• Alleviating overcrowding issues throughout the District.
• Offering full-day kindergarten.
• Providing a location for intensive services for English Language Learners.
• Expanding the community school program near areas with families in greatest need.
• Creating middle schools for Grades 6-8 to match the District's curriculum.
• Aligning elementary schools to consistently feed into middle schools, and middle schools to consistently feed into high schools.
• Decreasing busing costs and the amount of time students spend on buses.
• Reducing the amount of funding spent on maintenance by closing Gray M. Sanborn School, the District's oldest building.

The Committee also presented new boundary proposals that it developed in support of its recommendations during the District 15 Board of Education's August 17 meeting. Following the Committee's presentation, the District 15 Board of Education voted to put a $130 million school building bond question on the ballot for the November 8 General Election.  

 

With built-in contingencies, the projected cost of building the two new schools is $128.5 million. The District anticipates that savings related to costs for furniture, fixtures, and equipment could lower that price by at least $1.5 million. By asking for voter approval for $130 million, the question builds in the cost for acquiring the Osage Park property proposed for the new northeast Palatine elementary school from Palatine Park District.

 

William Blair & Company, the District's financial advisor, has outlined for the Board a scenario for repayment of the $130 million, and at an upcoming Board meeting will explain the specifics of that plan for the Board to consider. That repayment scenario shows the projected impact of the bonds on residential taxpayers to be $122 for the owner of a $230,000 home in Palatine.  

 

If voters approve the school building bond referendum, the two new schools would be projected to open in 2019. 

During the District 15 Board of Education's August 17 meeting, community members on the Facilities Plan v2.0 Committee shared boundary proposals the group developed to support its recommendations for addressing the District's long-term facilities needs.

The proposals outline how school boundaries could change if voters approve the District's November 8 school building bond referendum asking to build an elementary school at Osage Park in northeast Palatine, and a middle school on the Ela Road property the District owns in the southwest portion of the District.
 
The Committee summarized its proposed boundary changes according to the following high school attendance areas they would impact, as its plan aligns elementary schools to consistently feed into middle schools, and middle schools to consistently feed into high schools.

These proposed boundary changes would be driven by the creation of the new northeast Palatine elementary school at Osage Park and the closing of Gray M. Sanborn School. They would impact the attendance area of every school feeding into Palatine High School. The plan calls for turning Jane Addams School into a middle school STEM academy, sending Jane Addams students to Virginia Lake and Lake Louise Schools. The plan also shifts the boundaries for Lincoln School and Winston Campus Elementary to the northwest largely to accommodate Sanborn students. The alignment of the elementary and middle schools in the Palatine High School Attendance Area would be as follows:

• Winston Campus Middle School: Winston Campus Elementary, Lake Louise School, and the new northeast Palatine elementary school
• Walter R. Sundling Middle School: Lincoln School and Virginia Lake School
• Jane Addams STEM Academy: Voluntary attendance, but students living closest to the school would be given the first option to enroll.

These boundary changes would be driven by the creation of the new middle school in the southwest portion of the District. The attendance areas for Pleasant Hill, Marion Jordan, and Frank C. Whiteley Schools are not changed by this plan. The boundaries for Stuart R. Paddock, Hunting Ridge, and Thomas Jefferson Schools would see changes to absorb students who live in the Fremd attendance area but currently attend schools located east of Route 53. The alignment of the elementary and middle schools in the Fremd High School Attendance Area would be as follows:

• Plum Grove Middle School: Pleasant Hill School and Stuart R. Paddock School, as well as students from Hunting Ridge School and Thomas Jefferson School living adjacent to Plum Grove.
• New Southwest Middle School: Marion Jordan School, Hunting Ridge School, Thomas Jefferson School, and Frank C. Whiteley School.

