This December has brought my family so much joy and I hope it has for you, too.
What a month it’s been! My son sang in the Metea Valley High School Collage Concert held at beautiful Wentz Hall at North Central College and my daughter played violin in the Waubonsie Valley Prism Concert for the last time. Both were amazing concerts, but I was sad during Prism when looking at all those seniors in Santa hats who will not be performing at WV next year.
My son had daily practice after school for Metea Valley’s “12 Angry Jurors” that will be performed at the end of January. He also rehearsed with his music groups at school and an a cappella group he and his friends have started. My youngest worked on her Irish Dancing and attended rehearsals for the children’s Christmas musical at Wheatland Salem Church where she has a speaking part.
Fun events included a surprise gathering for my sister-in-law’s birthday, the annual IPPC School Board Reception, a neighborhood progressive cocktail party, and a Christmas party at a friend’s house. The kids baked cookies with their aunt and later with their grandparents where they also decorated gingerbread houses.
Late on December 12 my family was at O’Hare to pick up our daughter who had been out of the country since August. We were so happy to see her and are so glad to have her back! We had a welcome home gathering for her the next day.
The parties continued with a backwards party for the 4th graders at Brooks on the last day before winter break and Christmas parties at home held by my high school senior, my college sophomore, and my fourth grader for their friends.
It’s been nice to have the house full of young people so many times lately.
We’ve also been blessed this month both with a new baby in the family and news of another on the way.
I’ve enjoyed receiving many cards, photos, and letters from friends and family. It’s astounding how the kids I haven’t seen recently have grown and changed.
As of this writing I’m still looking forward to seeing the musical at church, Christmas Eve church service, and our Christmas gatherings with the Tatars, Haytons, and Hards, followed by a much more relaxing week coming up and my son’s solos at Fourth Street United Methodist on January 3rd.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
2009-12-18 New baby announcements
The birth of a baby is one of the most exciting and happy times in life and the new parents are usually in a big hurry to get the news out to everyone who's been waiting.
Almost twenty years ago when my first daughter was born, technology was nowhere near what we have today. The hospital phones required us to call collect or use a calling card so even making phone calls was incredibly difficult and we made very few. We took pictures and my husband brought the film for one hour processing so he’d have pictures to show at work. I hand-wrote and mailed birth announcements.
Though I had e-mail and internet access at work, very few of my friends and family had e-mail or internet. I was able to announce Jessica’s birth to my internet friends when I returned to work three months later. The internet was text only and my friends and I shared photos by putting together an annual photo album, which required mailing pages, getting color copies made, and having the books assembled and mailed out.
Nearly a decade later when my youngest daughter was born we had a cell phone (one for our whole family) and could easily call anyone from the hospital. It was not a camera phone and we did not yet have texting capability nor did we know why we would even want it.
Though the internet had come a long ways in those ten years, we didn’t yet have a digital camera or even a scanner to get printed photos to the computer. We did have a desktop home computer with dial-up access and knew a lot of people who had e-mail by then, though still not many in our family. I was able to announce Alicia’s birth online from home as soon as I was home from the hospital. We ordered printed birth announcements from an online source.
Now, almost another ten years later, this past Monday night my cousin Sam Hard and his wife Alice gave birth to beautiful baby girl Kimberly Jade Hard. How do I know she’s beautiful? Sam e-mailed a birth announcement with a photo from the hospital just over an hour after she was born.
"I created the template for the announcement days in advance," Sam told me. "On the day of the birth, we brought our digital camera and netbook, so we were able to send the announcement right from the delivery room ..."
Now that almost everyone has e-mail, the good news reached friends and family in nearby and far-flung locations nearly instantaneously. I love that technology makes this possible and can't wait to meet the new baby in the family!
Almost twenty years ago when my first daughter was born, technology was nowhere near what we have today. The hospital phones required us to call collect or use a calling card so even making phone calls was incredibly difficult and we made very few. We took pictures and my husband brought the film for one hour processing so he’d have pictures to show at work. I hand-wrote and mailed birth announcements.
Though I had e-mail and internet access at work, very few of my friends and family had e-mail or internet. I was able to announce Jessica’s birth to my internet friends when I returned to work three months later. The internet was text only and my friends and I shared photos by putting together an annual photo album, which required mailing pages, getting color copies made, and having the books assembled and mailed out.
Nearly a decade later when my youngest daughter was born we had a cell phone (one for our whole family) and could easily call anyone from the hospital. It was not a camera phone and we did not yet have texting capability nor did we know why we would even want it.
Though the internet had come a long ways in those ten years, we didn’t yet have a digital camera or even a scanner to get printed photos to the computer. We did have a desktop home computer with dial-up access and knew a lot of people who had e-mail by then, though still not many in our family. I was able to announce Alicia’s birth online from home as soon as I was home from the hospital. We ordered printed birth announcements from an online source.
Now, almost another ten years later, this past Monday night my cousin Sam Hard and his wife Alice gave birth to beautiful baby girl Kimberly Jade Hard. How do I know she’s beautiful? Sam e-mailed a birth announcement with a photo from the hospital just over an hour after she was born.
"I created the template for the announcement days in advance," Sam told me. "On the day of the birth, we brought our digital camera and netbook, so we were able to send the announcement right from the delivery room ..."
Now that almost everyone has e-mail, the good news reached friends and family in nearby and far-flung locations nearly instantaneously. I love that technology makes this possible and can't wait to meet the new baby in the family!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
2009-12-11 College Prep
Any parent of a college-bound high school senior knows what a busy time this school year is. Most parents are probably wondering what happened to that little baby they brought home not so long ago, and what the next year will bring.
