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 Community Consolidated School District 15 CONNECTIONS
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A newsletter for parents & the community
| November 2016 |
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| | Winston Campus Junior High's Capital One Coders Club |
From the Superintendent
Across the curriculum and at every grade level, STEM education allows students to learn through play.
"Play is the highest form of research." -- Albert Einstein
"Learning about science, technology, engineering, and math is increasingly important -- but right now, too many Americans don't have equitable access to great STEM education. That means that in the next decade, researchers, policymakers, and educators should focus on broadening access to STEM education so that there are lifelong opportunities, connections between professionals and schools, models for different genders and racial groups, interdisciplinary approaches, and educational activities that involve play and taking risks."
This is our goal here in District 15.
The new Next Generation Science Standards identify content and science/engineering practices that all students should learn from kindergarten through high school graduation, and we are working hard to incorporate these standards into our classrooms. Our focus throughout this implementation effort will be on infusing our instruction with STEM learning opportunities. Part of this effort involves our ongoing pilot of new Interactive Science programs that provide students with a "deeper dive" into specific areas addressed by the Next Generation Science Standards. This "deeper dive" is accomplished through the use of hands-on activities that help our students develop clear and grade-level appropriate understanding of the scientific method.
Make no mistake, though. We already have many different STEM initiatives to be proud of in our schools. In particular, Walter R. Sundling Junior High's ongoing partnership with the Museum of Science and Industry is an exciting new development that has emphasized the value of STEM education by encouraging the school's entire staff to explore ways it can incorporate STEM learning opportunities into its instruction, no matter what is taught. There are also Capital One Coders Clubs that formed last year, the Gateway to Technology program that we began offering four years ago in our junior highs, and the many different FIRST LEGO League robotics teams that more than $150,000 of Motorola Solutions Foundation Innovation Generation grants have made possible since 2001, just to name a few high-profile examples.
As we continue to incorporate the Next Generation Science Standards into our instruction and pilot and implement new science programs that support these standards, our goal is to build upon these kinds of STEM success stories and provide rigorous STEM activities for all students, preparing them for their futures!
Sincerely, Scott B. Thompson, Ed.D. Superintendent of Schools
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School Building Bond Referendum
Presentations, proposed boundaries, financial information, FAQs, and more -- it's all available on the District 15 website.
On Tuesday, November 8, voters will decide if Community Consolidated School District 15 will build an elementary school at Osage Park in northeast Palatine, and a middle school on the Ela Road property it owns in the southwest portion of the District.
Community members interested in learning more about the School Building Bond Referendum are encouraged to visit the District 15 website at www.ccsd15.net for more information.
Please consider sharing your input into this matter through Let's Talk.
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| | Early childhood students at John G. Conyers Learning Academy learning behavior expectations for the playground. |
Accentuate the Positive District 15's innovative approach to PBIS makes it a leader in the field, and enables its schools to create and maintain safe and orderly environments for students and teachers.
PBIS -- parents are perhaps most familiar with this particular acronym as it relates to rewards their children receive for good behavior, or school-wide celebrations they're excited to talk about when they get home in the afternoon.
Those, however, are just two end results of the comprehensive, research-based set of best practices that District 15 uses to create and maintain safe and orderly environments in their schools.
PBIS stands for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. D15 schools use PBIS programs to develop structures for teaching expected behaviors and social skills, create student behavioral and academic support systems, and apply data-based decision-making to discipline, academics, and social/emotional learning. Through PBIS, school-based leadership teams are trained in a proactive systems approach to establishing the behavioral supports and social culture needed for all students to achieve social, emotional, and academic success.
 Schools applying PBIS begin by establishing clear expectations for behavior that are taught, modeled, and reinforced across all settings and by all staff. This provides a host environment that supports the adoption and sustained use of effective academic and social/emotional instruction.
For more than a decade now, District 15 has been recognized as a leader in PBIS implementation. Now, it is establishing itself as an innovator in the field.
