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From the Superintendent
Let's Talk!
Modern forms of communication drive our lives. When we need an answer, we Google it, and when we want to share a pointed thought, we often turn to social media. When time allows, many of us instinctively reach for our mobile devices, and when they ring out with one notification or another, we can't help but react attentively. We are "connected" 24/7.
However, connection does not equal efficient and effective two-way communication. That is why we are launching the Let's Talk! program today in District 15.
Produced by the educational communications company K12 Insight, the Let's Talk! software aims to facilitate authentic communication, including reading, reflection, and prompt response to stakeholder input. It does so by allowing any stakeholder to easily engage with any member of the District 15 community by organizing that feedback and by ensuring follow-up by the appropriate staff member.
On our end, an intuitive "dashboard" manages access and displays common themes, average staff response times, and user satisfaction, turning every interaction into an opportunity to improve the services we provide to you.
On your end, simply click the Let's Talk! icon that is now embedded on every District 15 webpage, and instantly share with us your questions, comments, concerns, and compliments.
There will always be a place in this busy world for kindly spoken words, firm handshakes, and thank you notes in the mail. It is our hope that Let's Talk! will improve our everyday communication efforts (and yours), and thereby ease the challenges and lessen the frustrations that so often accompany them.
Let's talk! 
Sincerely,
Scott B. Thompson, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
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| Ask the Experts
District 15's architect, construction manager, and financial advisor provide valuable insight and professional guidance that can help the District save money on its life safety projects.
District 15's latest 10-year life safety study identified approximately $155 million of facility repairs and renovations that must be addressed over the next decade. Among those projects identified in the study are roughly $22.6 million of high-priority facility improvements that must be completed within the next two years.
The District is currently working on a plan to schedule and fund all of these urgent facilities needs.
However, it is not going it alone.
For instance, the District 15 Administration has already worked with STR Partners, the District's architect who conducted the life safety study over the summer of 2014, to identify ways to possibly reduce those costs to around $119 million.
More recently, it chose Gilbane Building Co. to serve as its construction manager for the projects, and William Blair & Company, LLC, to serve as its financial advisor should it issue life safety bonds.
As construction manager, Gilbane will represent the District's interests as it works with an assortment of contractors to complete these projects. Even though the physical work on the projects that Gilbane will oversee has yet to even begin, its expertise in the school construction industry is already having a positive impact on the District's planning.
For instance, to save money and secure the best contractors available, Gilbane recommended bidding these projects earlier in the school year. That way, those contractors who are most likely to do the best work within the budgets and deadlines outlined by the District are not yet booked, and are still offering their most competitive bids in an effort of schedule enough projects to keep them busy for the summer.
In its role as the District's financial advisor, William Blair & Company's thorough knowledge and understanding of the bond market will prove just as valuable to the District. Presently, the District 15 Administration is in favor of issuing life safety bonds and covering the cost of these projects with a small tax increase that would span the life of the improvements and be paid for by those benefiting from them over the next 10 to 20 years. It favors this course because it would not impact the District's day-to-day business or its long-term financial standing.
Issuing life safety bonds does not require a referendum -- only Board approval. Still, it's a complicated matter. For instance, should the District issue one series of bonds or two? There would be interest rate risks and additional costs associated with two bond issuances, but issuing two sets of bonds would likely allow for the first set to be sold at a significantly lower, bank-qualified interest rate that might offset those other factors.
As the Board, Administration, and District 15 community continue to study and discuss these options over the coming weeks and months, William Blair & Company will be on hand to help the District understand the different funding options that are available to it.
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Bringing the Future Forward
Under the Next Generation Science Standards, instruction in District 15 will provide all students with the STEM learning opportunities they need and deserve.
Three years ago this fall, District 15 launched the Gateway to Technology program as an elective course in each of its four junior highs. Since then, most of the District's seventh and eighth graders have been introduced to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) learning opportunities that will develop the skills and knowledge needed for success when they enter college and/or begin their careers.
To meet the rigorous demands of the Next Generation Science Standards, District 15 plans to build on the success of its junior high STEM program.
The Next Generation Science Standards identify content and science and engineering practices that all students should learn from kindergarten through high school graduation. Over the next two years, District 15 will be working to incorporate these standards into its curriculum and instruction, and its focus throughout these implementation efforts will be to include rigorous STEM activities for all students at every grade level.
That's because all students will need STEM skills to live in this modern economy where job listings for STEM occupations outnumber the current number of unemployed people. 
"A Carnegie Foundation commission of researchers and public and private leaders concluded that our nation's capacity to innovate and thrive in the modern workforce depends on a foundation of math and science learning," said Meg Schnoor, Ed.D., Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning. "Research shows we need to provide students with opportunities to explore STEM careers early in their school experience."