Many seniors are busy with yet another year of difficult college prep classes, all of the usual high school events, and possibly a part-time job or two and volunteer work while keeping up with their friends, extra-curricular activities, and applying to colleges and for scholarships for next year.
Thankfully there are a lot of resources available to help guide parents and students through college preparation. There are many things that need to happen and some of them started years ago. The student needs to decide what college or type of college they want to attend, they need to be well-prepared to get into the school of their choice, and they need a way to pay for it.
My oldest daughter knew that she wanted a school near home, smaller than the high school she attended, with a nice downtown area and a good program for her choice of major. She fell in love with North Central College right away and didn’t even apply anywhere else. She even knew what she wanted to major in. That was easy.
My current senior has a different wish list. She wants to go to school far enough from home to live at school, but close enough to come home for some weekends. She wants a small to medium-sized school in which she can play in their orchestra while not majoring in music. We visited six colleges and she has narrowed her choices to one of those plus one we haven’t yet visited. Her choice of major is still up in the air.
Andrea Purcell, College and Career Center Counselor at Waubonsie Valley High School, says that “choosing the right college is so important because it is really a stepping stone to the rest of your life. The right college might not be what the student initially thought he or she wanted - so it is integral to visit colleges, talk to current students as well as staff, and make sure that the student feels at home so that they can thrive during their time at the school. College is such an important time in the life of a student - they grow academically AND socially AND emotionally - this is the time that we see our kids grow the most outside their infancy. The right school will shape the student into a productive adult and citizen so that they can be successful in their chosen career path.”
There are many ways to find out about colleges. There are college searches available on the ACT and SAT websites that can help narrow down the choices. College representatives visit local high schools on a regular basis. There are also college fairs, usually held at local community colleges, where students can get information about many different schools all at once. Erin Hoover, Assistant Director of Admission at North Central College, adds that "National and state organizations such as the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) and the Illinois Association for College Admission Counseling (IACAC) can also provide students with adequate resources to find direction in their college search."
As for the ability to get admitted to the school of choice, this depends heavily on what coursework the student has taken during their four years of high school, and how well they have done in school and on standardized tests, as well as their extra-curricular involvement.
There are numerous ways to prepare for the ACT and SAT including practice tests, courses designed for test prep, and simply taking rigorous coursework in school.
Talking to high school counselors and college admissions counselors can help a student make the right choices during high school that will help them prepare for their future.
Though next school year is many months away, early decision and early action deadlines have already passed or are quickly approaching for most schools. Students who have not yet begun applying should do so in the next few months.
College costs have gone up faster than most other expenses and it is much harder for students to pay the sticker price for college these days than it was back when I was in college. North Central's tuition has more than quadrupled in the past 25 years, while minimum wage has only doubled, and jobs for teens are harder than ever to come by. The good news is that most students do not pay full price to attend college.
A couple of obvious ways to keep total costs down are to join the military (active duty, reserve, or National Guard) or to attend community college for the first two years.
Illinois state schools are significantly less expensive than private schools, but it’s worth looking at both because when you take into account scholarships and financial aid there may not be much difference.
Almost every school offers some sort of merit scholarship program, even state schools and community colleges. Students should check the websites of the schools they are interested in for scholarship opportunities there, and contact their high school guidance counselor for local scholarship opportunities.
All families that may qualify for any financial aid, or are required to by their student’s school, should fill out the FAFSA each year the student will attend college, as early as possible that year. In most cases a student won’t get any sort of financial aid in the form of grants, subsidized loans, or work study unless the FAFSA has been submitted and shows need.
Local high schools and colleges offer presentations on financing college and other relevant topics to help families as well.
Becky Tatar, Periodicals/Audiovisuals Specialist at the Aurora Public Library, reports that the library “has materials on colleges and financial aid, including the FAFSA forms. There are also SAT, ACT and CLEP test preparation books, which are also available online through the Learning Express Library database. This database can be accessed from home with an Aurora Public Library card. The library also provides programs on financial aid options and mock ACT/SAT test preparation. All the websites listed can be accessed at the library.”
Our local students are fortunate to have such a wealth of valuable resources available to them. Here are some links.
http://www.ed.gov/fund/grants-college.html?src=rt - U.S. Department of Education college aid info
http://www.finaid.org/ - guide to scholarships, loans, and other aid
http://www.fastweb.com - scholarship search site
http://wvhs.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx?id=89 - WVHS Guidance site, including college and career center and scholarship listings
http://nvhs.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx?id=349 – NVHS Guidance site, including information about college applications and scholarships
http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ - Free Application for Federal Student Aid
http://www.youseemore.com/aurorapl/about.asp?loc=25 – Aurora Public Library “beyond high school” links and information
http://www.naperville-lib.info/LibServices/teen/collegeServ.htm - Naperville Public Library “road to college & beyond…” links and information
Many seniors are busy with yet another year of difficult college prep classes, all of the usual high school events, and possibly a part-time job or two and volunteer work while keeping up with their friends, extra-curricular activities, and applying to colleges and for scholarships for next year.
Thankfully there are a lot of resources available to help guide parents and students through college preparation. There are many things that need to happen and some of them started years ago. The student needs to decide what college or type of college they want to attend, they need to be well-prepared to get into the school of their choice, and they need a way to pay for it.
My oldest daughter knew that she wanted a school near home, smaller than the high school she attended, with a nice downtown area and a good program for her choice of major. She fell in love with North Central College right away and didn’t even apply anywhere else. She even knew what she wanted to major in. That was easy.
My current senior has a different wish list. She wants to go to school far enough from home to live at school, but close enough to come home for some weekends. She wants a small to medium-sized school in which she can play in their orchestra while not majoring in music. We visited six colleges and she has narrowed her choices to one of those plus one we haven’t yet visited. Her choice of major is still up in the air.
