Collaborative Teachers

3. Involved Families

4. Supportive Environments

5. Ambitious Instruction

Research derived from the Five Essentials for School Success has proven that schools strong on at least three of the 5Essentials are 10 times more likely to improve student outcomes.

For questions regarding the survey, please call Department of Wellness at (217) 782-5270 or email 5Essentials@isbe.net​.​​​​​​​​​

Stay up to date on the upcoming offerings from the Glenbard Parent Series HERE

Jimmy Casas

Live Your Excellence: Bring Your Best Self to Work and Home Every Day

Thu, Mar 2 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Click for more details

NOTE: Some speakers will present multiple times. See GPS website for all dates/times available for each presentation.

Email: webmaster@d41.org
Website: www.d41.org
Location: 793 North Main Street, Glen Ellyn, IL, USA
Phone: 630.790.6400
Facebook: facebook.com/glenellynd41
Twitter: @glenellynd41