Hit the ground running this year! Students missing five days of school in the first month fall behind in critical reading and math skills for the rest of the year.

Prepare students for a successful year by making sure they are in school when they are not sick.

Want to stay in the loop, but feel like you're getting too many notifications from ParentSquare? We're here to help. Here's how to change your Notification Settings.

Mobile App

1. From Home, tap the Menu (triple bars) on the top left
2. Select "Account"
3. Select "Notifications"
4. Use the toggle to turn on or off notifications by email, text and app
5. Select Instant or Digest for email, text or app

Web Browser

1. From Home, click your name in the top-right corner and select My Account
2. Select Notification Settings on the left
3. Choose your preferred Notification Settings for General Announcements & Messages (Off, Instant or Digest) and School Alerts (On or Off)

We're officially wrapping up the second week of school. We've kicked off the year with so much energy, excitement, and a lot of learning! Here are a few of our favorite photos shared by our wonderful community.

In response to the state mandate of educating students about Erin’s Law, CCSD21 will be

hosting a curriculum called "Be Seen and Heard," a prevention-oriented child sexual abuse

program for all students in grades K-8. This curriculum is designed to create an age-appropriate, safe and engaging environment where students will learn about the difference between safe and unsafe touch, the difference between safe and unsafe secrets, and the importance of speaking up to trusted heroes and adults.

Join us at 6 p.m. via Zoom on Tuesday, Sept. 10, for a special informational meeting to preview the concepts of the “Be Seen and Heard” curriculum before we host them in the schools. Follow this link to join the Zoom meeting as it happens.

If you do NOT wish your child to participate in these lessons, please contact your student’s

school. Information on the exact date in each school will be shared in the school newsletter.

The presentation will be in English, here is a link to the presentation in Spanish.

Welcome back to school!

We, your School Resource Officers, are excited to return to our roles with our respective schools and continue the ultimate goal, which is keeping our school community safe. While our job as school resource officers is to ensure the safety of everyone in a school building, it truly takes a village to complete this mission.

During Safety Week from Sept. 16-20, your students will participate in a wide variety of drills. The district utilizes the Standard Response Protocols, which brings consistent and clear language for all school community members to understand their role regardless of which of the five safety scenarios are being implemented: Hold, Secure, Lockdown, Evacuate and Shelter.

These drills will give the students and staff an opportunity to practice their role during the respective drill and have an open discussion within the classroom for behavior expectations. While our job is to support the staff and see where we can make improvements, you can help us by:

• Talking to your student(s) about the drills
• Discuss the importance of these drills
• How these skills could be applied outside of the school (village festivals, malls or other mass gatherings)

In light of the recent tragic events in Georgia, we want to remind all parents and guardians of the importance of safe gun storage. Please ensure that firearms are stored securely, unloaded, and locked away, with ammunition stored separately. This simple step can help prevent accidents and keep our schools and communities safe. Read this update from our school resource officers for more information.

We are thrilled to share that our Seamless Summer program has reached a remarkable milestone - over 250,000 meals served to our community!

This achievement is a testament to the dedication and hard work of our incredible staff, volunteers and supporters who made this program a success. Each meal provided not only nourished, but also supported the well-being of our children and families throughout the summer.

Twain Elementary School recently underwent a scenic transformation, thanks to a community-led beautification project made possible through a grant from the Home Depot Foundation.

The project, aimed at revitalizing the grounds of the elementary school, brought together a group of about 20 volunteers to transform the space with new mulch and vibrant plants, two benches near the front awning, and a collection of picnic tables outside the staff lounge.

The vibrant flora will add a splash of color and a sense of renewal to the space, while the extra seating is designed to encourage outdoor learning and social interaction.

"This project means so much to us at Twain," said Winnie Clausell, principal of Twain. "It reflects the spirit of community and partnership that we strive to foster every day. The enhancements they made not only beautify our campus, but also create welcoming spaces where our students, staff and families can gather, learn and enjoy the outdoors."

The Illinois State Board of Education has extended the timeline for the short term substitute license through 2028. We had some wonderful new sub candidates that applied to work with us this past year. Many of these subs are right from our community! We’re excited for these additions to our sub group but we’re not done yet. We are continuing to hire subs this summer. Please let your neighbors and friends know that we are hiring for next year.

We still have openings in our sub pool for the following positions:

• Secretary - $100/day

• Health Assistant - $100/day

• Teaching Assistant - $125/day

• Teacher - $141/day

• Registered Nurse - $309/day

• Long term teacher (more than 10 days in the same classroom) - $227/day

In addition, any subs who work 100 days this year will receive a $1,000 bonus at the end of the year.