Andrea Purcell, College and Career Center Counselor at Waubonsie Valley High School, says that “choosing the right college is so important because it is really a stepping stone to the rest of your life. The right college might not be what the student initially thought he or she wanted - so it is integral to visit colleges, talk to current students as well as staff, and make sure that the student feels at home so that they can thrive during their time at the school. College is such an important time in the life of a student - they grow academically AND socially AND emotionally - this is the time that we see our kids grow the most outside their infancy. The right school will shape the student into a productive adult and citizen so that they can be successful in their chosen career path.”
There are many ways to find out about colleges. There are college searches available on the ACT and SAT websites that can help narrow down the choices. College representatives visit local high schools on a regular basis. There are also college fairs, usually held at local community colleges, where students can get information about many different schools all at once. Erin Hoover, Assistant Director of Admission at North Central College, adds that "National and state organizations such as the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) and the Illinois Association for College Admission Counseling (IACAC) can also provide students with adequate resources to find direction in their college search."
As for the ability to get admitted to the school of choice, this depends heavily on what coursework the student has taken during their four years of high school, and how well they have done in school and on standardized tests, as well as their extra-curricular involvement.
There are numerous ways to prepare for the ACT and SAT including practice tests, courses designed for test prep, and simply taking rigorous coursework in school.
Talking to high school counselors and college admissions counselors can help a student make the right choices during high school that will help them prepare for their future.
Though next school year is many months away, early decision and early action deadlines have already passed or are quickly approaching for most schools. Students who have not yet begun applying should do so in the next few months.
College costs have gone up faster than most other expenses and it is much harder for students to pay the sticker price for college these days than it was back when I was in college. North Central's tuition has more than quadrupled in the past 25 years, while minimum wage has only doubled, and jobs for teens are harder than ever to come by. The good news is that most students do not pay full price to attend college.
A couple of obvious ways to keep total costs down are to join the military (active duty, reserve, or National Guard) or to attend community college for the first two years.
Illinois state schools are significantly less expensive than private schools, but it’s worth looking at both because when you take into account scholarships and financial aid there may not be much difference.
Almost every school offers some sort of merit scholarship program, even state schools and community colleges. Students should check the websites of the schools they are interested in for scholarship opportunities there, and contact their high school guidance counselor for local scholarship opportunities.
All families that may qualify for any financial aid, or are required to by their student’s school, should fill out the FAFSA each year the student will attend college, as early as possible that year. In most cases a student won’t get any sort of financial aid in the form of grants, subsidized loans, or work study unless the FAFSA has been submitted and shows need.
Local high schools and colleges offer presentations on financing college and other relevant topics to help families as well.
Becky Tatar, Periodicals/Audiovisuals Specialist at the Aurora Public Library, reports that the library “has materials on colleges and financial aid, including the FAFSA forms. There are also SAT, ACT and CLEP test preparation books, which are also available online through the Learning Express Library database. This database can be accessed from home with an Aurora Public Library card. The library also provides programs on financial aid options and mock ACT/SAT test preparation. All the websites listed can be accessed at the library.”
Our local students are fortunate to have such a wealth of valuable resources available to them. Here are some links.
http://www.ed.gov/fund/grants-college.html?src=rt - U.S. Department of Education college aid info
http://www.finaid.org/ - guide to scholarships, loans, and other aid
http://www.fastweb.com - scholarship search site
http://wvhs.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx?id=89 - WVHS Guidance site, including college and career center and scholarship listings
http://nvhs.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx?id=349 – NVHS Guidance site, including information about college applications and scholarships
http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ - Free Application for Federal Student Aid
http://www.youseemore.com/aurorapl/about.asp?loc=25 – Aurora Public Library “beyond high school” links and information
http://www.naperville-lib.info/LibServices/teen/collegeServ.htm - Naperville Public Library “road to college & beyond…” links and information
Sunday, November 29, 2009
2009-11-27 Thanking the Military
I am thankful for our military, the dedicated men and women who have served in the past and those who are currently putting this nation ahead of themselves.
I have many friends and family I could name here if given the space, but will honor here the two veterans closest to me, whom I miss dearly, my grandfather and my father-in-law; and my niece and nephew who both enlisted in February 2008.
My Nonno, Lloyd Henry Hayton, proudly served in the U.S. Army from 1938 until 1945 and in the Army National Guard through 1952. He spent a couple of years in Saipan and had many stories to tell about that, and he also spent time stationed in Hawaii and several U.S. locations. He was most proud of having achieved the rank of Chief Warrant Officer.
Gabe Tatar, my father-in-law, enlisted in the Army Air Force in August of 1942. He trained in Blytheville, Arkansas and spent almost two years in England before his discharge in early 1946. Though he was fortunate not to have been involved in any battles, his older brother Louis was killed in France in August of 1944. My son now has his Grandpa’s medal case hanging in our house.
My niece Alyssa Tatar, a 2008 West High graduate, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps as soon as she turned 18. She joined because she wanted to keep from going down the wrong path and she liked the discipline offered by the military. She is a Lance Corporal in Camp Pendleton, California and works as an administrative clerk. She is undecided about whether she will make a career of the military but knows that she is learning good skills that will help her have a better future.
Alyssa and the other Marines she resides with have very positive things to say about how being in the Marines helps young adults financially and gives them the experience and discipline to better themselves. Semper Fidelis!
My nephew Devin Hard, a 2009 West High graduate, enlisted in the Army National Guard when he turned 17. He joined for many reasons including love of country, giving back to the country, and being a part of something greater than himself. While growing up he admired other veterans in his family who had served in WWII and Vietnam and enjoyed hearing their stories. He wanted to follow in Nonno’s footsteps.
