Itasca School District 10

Summer 2015 Newsletter

Superintendent's Message

On Tuesday, June 30, 2015, I will be retiring from Itasca School District. I have enjoyed serving you in my many administrative roles over the past 30 years.

While I look forward to my future, I will never forget the children, parents and residents of Itasca who have supported District 10 during my tenure. As Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent and principal, I have valued and admired the community members' involvement in the schools.

Itasca School District has become an educational system to be admired. I extend a special thank you to all of the employees that have devoted themselves to the day to day well-being of our children. With daily acts of kindness and dedication from all of the employees, the youth of Itasca have had outstanding opportunities throughout their elementary education years to prepare them for high school and beyond.

It has been an honor to work with such professional and personally committed Itasca School Board members, administrators, teachers, and support staff members. These past years have been very rewarding and memorable to me.

Thank you,

Marcia Tornatore, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Itasca School District

Upcoming Events

Within Itasca School District's website (www.itasca.k12.il.us), a calendar for the 2015-2016 school year contains a listing of all upcoming events. Each school provides a variety of opportunities for students to showcase their accomplishments, as well as parents/guardians to visit our schools.

Finance

On of the most important accomplishments over the past seven years has been the development and implementation of a balanced budget for Itasca School District 10. As we move into the 2015-2016 school year, the district has been provided with stable financial budget. Procedures have been developed and consistently implemented by the current administration for the purpose of maintaining financial security for the district.

Buildings and Grounds

During the summer months, custodians are thoroughly cleaning the school buildings in preparation for the return of the students during the fall of 2015.

Construction on the addition at Franzen Intermediate School continues into July. The five additional classrooms will be a welcome addition to the school due to increased enrollment throughout the past years. Mr. Atkinson, Director of Operations, has been responsible for the project. District 10 appreciates Mr. Atkinson's expertise in monitoring construction of the addition. Principal Jason Taylor and his staff have been extremely accommodating during the renovation. Their professionalism and commitment to District 10 is commendable.

An additional accomplishment over the past seven years has been the acquisition of a parcel of land to the west of Peacock Middle School. Due to increased enrollment and additional educational opportunities, this provides options for use at the school.

Technology

The technology department is excited to announce that Benson Primary School is getting all new computers building-wide. All classroom teachers will receive a laptop in place of their current desktops. Also, all student desktops that were in the classroom and the media center will become laptops. This will make computer use mobile and more functional in the classrooms and media center for both staff and students.

The most exciting news is that all school locations are receiving multi-functional copiers for staff use. These units will be placed one per wing at Benson and Franzen, and one or two per level at Peacock. These copiers another staff to print, scan, and copy from more locations in the building then the one and only current office unit.

In addition, these new copiers have a new and efficient print management utility. Each unit will be equipped with a proxy card reader that authenticates a user to the copier with their district supplied proxy card. This addresses the issue of secure printing for the staff. A users print job can only be received by the user that send it through this proxy card authentication and also can be received by any copier in the building, not just the closest unit.

Finally, the technology department is setting up all brand new technology for the new addition at Franzen Intermediate School. These new items include all internet lines ran back to the main existing wiring closet, Mimio interactive short-throw projectors, one wireless access point per classroom for maximum coverage, and a color printer for the classrooms to use.

F.E. Peacock Middle School

As we say farewell to Mr. Brian Faulkner, we welcome Mrs. Heidi Weeks as the incoming principal at F.E. Peacock Middle School. Mrs. Weeks comes to Itasca School District with administrative experience at the middle school level. For several months, Mrs. Weeks has been dedicating time in preparing for the fall of 2015.

Mr. Faulkner's tenure in Itasca has brought many rewarding innovations to F. E. Peacock Middle School. We thank him for his outstanding leadership and educational expertise that he has implemented at the school. He is moving on to another opportunity to advance his career. We wish him success in his new endeavor.

Elmer H. Franzen Intermediate School

Franzen Intermediate School Updates Logo

We are excited to announce that Franzen Intermediate School will have a new logo for the 2015-2016 school year. Students and staff voted on a logo this past school year from two finalists. New logo developed in coordination with our new building addition for the upcoming school year. We thank our art teacher, Ms. Marino, for her mural work in the Franzen gym. "Flash" the falcon is on display at Franzen School and will be available on various clothing items next school year.

Franzen Intermediate School Construction Update

Franzen Intermediate School continues progress on its building construction. Over the course of the 2014-2015 school year progress has been made on an addition that will bring our building five additional classrooms, a set of student restrooms, and a basement that spans the entire footprint of our new addition. Our temporary modular classrooms were deconstructed in September 2014 and other projects were completed in fall 2014 to prepare electrical and water services to our new addition. Since then, building has taken shape to mimic structure that exists. Windows, framing, and brick were selected to match current building. Once completed, fifth grade students will find a home in our new classrooms. Franzen Intermediate School will now have three wings, each dedicated to a different grade level. Grade levels will no longer be split down different hallways. Franzen Intermediate School will have opening ceremony, in coordination with Itasca's 125^th birthday, during the fall of 2015.

Franzen School Students complete annual DARE program

On Tuesday, June 3^rd our Franzen fifth grade students held their annual DARE graduation. This multi-week program runs in coordination with our fifth grade team of teachers and our Itasca Police Department representative, Officer Jim Duda. This wonderful program teaches our young, impressionable students how to properly deal with and make tough life decisions. Many units and lessons are taught. Topics include drug resistance and education, bullying, peer relationships and many others. We could not complete this program without the help of our police department and teachers. Our fifth grade students logged a booklet during the duration of their DARE classes, completed a questions box, and wrote wonderful positive choices essays near the conclusion of the program. We wish our fifth grade students well as they travel to Peacock School to begin their middle school years!

Raymond Benson Primary School

New Reading Series

Beginning with the 2015-16 school year Benson Primary School students will be taught language arts via the use of a new curriculum. The McGraw-Hill Wonders series contains several components that ranked as excellent including the following: direct connection to Common Core Standards, programming that includes all elements of language arts, technology features that match our current classroom technology, professional development, support for students at all learning levels, and engaging stories. This series was designed in 2014 and will help our students meet the rigor of increased standards. Teachers are excited to begin using this curriculum to teach reading, phonics, spelling and grammar. This series also provides a writing component which aligns to the Six Plus One curriculum, which is currently the approved writing program for Itasca District 10.

PBIS-Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive systems approach to establishing the behavioral supports and social culture needed for all students in a school to achieve social, emotional and academic success. Benson Primary School follows the principles and philosophies of PBIS and directly ties them into our discipline processes. More specifically our expectations of Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Proud and Be Safe align directly with school-wide rules and individual classroom/teacher rules.

Community Service

The Ronald McDonald House provides housing close to hospitals for families of ill children, where they are able to comfortably stay during their child's treatment and recovery. Benson Primary School has gathered pop tabs for The Ronald McDonald House for over thirteen years! The Ronald McDonald House collects the tabs for the aluminum content; the tabs are more manageable to store than entire cans. The Ronald McDonald House receives 40+ cents per pound of tabs, which allows them to raise over $5000 per year (Information provided by The Ronald McDonald House, Chicago, IL). We continue our support for several reasons. Giving our students the opportunity to help other children increases their understanding and ownership of making a difference in the lives of others. Every child in our school can easily participate in collecting pop tabs. Second graders count and report tab totals to the student body and community on a regular basis. The "tab"ulation math activities (measurement, estimation, addition, subtraction, problem solving) build on one another, developing throughout the year. To date, Benson Primary School has delivered over 2.8 million pop tabs to The Ronald McDonald House!