"District 15 believes ALL students deserve access to STEM education opportunities," continued Dr. Schnoor. "Therefore, while teachers continue to implement the Next Generation Science Standards with our students, teams of teachers across the District will be working to bring the future forward by finding ways to bring exciting STEM learning opportunities to every classroom across the District."
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| Strength From Within
District 15 aims to identify, develop, promote, and retain its teachers who aspire to be its leaders.
There are teachers in District 15 who aspire to be administrators! We are committed to helping those professionals achieve their goals, right here within our own educational community. That is why the District has created an Aspiring Administrators Academy.
"We want to cultivate the internal strengths within our teaching staff by identifying people who are interested in assuming leadership roles, either within the teaching ranks or as administrators," said Lisa Nuss, Executive Director for Personnel & Human Services. "We want to help them hone their skills, as well as plot and navigate career paths that will allow them to pursue their professional goals, ideally here in District 15."
Approximately 40 teachers from across the District are ready to become the Academy's first class. Many of them have already begun the journey to become an administrator, and see the Academy as a unique opportunity for support, communication, and education along the way. Others, though, joined the Academy because District 15 identified them as strong leaders who have performed well in their current roles, and who would be excellent administrators within our communities.
"In the future, when we seek new administrators for our schools, we will be able to identify and promote internal candidates who, having gone through the Academy, have already proven themselves to be prepared to succeed as leaders within our organization," said Mrs. Nuss. "The teachers are part of the District 15 community. They are familiar with our culture and our curriculum, our goals and our challenges. Keeping them in the District 15 family will further strengthen the depth of our organization."
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'Empowering ALL People'
The Palatine Opportunity Center is a driving force in the District 15 community. Since its establishment in 1994, the Palatine Opportunity Center (POC) has become an important part of District 15's growing immigrant community, as it welcomes and introduces area families in need, connecting them with local resources and providing them a pathway for their successful integration into the community.
The POC's motto is "Empowering ALL People," and in its ongoing effort to do so, the POC now provides an average of 240,000 client visits each year.
Cheryl Wolfel, Ed.D., Director of Second Language Programs, is Vice President of the POC Executive Board, and has been a member of the POC's governing board for the past 17 years. She is tremendously proud of the POC's success. "As a District, we serve so many immigrant families," said Dr. Wolfel. "Right now at the POC, we're striving to empower them in ways that will help them strengthen their families, which, in turn, strengthens their neighborhoods and communities and helps their children access a brighter future."
At the POC, District 15 families can access basic health care services, library services, counseling and support services, and park district programs. They can take English and/or Spanish classes, work toward earning their GED or U.S. citizenship, and receive training in computer technology and other workplace skills. Their children can receive tutoring or enroll in early childhood programs. Parents can receive immigration paperwork assistance, teenagers can participate in mentoring programs, and old and young alike can take advantage of social work services provided by the local police department, the township, area healthcare providers, and other institutions in the community.
There are, however, several POC programs in particular that District 15 sponsors.
ROOTS Community Garden
At the POC's ROOTS community garden, families work together to grow a vegetable garden, and they share the harvest in proportions that reflect the amount of work each family put into planting and maintaining the plot.
Homework Centers
These grant-funded homework centers have been created in some of the apartment communities that many of our immigrant families call home.
"They've been very beneficial to the District because so many of these students' parents are still at work when they return home in the afternoons," noted Dr. Wolfel.
These drop-in centers allow students to receive help with their homework from a variety of community volunteers who are on hand each day to offer their assistance. They are equipped with computers and Internet access, and sometimes they even offer kids opportunities to do art projects or go on field trips. They are also closely connected to our local police department and to a variety of community organizations that provide social work, counseling, and support services that make these apartment communities safer places for our students to live and learn.
iCompete Youth Program
The iCompete program pairs at-risk elementary students with high school mentors who expose them to the high school experience by taking them to lunch, sporting events, and other activities throughout the year.
"The goal of this program is to positively impact the lives of the District's young at-risk students by showing them what high school is about and encouraging them to get involved and to strive to succeed at that level, just like their mentors," said Dr. Wolfel. "What we've found, though, is that this program positively impacts the high school mentors just as much as it does their mentees, as many of them have never been exposed to the challenges that our youngsters face every day as they try to overcome cultural differences and the dire effects of poverty."
Latino Family Literacy Project
The Latino Family Literacy Project is an initiative the District launched several years ago at its 10 bilingual sites and two of its junior highs.
"The program's aim is to increase Latino parents' involvement in their kids' education by providing them the literacy training they need to nurture a love of reading within their children," said Dr. Wolfel.
The program has been so enthusiastically embraced during the school year by the District's Latino community that the District and the POC began offering it at the POC during the summer months. (Read more about this exciting program in the accompanying article, ĦUn Punto Brillante!) |
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ĦUn Punto Brillante!