All students attending Willow Bend, Central Road, and Kimball Hill Schools -- which are the District's elementary sites located east of Route 53 -- would attend Carl Sandburg Middle School and Rolling Meadows High School. However, the boundaries for these three elementary schools would need to be redrawn to distribute those elementary students in ways that will make the best use of each building's capacity. Consequently, there could be opportunities to create academies in this area.

To view the Committee's PowerPoint presentation, click here. For more detailed information on the proposed long-term facility improvement plans and accompanying boundary change proposals -- including maps, graphics and financials -- click here. 

• Reduce Student Achievement Gaps: Examine achievement of all groups of students and create plans to reduce/eliminate gaps between different groups of students.

• Learning and Organizational Development: Enhance D15 schools as places creating successful young people who are knowledgeable emotionally and physically healthy, motivated, civically inspired, engaged in the arts, prepared for work and economic self-sufficiency, and ready for the world.

• Enhance Nutritional Offerings: Evaluate current Nutritional Services offerings to students and identify areas of enhancing those offerings, including improving nutrition and providing culturally responsive food.

• Communications: Create Superintendent's Community Relations Committee in order to increase strategic communication initiatives (including enhancing/revamping D15 communications department) and driving high-quality, frequent, two-way communication with all stakeholders.

• Resource Stewardship: Ensure the District remains fiscally responsible (while maintaining quality educational programs and facilities for our students) including seeking ways to reduce the burden on real estate taxpayers whenever possible.

The Board generated ideas for this year's goals during its Board-Administrative Retreat in June. Dr. Thompson then used those suggestions to draft these goals for the Board's consideration.
 
Once the goals are approved, the Administration, which is charged with ensuring the goals are accomplished, will then create detailed plans to meet them. Those plans will include timelines, specific action items, and evaluation tools, and they will assign responsibility for each component of the goals.  

Nearly $11,000 was awarded to District 15 teachers this spring through the one-five Foundation's 2016 mini-grant program.

Formerly known as the District Fifteen Educational Foundation, the one-five Foundation uses its mini-grant program to provide D15 students with learning opportunities in addition to those financed by taxpayer dollars.

Since 2004, the Foundation's mini-grant program has awarded District 15 teachers with 157 mini-grants totaling nearly $241,000. These small grants are intended to allow teachers to acquire resources for programs and projects that enhance and supplement the educational experience of District 15 students.

Mini-grants are awarded in two areas -- implementation of programs and/or projects, and acquisition and application of technology.

This year's mini-grant winners are:

• Jill Schwartzers and Holly Lannert of Stuart R. Paddock School for their project titled Break Out! Engaging Students Through Gaming.
• Katie Bryan, Jennifer Clark, and Holly Lannert of Stuart R. Paddock School for their project titled Full STEAM Ahead with Book Clubs. 
• Elizabeth Blazejak of Walter R. Sundling Junior High for her project titled What's Your Game?
• Elizabeth Blazejak and Sheila Hamill of Walter R. Sundling Junior High for their project titled Please Pass the Poems.
• Sharon Lennstrom of Plum Grove Junior High for her project titled I Got This.
• Nicole Gabryel of Winston Campus Junior High for her project titled Literature Like Me.
• Laura Robinson of Winston Campus Junior High for her project titled Roses are Red: Novels in Verse.
• Anna Paprocki of Winston Campus Junior High for her project titled Modern Biographies: People Who Have Shaped the World Today. 
• Julie Lucash of Winston Campus Junior High for her project titled Reading Workshops: Engaging Less Experienced Readers.
• Katie Ruiz of Winston Campus Junior High for her project titled VEX Robotics Competition.
• Devonna Condon of Winston Campus Elementary for her project titled More Powerful than a Locomotive: Using Graphic Novels to Motivate Readers.
• Devonna Condon of Winston Campus Elementary for her project titled A Story in Your Pocket.  
• Kim Konishi of Thomas Jefferson School for her project titled MaKey MaKey Computer Science Magic.

Read more about the projects funded through the one-five Foundation mini-grant program.