The Midwest PBIS Network evaluates the degree to which a school has implemented PBIS, and how effective the PBIS system is for that school. This year, it evaluated 483 schools; 10 of the 43 schools it recognized at the Platinum level of PBIS implementation were D15 schools, as were nine of the 130 schools it recognized at the Gold level of implementation.
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| | Carl Sandburg Junior High PBIS Green Team members receiving the Illinois State Board of Education's 2016 Those Who Excel Award. |
"These recognitions show that our schools demonstrate high levels of preventive support, targeted intervention for students at risk, and individualized interventions for students experiencing high levels of difficulty," said Thomas Edgar, Ph.D., District 15's Executive Director for Assessment, Accountability, and Programs. "It means they operate their PBIS programs with high levels of fidelity, and -- as a result -- they produce highly positive outcomes, such as office referral rates and suspension rates that are lower than most others in the nation."
In addition to ranking among the best at implementing its PBIS programs, District 15's PBIS Leadership Team, led by Laura Swanlund, Ph.D., the District's PBIS coordinator, is breaking lots of new ground with its efforts to continuously improve the PBIS structures in District 15 schools. For instance, D15 schools offer PBIS training to every staff member, whereas most schools only train certified staff. The team has also led schools in expanding their PBIS programs beyond their brick-and-mortar buildings and their bell-to-bell school days by developing and implementing a set of PBIS practices for their school buses and their before- and after-school C.A.R.E. programs.
Cyberspace is next, as the team is currently creating a PBIS component that emphasizes digital citizenship as a means of supporting the District's Google Chromebook pilot program, which will put a Google Chromebook in the hands of every sixth, seventh, and eighth grader in the District in 2017-18.
"One person who has to be acknowledged as the driving force behind our PBIS success is Dr. Laura Swanlund," said Dr. Edgar. "It has been a long-standing responsibility of hers to support this endeavor, and this really reflects the great work that she has done over time. Under her guidance and leadership, PBIS has become an essential component of a District 15 education."
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| | Stuart R. Paddock School staff guide students onto a bus during a recent relocation drill to Walter R. Sundling Junior High. |
Safety FirstDistrict 15 continues to explore ways to ensure the safety of its schools.
The safety of all children attending District 15 schools is our top priority. That is why we are constantly reviewing our policies and procedures, searching for opportunities to improve our daily efforts to provide our students with caring, safe, and orderly learning environments.
In particular, the District 15 Safety Committee -- which is comprised of District and school administrators, local first responders, and a parent representative -- is focused on the following initiatives for the 2016-17 school year:
- Incident Command System: District 15's principals and assistant principals have completed training in FEMA's Incident Command System. This training will allow them to better coordinate emergency planning, response, and recovery efforts in collaboration with local first responders who are well versed in the system.
- Central Information Sites: Should a crisis arise at one of District 15's Palatine schools, parents will now be asked to gather at the Palatine Public Library to receive live, in-person updates from law enforcement officials and District 15 administrators. The District is currently working with the Rolling Meadows and Hoffman Estates Police Departments to identify venues that could serve this purpose for the District's schools located in their communities.
- Electronic Visitor Management Solutions: The District will be equipping its schools with technology that will allow them to scan the government-issued ID visitors must provide to enter the school, search local, state, and federal databases for red flags that might indicate whether an individual should not be allowed to enter, and print visitor passes for those who clear these background checks.
- Student Transportation: The Committee will be reviewing the District's current practices and developing systematic procedures to ensure that students get on the appropriate buses at dismissal, and depart at the appropriate stops at the end of the day.
"It is critically important for us to continuously work to improve the safety and security of our schools," said Matthew Barbini, Ed.D., Deputy Superintendent of Schools. "These initiatives are just a few of the many ways we are working to do so. In District 15, student safety is our top priority."
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| Stuart R. Paddock School staff and Palatine Police Officer Jeff Schlee debrief during a recent relocation drill to
Walter R. Sundling Junior High. |
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| Not Alone
Together, District 15 and Alexian Brothers are helping meet students' mental health needs.
Issues related to bullying, self-esteem, behavioral and emotional disorders, anxiety, and depression can have far-reaching and life-changing consequences if not appropriately addressed and managed.