The Latino Family Literacy Project's efforts to help parents emphasize reading's importance recently caught the White House's attention.
The Latino Family Literacy Project was selected because it offers a culturally relevant and bilingual approach to parent involvement programs for English Language Learners. Nationally, the project has trained more than 10,000 teachers throughout the U.S. to work with thousands of Hispanic families to promote early learning, English language development, home family reading routines, and college awareness.
Here in District 15, the Latino Family Literacy Project has over the past several years been implemented by all 10 of the District's bilingual sites and two of its junior highs, and has been enthusiastically embraced by the District's Latino community. The popular 10-week family reading program helps establish a culture of literacy in the home, and it focuses on the importance of parents reading aloud to their children.
Each week, parents practice reading strategies using a bilingual book on a topic that allows them to share their cultural heritage with their children. Parents then take the book home to read with their children while implementing the literacy skills they learned at that week's session. Each book has a message, and reflects the lives and issues of Spanish-speaking families. These topics encourage dialogue among families and allow the children to learn about the home country and traditions of their parents.
Parents also create a family album related to each week's story. One page is created each session, and, at the conclusion of the program, parents present the family album to their children. The books and activities were mindfully chosen to reflect the social, cultural, and linguistic knowledge of Spanish-speaking families.
English language development is also embedded in the Latino Family Literacy Project. The bilingual books include both English and Spanish word lists that are relevant to the story. An English language component is included in each lesson. The books teach parents and their children English vocabulary, grammar, and conversation.
"The Latino Family Literacy Project is a worthwhile program that combines family and literacy," said Amy Schmidt, District 15's Bilingual Literacy Facilitator. "District 15 is proud to share in the White House's recognition of this partnership between school and Latino families."
As one parent who participated in the program stated, "I learned how to help my children be successful in school, and the value and importance a family has in that success." |
Made in District 15
Now an educator himself, Nick Bertani's fond memories of his Lake Louise teachers still resonate almost 25 years later.
Name: Nick Bertani
District 15 History: Nick attended Lake Louise for Grades 3-6 before moving out of town. From those four years, he carries with him fond memories of 2-ball competitions, the Junior Great Books program, a particularly memorable 1960s-themed school play, and numerous teachers who, all these years later, come to mind when he works with his own students.
Further Education: Nick graduated from Fremd High School in 1996, and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in elementary education from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a master's degree in reading from National Louis University.
Current Occupation: Nick is currently in his ninth year as a literacy specialist at Hawthorne Elementary School in Elmhurst. Prior to that, he taught second grade at Hawthorne Scholastic Academy in Chicago, and fifth grade at Kingsley Elementary School in Evanston. Throughout his teaching career, he has coached varying levels of football and basketball in Chicago and the suburbs.
In His Own Words: I loved my time at Lake Louise. My broad memories are of how big the playground was and how much fun we had on it. I also loved pizza boat Friday in the lunchroom. The school carnivals were the best and I used to get to stay after sometimes and help set up the games. I remember seeing the Sunglasses Hut each day on the bus, and that was my signal we were almost to school.
My fifth grade teacher, Ms. White, taught us how to work hard and have a sense of humor and use it when appropriate. I ran into her around 2002 in Palatine, and she remembered I had a brother at school, that my mom was a speech pathologist, and that we lived in Hidden Creek.
Ms. Noll, our gym teacher, had the coolest obstacle course we would run through. To this day, I have seen nothing like that at any school gymnasium.
Ms. Reagan put together the best Christmas music assemblies and school plays. Everyone always wanted to be a part of them. The 1960s-themed play was the most memorable.
In third grade, Ms. Nelson read to us Miss Nelson is Missing. I still use that book as a teacher today, and have even read it with my 4-year-old daughter.
Ms. Parker in fourth grade read us Where the Red Fern Grows, and there was not a dry eye in the room.
I had Mrs. Kneip for sixth grade, in her last year before retirement. She used to tell us about her dogs and how she had taught for 46 years. Her "shape it up stare" could scare just about anyone. To this day, if I am laughing in a situation I should not, I picture that stare and quickly shape up.
The custodian, Clarence, was very kind, and we got to go to his office and use the eraser machine to dust of the erasers.
I did not go to speech, but Ms. Wolesik was always willing to make small talk with us. She knew my mom was a speech teacher, and she would tell me about her tae kwon do classes.
Overall, I am proud to say I spent time in Palatine and attended Lake Louise. I still drive by my old townhouse in Hidden Creek when I am in town, and have driven by Lake Louise once in the last 20 years. That huge playground now seems really small.
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Community Consolidated School District 15 
David W. Seiffert
The Latino Family Literacy Project recently earned recognition by the White House as a 