Devin is a Private First Class in the Infantry with Bravo Company 1st Battalion of the 178th Infantry Regiment, 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team. He completed his basic training and Advanced Infantry Training in Fort Benning, Georgia, in the summers before and after his senior year.
When Devin joined the Army he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to go to college after high school or become active duty, so the National Guard was a good place to start. He now plans to switch to active duty to pursue some of his many goals including attending Airborne School, Air Assault School, Army Mountaineering, Army Ranger School, and earning the Expert Infantryman Badge.
On this Thanksgiving weekend, please take a moment to remember those in the military and their families.
I have many friends and family I could name here if given the space, but will honor here the two veterans closest to me, whom I miss dearly, my grandfather and my father-in-law; and my niece and nephew who both enlisted in February 2008.
My Nonno, Lloyd Henry Hayton, proudly served in the U.S. Army from 1938 until 1945 and in the Army National Guard through 1952. He spent a couple of years in Saipan and had many stories to tell about that, and he also spent time stationed in Hawaii and several U.S. locations. He was most proud of having achieved the rank of Chief Warrant Officer.
Gabe Tatar, my father-in-law, enlisted in the Army Air Force in August of 1942. He trained in Blytheville, Arkansas and spent almost two years in England before his discharge in early 1946. Though he was fortunate not to have been involved in any battles, his older brother Louis was killed in France in August of 1944. My son now has his Grandpa’s medal case hanging in our house.
My niece Alyssa Tatar, a 2008 West High graduate, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps as soon as she turned 18. She joined because she wanted to keep from going down the wrong path and she liked the discipline offered by the military. She is a Lance Corporal in Camp Pendleton, California and works as an administrative clerk. She is undecided about whether she will make a career of the military but knows that she is learning good skills that will help her have a better future.
Alyssa and the other Marines she resides with have very positive things to say about how being in the Marines helps young adults financially and gives them the experience and discipline to better themselves. Semper Fidelis!
My nephew Devin Hard, a 2009 West High graduate, enlisted in the Army National Guard when he turned 17. He joined for many reasons including love of country, giving back to the country, and being a part of something greater than himself. While growing up he admired other veterans in his family who had served in WWII and Vietnam and enjoyed hearing their stories. He wanted to follow in Nonno’s footsteps.
Devin is a Private First Class in the Infantry with Bravo Company 1st Battalion of the 178th Infantry Regiment, 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team. He completed his basic training and Advanced Infantry Training in Fort Benning, Georgia, in the summers before and after his senior year.
When Devin joined the Army he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to go to college after high school or become active duty, so the National Guard was a good place to start. He now plans to switch to active duty to pursue some of his many goals including attending Airborne School, Air Assault School, Army Mountaineering, Army Ranger School, and earning the Expert Infantryman Badge.
On this Thanksgiving weekend, please take a moment to remember those in the military and their families.
Friday, November 20, 2009
2009-11-20 Indian Prairie parent groups
Indian Prairie parent groups each have own specific focus
November 20, 2009
There are numerous opportunities for parents to get involved in Indian Prairie's districtwide and school-based parent organizations.
I've previously mentioned the district's 34 PTA/PTSAs, all of which are school-based except for the Special Needs and Project Arrow district-wide PTAs. The Indian Prairie Parents Council is the umbrella organization for these 34 units. The delegate body of the IPPC consists of the president and one representative from each unit. The council exists to help the member PTA units function effectively.
This is my third year as the IPPC representative for Brooks Elementary School, and this year I've taken on an additional role as a member of the executive board. The council meets monthly to share information about issues affecting the education, health and welfare of the district's students. The superintendent and other district administrators answer questions and present information to the council to be brought back to the individual PTAs.
Each PTA serves on an IPPC committee every other year. This year, Brooks is working with Neuqua Valley High School on the Unity Committee. We are currently working on ideas for how to make our very divided district feel more unified.
The Bilingual Parent Advisory Committee (BPAC) and Parent Diversity Committee (PDAC) are not directly associated with the PTAs but try to have liaisons back to each PTA when possible to facilitate information sharing.
The role and responsibility of BPAC is to plan, operate and evaluate the Transitional Bilingual Education program. This committee also advises and assists the district in its implementation. BPAC is comprised of parents of children in the Bilingual Education Program and other interested community members.
PDAC published the parent teacher conference guide I referenced earlier this month. This organization's mission is "to positively impact the academic achievement of a diverse student population through school-specific outreach efforts and initiatives that focus on and directly address disparate academic performance."
In addition to their PTA/PTSAs, the high schools also have several very active parent organizations. These parent groups support high school athletics, band, orchestra, chorus and theater in an incredible number and wide variety of ways.
To find out more about how to get involved with these district parent organizations, check with your school or PTA or look for them via www.ipsd.org.
Also, check out these Web sites for more specific information:
• IPPC: http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/IPPC
• BPAC: http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx/BPAC -
• PDAC: http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx/PDAC -
• Project Arrow PTA: http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/IPPC/Default.aspx/ProjectArrowPTA
• Special Needs PTA: http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx/SpecialNeedsPTA
• NVHS parent organizations: nvhs.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx?id=16
• NVHS music: www.neuquamusic.org
• MVHS parent organizations: mvhs.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx?id=335
• MVHS music: www.meteamusic.org
• WVHS parent organizations: http://wvhs.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx?id=98
• WVHS music: http://www.wvhs-music.org/
November 20, 2009
There are numerous opportunities for parents to get involved in Indian Prairie's districtwide and school-based parent organizations.
