Unofficial School Board Election Results

With 100 percent of 76 precincts counted in the April 7 Consolidated Election for Community Consolidated School District 15's Board of Education, the Cook County Clerk's office reports the following unofficial results:

Based on these unofficial results, the District congratulates and welcomes the following newly elected Board members:

• Jessica C. Morrison
• Manjula Sriram
• Zubair Khan

On Wednesday, April 29, a Board of Education reorganization meeting is scheduled to pay tribute to outgoing Board members Scott Herr and Gerard Iannuzzelli; to seat the newly elected Board members; and to select new officers. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at Walter R. Sundling Junior High, 1100 N. Smith Street, Palatine. 

Illinois PTA recognizes two D15 students
with 2015 Youth Service Leader Awards

District 15 students received two of the three 2015 Youth Service Leader Awards that were presented during the Illinois PTA's SPOTLIGHT event held March 28 at Millikin University in Decateur.

The Illinois PTA presented the awards to Ellory Ash, a sixth grader at Thomas Jefferson School, and Campbell Mears, a sixth grader at Pleasant Hill School, for their respective efforts to make a difference, take action, and work to help solve tough community problems. Ellory and Campbell saw needs in their communities and stepped up, gave of themselves, raised awareness, and provided leadership to engage others.

Read more about the 2015 Youth Service Leader Awards.

The Illinois PTA recently chose A Spark Between Humans and Nature, a piece of artwork created by Stella Chung, a sixth grader at Pleasant Hill School, to be judged in the Visual Arts category at the national level of the Reflections art program.

Reflections is a national PTA program that asks students to create works of art based on an annual theme. This year's theme was "The World Would Be A Better Place If ... ," and students created works of art to reflect that theme in six different categories: Visual Arts, Photography, Musical Composition, Literature, Dance Choreography, and Film/Video Production.

The Reflections program has several levels. Judging first takes place within individual schools' PTAs. From there, entries advance for judging within the Northwest Suburban Council (NWSC) of PTA/PTSA, which represents District 15; and then the Northwest Cook Region/District 37 Illinois PTA, which is comprised of 62 local units and three councils in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. District 37 selects entries to forward to the state level for judging, and the Illinois PTA sends the best entries it receives from all across the state to the program's national level for a final round of judging.

In addition to selecting Stella's entry to advance to nationals, the Illinois PTA recognized the following District 15 students with honorable mentions for their submissions that successfully advanced to the state level of the Reflections program:

• Isabella Chen, a second grader at Pleasant Hill School, for her Visual Arts entry titled The Wonder of Nature.
• Kelly Wang, a fifth grader at Pleasant Hill School, for her Visual Arts entry titled All Countries Would Fly Together.
• Shivani Kumar, a fourth grader at Pleasant Hill School, for her Film Production entry titled Saving Animals Around the World.
• Rosalea Colucci, a fifth grader at Stuart R. Paddock School, for her Literature entry titled Let's All Take Care of Each Other.
• Hillery Benjamin, an eighth grader at Carl Sandburg Junior High, for her Music Composition entry titled Need.
• Lorraine Weaver, a second grader at Lincoln School, for her Photography entry titled Stuffed Animals.

The Illinois PTA also recognized the following District 15 special education students with Special Artist Awards:

• Samira Aguilar, a fourth grader at Winston Campus Elementary, for her Visual Arts entry titled The world would be a better place if everyone had fruit trees.
• Jace Castro, a third grader at Winston Campus Elementary, for his Visual Arts entry titled The world would be a better place if meat factories were cleaner.
• Monica Ortiz, a third grader at Marion Jordan School, for her Visual Arts entry titled Women of Many Faces.
• Sydney Schaedig, a fourth grader at Winston Campus Elementary, for her Visual Arts entry titled The world would be a better place if popcorn fell from the sky.
• Christopher Toliver, a fourth grader at Winston Campus Elementary, for his Visual Arts entry titled The world would be a better place if everyone had food and homes, so no one would go hungry.
• Maria Ugarte, a third grader at Winston Campus Elementary, for her Visual Arts entry titled The world would be a better place if everyone was spidergirl.