Check out this video on how to apply for a short-term substitute license, and this link for more information.

The district utilizes the MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) Growth assessment as one measure to provide information on student academic growth. MAP is a unique computer assessment that adapts to your child’s level of understanding and mastery of skills. The difficulty level of each question is adjusted based on the student’s answers.

Students in second through eighth grades will be assessed in Reading and Mathematics and first grade students will be assessed in reading during the test window of Sept. 9-17.

If you have any questions about the MAP assessment, please contact your school's principal.

The district has been fortunate recipients of federal grants to support mental health services in our school buildings for students. While we had a community partnership grant end in June, we had the Building Healthier Communities: Behavioral Health Initiative grant begin that same month, and it will extend through November 2026. We have established partnerships with OMNI Youth Services, Cutting Edge Counseling Solutions and Progressive Psychological Health, all local mental health agencies to provide students with access to therapists during the school day.

These partnerships involve therapists from community organizations visiting every elementary and middle school for at least five hours a week, on a regular basis throughout the school year. This allows students to receive counseling support in a familiar and convenient setting, without having to miss school or arrange transportation.

Here are two quick videos introducing Cutting Edge and OMNI:

• Watch a presentation about Cutting Edge Counseling Solutions (available at Tarkington, Field, Longfellow and London)
• Watch a presentation about OMNI Youth Services (available at Whitman, Twain, Frost, Riley, Kilmer, Cooper and Holmes)

By providing timely access to mental health services, these partnerships can help students cope with challenges, improve their emotional well-being, and ultimately achieve academic success. The District 21 Health Center also has a full-time social work for our students to access.

In order to learn more about student experiences at school, we will be asking for feedback from students in grades 3-8 via an online survey they will be completing at school. The survey shouldn’t take more than 20-30 minutes to complete. Their feedback will provide invaluable insights into their experiences and how we can improve and adapt our district to their needs. Additionally, teachers will complete the Panorama perception surveys of their students in preschool through second grade.

The survey content will ask students to self-reflect on social awareness, self management, emotional regulation and supportive relationships. The teacher perception surveys will ask teachers to reflect on social awareness, self management, emotional regulation, self efficacy, learning strategies and engagement.

If you have any questions about the survey administration, please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s principal.

As a district, we are proud to celebrate the diversity of our learning community! During this month many countries around the world celebrate their day of independence. Many people in our community acknowledge their native country’s independence by displaying a flag and participating in festivals or parades. Some of the celebrations taking place during the month of September include Labor Day, Patriot Day, Constitution Day, Hispanic Heritage Month, and Mawlid - 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.

While I may only be a few months into my year-long apprenticeship with District 21, I have already learned so much in such a short time. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to take my time with my work. Even if I believe it’s of high quality, I still need to double and triple-check it. As I head into my senior year, there are many things I’m looking forward to. I can’t wait to start announcing sports again, particularly football, and to be involved in every event possible.

One thing I’m not as excited about during my senior year is surgery on my labrum in my left shoulder. I’m nervous that I might miss out on some events and, worst of all, my senior year of baseball in the spring. Although there are possible downsides to the surgery, I’m excited to be back in full health and not have to worry about it anymore. The surgery ties into my biggest goal for my senior year: being healthy and ready to go for my spring season. It will certainly be a challenge, but I’m eager to begin!

We hope all students are having a great start to the school year! As you may have heard from your School Principal or a recent ParentSquare message, all students/parents are asked to view and sign the Student Device Procedure and Receipt digital form that is now located in the Parent Portal link here. This process will allow for the use of student Chromebooks for the 2024-25 school year and will review best practices for device use.

Once you are logged into the Parent Portal with your parent account, simply click on the “Chromebook Form” link on the left menu. Next, please review the linked Student Device Procedure with your student, and fill out the form to confirm receipt.

This digital form is an attempt to streamline the process for parents, and make it easier to review the procedure and complete the form. In the past, these forms were printed and handled manually which led to many challenges on both ends.

Please let your School Principal know should you have any questions or issues.

Thank you very much for your cooperation!

Check out our Chromebook Talks for students! These presentations contain helpful reminders about being responsible with CCSD21 devices. Teachers will be taking all students through these presentations during the first 2 weeks of school, but they are also beneficial for parents to review as well!

• Click here for English
• Click here for Spanish
• Click here for Russian
• Click here for Polish

For more information on the CCSD21 1:1 Chromebook program please visit this link.

The livestream video of the August 15 meeting of the Board of Education can be viewed here.

The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on September 19, 2024, at 7 p.m. at the District 21 Community Service Center and Administrative Office.