I've previously mentioned the district's 34 PTA/PTSAs, all of which are school-based except for the Special Needs and Project Arrow district-wide PTAs. The Indian Prairie Parents Council is the umbrella organization for these 34 units. The delegate body of the IPPC consists of the president and one representative from each unit. The council exists to help the member PTA units function effectively.
This is my third year as the IPPC representative for Brooks Elementary School, and this year I've taken on an additional role as a member of the executive board. The council meets monthly to share information about issues affecting the education, health and welfare of the district's students. The superintendent and other district administrators answer questions and present information to the council to be brought back to the individual PTAs.
Each PTA serves on an IPPC committee every other year. This year, Brooks is working with Neuqua Valley High School on the Unity Committee. We are currently working on ideas for how to make our very divided district feel more unified.
The Bilingual Parent Advisory Committee (BPAC) and Parent Diversity Committee (PDAC) are not directly associated with the PTAs but try to have liaisons back to each PTA when possible to facilitate information sharing.
The role and responsibility of BPAC is to plan, operate and evaluate the Transitional Bilingual Education program. This committee also advises and assists the district in its implementation. BPAC is comprised of parents of children in the Bilingual Education Program and other interested community members.
PDAC published the parent teacher conference guide I referenced earlier this month. This organization's mission is "to positively impact the academic achievement of a diverse student population through school-specific outreach efforts and initiatives that focus on and directly address disparate academic performance."
In addition to their PTA/PTSAs, the high schools also have several very active parent organizations. These parent groups support high school athletics, band, orchestra, chorus and theater in an incredible number and wide variety of ways.
To find out more about how to get involved with these district parent organizations, check with your school or PTA or look for them via www.ipsd.org.
Also, check out these Web sites for more specific information:
• IPPC: http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/IPPC
• BPAC: http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx/BPAC -
• PDAC: http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx/PDAC -
• Project Arrow PTA: http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/IPPC/Default.aspx/ProjectArrowPTA
• Special Needs PTA: http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx/SpecialNeedsPTA
• NVHS parent organizations: nvhs.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx?id=16
• NVHS music: www.neuquamusic.org
• MVHS parent organizations: mvhs.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx?id=335
• MVHS music: www.meteamusic.org
• WVHS parent organizations: http://wvhs.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx?id=98
• WVHS music: http://www.wvhs-music.org/
2009-11-20 Jenna's Pay it Forward Blood/Bone Marrow Drive
When I heard recently that one of my high school daughter’s grade school classmates had been diagnosed with leukemia, my heart went out to this girl and her family. Senior year of high school is about so many good things – enjoying time with friends, having the last season of everything, making plans for the future, college applications, prom, special senior events – and fighting cancer should not be one of them.
I wondered if there was anything I could do to help this family and offered them the use of my column space to get the word out about anything they may want to publicize. It turns out that my offer was unexpected, timely and appreciated, as they had just been given the news that Jenna would need a bone marrow transplant. They were rushing to put together a bone marrow registry and blood drive and would want to get the details out to the public quickly.
Here is Jenna's story and the details about the drive being held next Wednesday.
Jenna’s “Pay it Forward”
Blood/Bone Marrow Drive
November 25, 2009
Benet Academy in Lisle
St. Jude Commons
from 3:00p.m. until 8:00p.m.
Jenna McKeown is a high school senior at Benet Academy where she plays Tennis and Lacrosse. She is an avid ice skater, and traveled last summer to Spain singing with her choir in some of the oldest and most beautiful cathedrals in the world! Wednesday, October 28 started like any other day for Jenna with current concerns limited to homework, college applications, and weekend activities. By Thursday evening Jenna began her first round of chemotherapy and her battle with leukemia had begun. What started out as a routine doctor’s visit for a sore throat and extreme fatigue led to a rapid chain of events that has turned her life upside down. Jenna was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a very aggressive but curable form of leukemia.
Although the news was devastating, the groundswell of support that Jenna and her family have received from schoolmates, community and people across the country has given them strength to meet this head on. Jenna’s dad set the game plan when he said, “We can match this disease step for step until it surrenders.”
The first step of Jenna’s treatment is chemotherapy and she has successfully completed her first round at the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital. Her indomitable spirit has become apparent to everyone as she has met the challenge of this diagnosis and the rigors of chemo with incredible strength. “Be Positive” is not only the tone that Jenna has set for everyone, it’s actually the blood type that literally runs through her veins (B+); a coincidence Jenna jumped on right away.
Her team of doctors is encouraged by the way that her body has reacted to the first round of chemo and her test results are very positive. However, Jenna recently learned that this is a battle that she cannot win on her own. After undergoing two more rounds of chemotherapy, she will require a bone marrow transplant from a matching donor in January. Tests have shown that Jenna’s siblings are not matches for her and she will depend on the National Bone Marrow Registry to find a donor.
Jenna’s family and friends are mobilizing an effort to add as many members as possible to the Be the Match National Bone Marrow Registry. This is not only to find a match for Jenna, but also to give hope to the thousands of others who are currently searching for a match. Jenna has been receiving blood platelet donations from Chicago blood banks and likely will continue to access their resources. Therefore her family and friends are also mobilizing an effort to replenish the local blood banks as well. In this combined Blood/Bone Marrow Drive, Jenna, her family and friends hope to be able to “pay forward” in some fashion the incredible support that they have already received in this journey.
This is how you can help:
On Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 Jenna’s family and friends will be hosting a combination Blood Drive & Bone Marrow Registry Drive at Benet Academy in Lisle, IL in the St. Jude Commons from 3:00p.m. until 8:00p.m. Everyone is welcome to donate blood without an advanced appointment, however appointments for blood donation scheduled beforehand will take priority! To schedule your appointment see instructions below.
https://donateblood.lifesource.org/itxm/mobile_scheduler/register.php?id=002.