"Here in District 15, we aren't alone in addressing these issues, and we want our students and their families to know that they aren't alone in facing these challenges, either," said Paul Budin, District 15's Social Work Services Coordinator.
District 15 has partnered with Alexian Brothers Center for Mental Health to provide school-based mental health services within its junior highs since 2009. Through this long-standing public-private partnership, District 15 and Alexian Brothers are able to offer a comprehensive approach to treating a wide range of emotional and social problems our junior high students may face through:
- Individual counseling and interventions with therapists who understand the unique needs of children and teenagers
- A variety of therapeutic groups
- Risk assessments
- Assisting in hospitalizations
- Collaboration with teachers, social workers, and schools to ensure continuity of care and support in the school setting
- Linkage to psychiatric evaluations from a psychiatrist specially trained to treat children and adolescents
- Referrals to external counseling services
- School-wide and classroom education
"Our program emphasizes early identification and prevention, and is designed to reduce stigma," said Karen Proctor, a licensed clinical social worker and school-based services team leader for Alexian Brothers. "By reducing stigma, we increase awareness about how to access services for students and families."
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| | Sara Knauz, a school counselor with Alexian Brothers Center for Mental Health, leads a Signs of Suicide presentation for students at Winston Campus Junior High. |
Alexian Brothers' school-based mental health liaisons spend at least one day a week in each D15 junior high, working closely with each school's social workers, psychologists, guidance counselors, teachers, and administrators to identify students with potentially disruptive or destructive social-emotional issues such as depression, anxiety, self-harm and emotional regulation. Then, they work together and link these students and their families to the appropriate services, which can be provided on site at school, or -- if necessary to address more serious mental health issues -- through local hospitals or community-based agencies.
At present, the Alexian Brothers Center for Mental Health also provides these school-based mental health services in six high schools and nine parochial schools in the northwest suburban area. Since its beginning, the program has reached more than 15,000 students, and now impacts more than 8,000 individuals each year. Last year, it provided direct counseling services to more than 375 teens in their schools.
"We're grateful for this partnership with Alexian Brothers, and for the positive impact it has in the lives of District 15 students who experience difficulties that affect their emotional or social development," said Mr. Budin. "Working together, we will continue to help meet our students' mental health needs."
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| D15 Bilingual Liaisons leading parenting classes at
Winston Campus Junior High Community School. |
In Demand District 15 and the POC partner to provide bilingual parent liaisons whose services are wide-ranging and highly sought after.
By 8 a.m. most mornings, there's already a line outside their office door.
They're also booked three or four nights a week.
Now, they're expanding the scope of their services outward from Palatine, and beginning to work with families in Rolling Meadows.
They are the bilingual parent liaisons that District 15 and Partners for Our Communities (formerly the Palatine Opportunity Center) team up to provide for the immigrant students and families in the District 15 community. They are Violeta Audelo-Solano, Laura Ramirez, and Ana Flores, and -- along with Jazlynn Halloran, the District's bilingual outreach facilitator -- they keep quite the busy schedules.
Their job is to foster and sustain communication between schools and bilingual families throughout the D15 community. They do so in part by leading the District's Bilingual Parent Advisory Committee and teaching classes for parents at the Edgebrook Community Center and the Winston Campus Junior High Community School. They also attend schools' family literacy nights, and regularly meet with principals to assess the needs of and provide support for each school's bilingual population.
But the liaisons' day-to-day efforts are truly a mixed bag, as they're available to help newly arrived families get situated in their new schools and acclimated to their new homes in just about any way imaginable. In addition to helping bilingual families navigate the school system, the liaisons aim to connect these families to a wide variety of resources that can help them secure housing, pay their bills, get medical care, find food pantries and clothing closets, or even enroll in classes at the POC or Harper College.
"Our bilingual parent liaisons are becoming so popular, so in demand, because they are such an invaluable resource," said Cheryl Wolfel, Ed.D., Executive Director for Second Language Programs. "They are all parents, they all live in the District 15 community, and they are all very active in our schools, so they know our neighborhoods, and they know the students and families we serve. And of course, our liaisons also know the language and the culture -- even the experience of being a new bilingual family in a community -- so there's a trust and a comfort level that often develops between our bilingual families and our liaisons that allows them to directly discuss certain concerns parents might not mention to their teachers or principals for fear that something might get lost in translation."