Meteorologist talks about the weather
with Lake Louise's second graders

Meteorologist Mike Caplan recently paid a special visit to Lake Louise School second graders to deliver a weather talk as a culmination of their science unit about weather.

Mr. Caplan used his wonderful sense of humor and amazing expertise to talk with students about everything from what weather is to ways to be prepared for all types of weather conditions. Students were also able to see an awesome video on tornadoes, and even had some time to ask Mr. Caplan some questions of their own.

Thomas Jefferson collects more than
$4,000 in 'Pennies for Patients' effort

For the ninth consecutive year, students at Thomas Jefferson School raised money to donate to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through the school's annual "Pennies for Patients" fundraiser. Through a combination of activities, this effort raised $4,065.32, which was $615 more than last year.

More than 30 eighth graders from Carl Sandburg Junior High recently got an in-depth look at college life -- including tips from students and tours of facilities -- as part of a Harper College initiative aimed at turning on local elementary and junior high students to the prospects of higher education.

The visit tied in to National Career and Technical Education Month, which aimed to raise awareness of the crucial role related programs have in readying students for economic success and workforce competitiveness.

Read more about CSJH's Harper College tour 

Winston Campus and Hunting Ridge
team up to 'Feed My Starving Children'

This winter, 19 students from Jamie Schaeffer's third-grade class at Winston Campus Elementary, and 25 students from Kristie Charles' and Shirley Swiatowy's third-grade classes from Hunting Ridge School came together with their families to volunteer with Feed My Starving Children.

Feed My Starving Children is a not-for-profit organization that packs and sends meals to children of third world countries who need the food in order to survive.

The families worked hard to pack Manna Meals made up of vitamins, vegetables, soy, and rice to send to starving children in Madagascar. All together, they packed enough food to feed 52 children for an entire year!

Ms. Schaeffer's students also filled up canisters with quarters, each of which provided 63 additional meals.

"These third graders learned an important lesson about giving back and making a difference in the life of a child across the world," said Andrew Tieman, Winston Campus Elementary principal.

Kevin Forman, a fifth grader at Winston Campus Elementary, recently competed at the World Irish Dance Championships in Montreal. Competing against the very best Irish dancers from across the globe -- Ireland, Scotland, England, Australia, Canada, and the United States -- Kevin took 11th in his division.

Kevin qualified to compete at the World Irish Dance Championships after taking second in his division at the North American Irish Dance Championships, which were held July 2-6 in Montreal.

Kevin worked hard to achieve this accomplishment. He attends dance classes two and sometimes three times a week (more often when major competitions are approaching). Additionally, he cross-trains by playing soccer, swimming, and learning taekwondo.

Allison Mirczuk, a sixth grader at Stuart R. Paddock School, was recognized at the Illinois Principals Association Student Recognition Breakfast, which was held March 18 at Atlantis Banquets in Arlington Heights.

Allison attended the breakfast with Christie Samojedney, Paddock's principal. Her teachers chose her for recognition at the breakfast because she exemplified the following criteria:

• Shows responsibility with regards to attendance and behavior.
• Demonstrates pride, dignity, and respect in personal conduct and relations with others.
• Acts responsibly and encourages responsible actions by others.
• Exhibits dedication to school, staff, and fellow students.
• Is a positive person to know.

Once again this year, District 15's mathletes dominated recent sixth-grade-level contests in the Illinois Math League.

Four District 15 schools ranked among the top schools in the 88-team league. Pleasant Hill School placed second, Frank C. Whiteley School placed sixth, and Hunting Ridge and Marion Jordan Schools tied for 11th.

In individual standings, 11 students from District 15 ranked among the top 43 competitors at the sixth-grade level:

Read more about the Illinois Math League