Enter your information and continue on to make appt. Next you will click on zip code at the top and type in 60532. At the bottom of the page click on Jenna’s “Pay it Forward” Marrow and Blood Replenishment Drive. Click on the time you want and confirm .appointment! Thanks for your patience as this is a new system by Lifesource. Appointments can also be made by simply calling 877-Lifesource.
Take a moment to visit Jenna's Life Journey Link to find out more ways you can help! It costs over $100 to add each new member to the National Bone Marrow Registry and your donations will allow more members to be added to this life saving cause.
Please consider stopping by the event on the eve of Thanksgiving and join us in “Giving Thanks”. The entire McKeown family would like to extend their sincere gratitude and blessings to you and your families!
Blood donors must be age 17 or above (16 with parental consent forms - available in advance by contacting Beth at Lisauskas@sbcglobal.net)
Bone marrow registrants must be between the ages of 18-60 for bone marrow registry. The bone marrow registry takes only five minutes and is a simple inner cheek swab collection. It is important to note that if you are a match for someone, the process can be similar to giving blood. A direct match, if found, is the ultimate gift.
Any questions can be directed to Lifesource at phone: 1- 877-LIFESOURCE .
If you cannot attend but would like to make a financial donation please go to “Jenna’s Life Journey” link for further information.
http://www.bethematchfoundation.org/goto/4jenna
I wondered if there was anything I could do to help this family and offered them the use of my column space to get the word out about anything they may want to publicize. It turns out that my offer was unexpected, timely and appreciated, as they had just been given the news that Jenna would need a bone marrow transplant. They were rushing to put together a bone marrow registry and blood drive and would want to get the details out to the public quickly.
Here is Jenna's story and the details about the drive being held next Wednesday.
Jenna’s “Pay it Forward”
Blood/Bone Marrow Drive
November 25, 2009
Benet Academy in Lisle
St. Jude Commons
from 3:00p.m. until 8:00p.m.
Jenna McKeown is a high school senior at Benet Academy where she plays Tennis and Lacrosse. She is an avid ice skater, and traveled last summer to Spain singing with her choir in some of the oldest and most beautiful cathedrals in the world! Wednesday, October 28 started like any other day for Jenna with current concerns limited to homework, college applications, and weekend activities. By Thursday evening Jenna began her first round of chemotherapy and her battle with leukemia had begun. What started out as a routine doctor’s visit for a sore throat and extreme fatigue led to a rapid chain of events that has turned her life upside down. Jenna was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a very aggressive but curable form of leukemia.
Although the news was devastating, the groundswell of support that Jenna and her family have received from schoolmates, community and people across the country has given them strength to meet this head on. Jenna’s dad set the game plan when he said, “We can match this disease step for step until it surrenders.”
The first step of Jenna’s treatment is chemotherapy and she has successfully completed her first round at the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital. Her indomitable spirit has become apparent to everyone as she has met the challenge of this diagnosis and the rigors of chemo with incredible strength. “Be Positive” is not only the tone that Jenna has set for everyone, it’s actually the blood type that literally runs through her veins (B+); a coincidence Jenna jumped on right away.
Her team of doctors is encouraged by the way that her body has reacted to the first round of chemo and her test results are very positive. However, Jenna recently learned that this is a battle that she cannot win on her own. After undergoing two more rounds of chemotherapy, she will require a bone marrow transplant from a matching donor in January. Tests have shown that Jenna’s siblings are not matches for her and she will depend on the National Bone Marrow Registry to find a donor.
Jenna’s family and friends are mobilizing an effort to add as many members as possible to the Be the Match National Bone Marrow Registry. This is not only to find a match for Jenna, but also to give hope to the thousands of others who are currently searching for a match. Jenna has been receiving blood platelet donations from Chicago blood banks and likely will continue to access their resources. Therefore her family and friends are also mobilizing an effort to replenish the local blood banks as well. In this combined Blood/Bone Marrow Drive, Jenna, her family and friends hope to be able to “pay forward” in some fashion the incredible support that they have already received in this journey.
This is how you can help:
On Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 Jenna’s family and friends will be hosting a combination Blood Drive & Bone Marrow Registry Drive at Benet Academy in Lisle, IL in the St. Jude Commons from 3:00p.m. until 8:00p.m. Everyone is welcome to donate blood without an advanced appointment, however appointments for blood donation scheduled beforehand will take priority! To schedule your appointment see instructions below.
https://donateblood.lifesource.org/itxm/mobile_scheduler/register.php?id=002.
Enter your information and continue on to make appt. Next you will click on zip code at the top and type in 60532. At the bottom of the page click on Jenna’s “Pay it Forward” Marrow and Blood Replenishment Drive. Click on the time you want and confirm .appointment! Thanks for your patience as this is a new system by Lifesource. Appointments can also be made by simply calling 877-Lifesource.
Take a moment to visit Jenna's Life Journey Link to find out more ways you can help! It costs over $100 to add each new member to the National Bone Marrow Registry and your donations will allow more members to be added to this life saving cause.
Please consider stopping by the event on the eve of Thanksgiving and join us in “Giving Thanks”. The entire McKeown family would like to extend their sincere gratitude and blessings to you and your families!
Blood donors must be age 17 or above (16 with parental consent forms - available in advance by contacting Beth at Lisauskas@sbcglobal.net)
Bone marrow registrants must be between the ages of 18-60 for bone marrow registry. The bone marrow registry takes only five minutes and is a simple inner cheek swab collection. It is important to note that if you are a match for someone, the process can be similar to giving blood. A direct match, if found, is the ultimate gift.