"That's what makes our parent liaisons the heartbeat of our bilingual communities here in District 15," said Dr. Wolfel.
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Made in District 15
Participating in sports at Winston Park Junior High taught Domingo Suarez a number of important life lessons. Now he's teaching them to his students at Winston Campus Junior High. 
Name: Agustin D. "Mingo" Suarez Jr.
District 15 History: Domingo moved from Arlington Heights to Palatine in April of 1987 and attended sixth grade at Winston Churchill School. He then moved on to attend seventh and eighth grade at Winston Park Junior High, where he excelled academically. In fact, his parents proudly displayed their "I Have an Honor Roll Student at Winston Park" bumper stickers on their cars during his time there. He also excelled athletically, as he wrestled for two years and played basketball as an eighth grader.
Further Education: Domingo attended Palatine High School from 1989 to 1993. After graduating, he enrolled at Harper College and earned his associate's degree in 1995. He then transferred to Illinois State University to become a Redbird, and he graduated from ISU with a bachelor's degree in education in 1998. In 2004, he completed his master's degree in educational administration from Northern Illinois University.
 Current Occupation: Domingo is currently in his 19th year of teaching at Winston Campus Junior High. He has taught both seventh- and eighth-grade reading, writing, and history over the years.
In His Own Words: Being a product of District 15 definitely provided me with positive experiences to lead me where I am today.
I found out quickly in seventh grade that trying your best isn't always good enough! I tried out for the seventh-grade boys basketball team and got cut. I was so upset and angry that I didn't make the team. This led me to practice even harder over the next year to try to make the eighth-grade basketball team, and it worked!
On the first day of eighth-grade basketball tryouts, Mr. Scott May, the coach, asked me, "Mingo, why didn't you try out last year?"
I responded, "I did, but you didn't take me."
Needless to say, not only did I make the eighth-grade basketball team, but I was also the starting point guard! Unfortunately, I never was able to experience a Winston Park basketball victory because we went winless the entire season.
Back in the day, Mr. Christopher Norton, my seventh-grade science teacher and the school's wrestling coach, needed a 105-pound wrestler. He asked me a couple of times to join the wrestling team, but I told him there was no way I was going to put on one of those wrestling uniforms. Plus, I didn't know anything about wrestling. After a little nudging, though, I joined the wrestling team and competed well for the team for two years.
One thing that really stood out to me that I still remember today is a practice the day after I got pummeled 15-0 against Holmes Middle School. At that practice, he stood me up in front of the entire team and said, "I want to congratulate Mingo Suarez because he is the reason why we won the wrestling match! Because he stayed off his back and didn't get pinned, he is the reason we won by 1 team point!" The wrestlers and coach gave me a standing ovation that I still remember today.
 I definitely try to incorporate these lessons into my teaching and coaching each and every day, as I am constantly praising my students, especially for the small successes that some of them achieve. What's also pretty neat? This former seventh grader who had no desire to wrestle at Winston Park will be beginning his 19th year coaching wrestling at Winston this December.
Mr. John L. Myers was my principal at Winston Park Junior High as a student, and he really helped me get where I am today. I was pretty involved in activities, and I earned honor roll every time, so he got to see plenty of me during those two years. I always admired how he treated his students. After I graduated from Illinois State University, I was about to accept a teaching position in Wheeling. Then I received a phone call from Mr. Myers about a seventh-grade reading and writing position at Winston. I interviewed with Mr. Adam Palmer, Mr. Roland Berg, Mrs. Lisa Stehno, and Mr. Myers.
A few days later, Mr. Myers called me and asked me, "Mingo, what are you doing?"
I replied, "I am getting ready to tutor a student."
He then asked me, "Would you like to tutor students at Winston Campus?"
The rest is history!
I'm so grateful that my educational career has come full circle, and I am so happy to be working in District 15 at my old stomping grounds.
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David W. Seiffert