Any questions can be directed to Lifesource at phone: 1- 877-LIFESOURCE .
If you cannot attend but would like to make a financial donation please go to “Jenna’s Life Journey” link for further information.
http://www.bethematchfoundation.org/goto/4jenna
Thursday, November 12, 2009
2009-11-13 WVHS is Awesome
Waubonsie Valley High School has a lot to offer and much to be proud of, and here are a few of the reasons why.
Last year WV’s senior class of 896 included 165 Illinois State Scholars and 203 Indian Prairie Scholars. This year’s class of 932 includes 214 students who are Indian Prairie Scholars. Illinois State Scholars are considered the best and brightest of Illinois’s students, and Indian Prairie Scholars are those students in the district who have a 3.6 or higher grade point average after 6 semesters.
In the spring of 2009 there were 23 different Advanced Placement exams offered to WV students. 573 WV students took 1170 AP exams with 82% of them scoring 3 or higher. As for National Merit Scholars, during the past five years WV has had 95 commended students, 25 semi-finalists and 23 finalists.
The highest GPA in the class of 2008 was 4.7 and in 2009 was 4.65. Students who had a 3.9 or higher graduated in the top 10% of their class last year, students with a 3.51 or higher in the top quarter. A 3.0 or lower GPA placed a student in the bottom half of their graduating class.
The school offers its students 26 AP courses, 14 honors courses, and an astounding array of courses in many different subject areas. Students participate in intramurals and in 85 competition levels of 25 varsity sports. There are also more than 70 active sponsored clubs. Waubonsie’s students in sports and clubs bring home numerous awards each year.
Last year’s almost 3900 WV students included 1100 students in the freshman campus across the street. The opening of Metea Valley High School and the new school boundaries that came with it reduced this year’s WV enrollment to 3253, all housed in the main building except for 74 enrolled in the Frontier Campus.
WVHS and its students and teachers have won many awards and recognitions over the years including being named a Grammy Signature School for six consecutive years and being awarded Grammy Gold Signature School in 2007. WV has been awarded the National School Library Media Program of the Year and International Technology Association Program of the Year.
All students are required to take the ACT during their junior year of high school. Last spring’s average test score was 23, almost 1 point higher than the average four years earlier. Only about 10% of WV students take the SAT in any given year and their scores for this past year averaged 602 for reading, 598 for writing, and 645 for math.
Waubonsie’s school philosophy includes the following “Education is a process of life-long learning. Education works best when the entire community shares responsibility for and participates in the process. This dynamic process focuses on the student as an active participant, guided by parents and teachers. “
I am so glad that my two oldest got to spend their high school years in such an outstanding school.
Last year WV’s senior class of 896 included 165 Illinois State Scholars and 203 Indian Prairie Scholars. This year’s class of 932 includes 214 students who are Indian Prairie Scholars. Illinois State Scholars are considered the best and brightest of Illinois’s students, and Indian Prairie Scholars are those students in the district who have a 3.6 or higher grade point average after 6 semesters.
In the spring of 2009 there were 23 different Advanced Placement exams offered to WV students. 573 WV students took 1170 AP exams with 82% of them scoring 3 or higher. As for National Merit Scholars, during the past five years WV has had 95 commended students, 25 semi-finalists and 23 finalists.
The highest GPA in the class of 2008 was 4.7 and in 2009 was 4.65. Students who had a 3.9 or higher graduated in the top 10% of their class last year, students with a 3.51 or higher in the top quarter. A 3.0 or lower GPA placed a student in the bottom half of their graduating class.
The school offers its students 26 AP courses, 14 honors courses, and an astounding array of courses in many different subject areas. Students participate in intramurals and in 85 competition levels of 25 varsity sports. There are also more than 70 active sponsored clubs. Waubonsie’s students in sports and clubs bring home numerous awards each year.
Last year’s almost 3900 WV students included 1100 students in the freshman campus across the street. The opening of Metea Valley High School and the new school boundaries that came with it reduced this year’s WV enrollment to 3253, all housed in the main building except for 74 enrolled in the Frontier Campus.
WVHS and its students and teachers have won many awards and recognitions over the years including being named a Grammy Signature School for six consecutive years and being awarded Grammy Gold Signature School in 2007. WV has been awarded the National School Library Media Program of the Year and International Technology Association Program of the Year.
All students are required to take the ACT during their junior year of high school. Last spring’s average test score was 23, almost 1 point higher than the average four years earlier. Only about 10% of WV students take the SAT in any given year and their scores for this past year averaged 602 for reading, 598 for writing, and 645 for math.
Waubonsie’s school philosophy includes the following “Education is a process of life-long learning. Education works best when the entire community shares responsibility for and participates in the process. This dynamic process focuses on the student as an active participant, guided by parents and teachers. “
I am so glad that my two oldest got to spend their high school years in such an outstanding school.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
2009-11-06 Parent Teacher Conferences
District 204 is in the midst of fall parent teacher conferences. Conferences were held Wednesday and are also scheduled for next Tuesday. Anyone who has not yet scheduled a conference but would like to have one should contact their school office.
The district’s Parent Diversity Advisory Council began as a means to facilitate inclusion and is currently focusing on student achievement. The PDAC has put together a document on parent teacher conferences which can be found at http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx/PDAC.
This pamphlet lists some essential general questions and has five sections that each give a list of questions to ask the teacher and several tips for parents dealing with the different cases of a child doing well in school, struggling academically, struggling socially, not being challenged, or not getting along well with the teacher.
This is useful information to have in hand so parents can make the most of their conference time and know how best to advocate for their children. I wish I had seen such a publication when my children were younger and even now find this to be a valuable resource.
Two of the questions for everyone are “How do you accommodate differences in learning?” and “What can I do to support my child's academic progress?”
One of the tips for the parent of a child doing well in school is “Talk to your child each day about what is going on in school, and be sure to praise the effort she/he is putting into getting a good education.” A tip for the parent of a struggling student is “Teach your child study skills such as reading directions carefully, studying examples in textbooks, and writing down assignments.”
When meeting with the teacher, be sure to be non-confrontational about concerns, have specific examples in mind, and share some positive experiences as well.
In case your student has an issue at school, there is a “chain of command” chart that tells parents whom in their school to go to for help. It was published by the district this year and is available on the district's homepage www.ipsd.org near the bottom left in the “contact us” section. The chain varies slightly for elementary, middle, and high schools, but all start with the teacher. Any serious issues should be brought up and addressed in a timely manner rather than waiting for scheduled conference times.
The fall conference is the perfect time for parents and teachers to touch base and set the tone for the remainder of the school year.
The district’s Parent Diversity Advisory Council began as a means to facilitate inclusion and is currently focusing on student achievement. The PDAC has put together a document on parent teacher conferences which can be found at http://ipsdweb.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx/PDAC.
This pamphlet lists some essential general questions and has five sections that each give a list of questions to ask the teacher and several tips for parents dealing with the different cases of a child doing well in school, struggling academically, struggling socially, not being challenged, or not getting along well with the teacher.
This is useful information to have in hand so parents can make the most of their conference time and know how best to advocate for their children. I wish I had seen such a publication when my children were younger and even now find this to be a valuable resource.
Two of the questions for everyone are “How do you accommodate differences in learning?” and “What can I do to support my child's academic progress?”
One of the tips for the parent of a child doing well in school is “Talk to your child each day about what is going on in school, and be sure to praise the effort she/he is putting into getting a good education.” A tip for the parent of a struggling student is “Teach your child study skills such as reading directions carefully, studying examples in textbooks, and writing down assignments.”
When meeting with the teacher, be sure to be non-confrontational about concerns, have specific examples in mind, and share some positive experiences as well.
In case your student has an issue at school, there is a “chain of command” chart that tells parents whom in their school to go to for help. It was published by the district this year and is available on the district's homepage www.ipsd.org near the bottom left in the “contact us” section. The chain varies slightly for elementary, middle, and high schools, but all start with the teacher. Any serious issues should be brought up and addressed in a timely manner rather than waiting for scheduled conference times.
The fall conference is the perfect time for parents and teachers to touch base and set the tone for the remainder of the school year.
Friday, October 30, 2009
2009-10-30 Volunteering at School
For those of you who have children in school, do you spend any time volunteering in that school? If not, why not?
We have all heard the excuses. Too busy? So is everyone else. Most people can find at least a couple of spare hours sometime during the year to help out.
Are you are at work during the day? So are many other volunteers. They help outside of work hours, or use flex hours or vacation time.
Do you have younger children who can't accompany you when you volunteer? Some solutions would be volunteering for things you can do at home during your own time, or trading off babysitting with another parent in a similar situation.
Do you feel that language or cultural barriers make it difficult for you to volunteer in a school that may be quite unlike the school you attended? Your willingness to volunteer would be welcomed despite these perceived barriers. The teachers and parent groups would be happy to help you get started with something you'd be comfortable doing.
Do you have a child with special needs? That is all the more reason to be involved in PTA, so you can advocate for your own child as well as others.
If you don't know where help is needed in your school, ask your child's teacher or ask someone from your PTA or similar organization. Watch for your school's e-mail and newsletter publications that let the school's families know where help is needed.
Some feel that the PTA is a clique and that newcomers are treated like outsiders. The reason for this is that the PTA in many cases is made up of people who have spent many hours volunteering at school and therefore know each other well from working together over the years. Believe me, these groups are thrilled to welcome additional help.
District 204 has 34 local PTA and PTSA units. There are 3 high school, 7 middle school, 21 elementary school, and 1 preschool unit. There are also two district-wide units. One is the Indian Prairie Special Needs (IPSN) PTA and the other is the newly formed Project Arrow PTA. Membership in these 34 units totals close to 20,000. The funding and countless volunteer hours provided by the PTAs benefit all students throughout the district.
When you join PTA your membership dues are put to good use benefitting schoolchildren. In most cases you will also receive a school or PTA directory simply for joining. The National PTA website says “As the largest volunteer child advocacy association in the nation, National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) provides parents and families with a powerful voice to speak on behalf of every child and the best tools to help their children be safe, healthy, and successful - in school and in life.”
School volunteers provide for a wide variety and incredibly large number of activities and events both during and outside the school day. These include things like classroom parties, assemblies, field trips, picture parent, LMC volunteers, school greeters, bank at school, school store, Reflections, mini courses, writers' workshop, school newsletters and directories, staff appreciation, community service, and peer tutoring.
In the upper grades there are also vast opportunities to volunteer with additional school-related organizations such as the sports boosters, theatre, band, choir, and orchestra parent associations, and other opportunities related to specific extra-curriculars or events such as Waubonsie’s annual auction and Senior Sailabration and Neuqua’s Senior Spectacular. Chaperoning field trips and longer trips can also provide invaluable experiences for parents.
Your time and efforts will be rewarded with your child's appreciation and your knowledge that you have done something to benefit your school community. You may also enjoy getting an inside look at your child's school and getting to know other parents, teachers, and the school's administration.
Lori Price, president of the IPSN PTA, says of her PTA members “Because we all have children with special needs, there is a commonality that exists already. We all serve as a support system for each other simply because we understand what that parent is going through. Despite the fact that our parents have special needs children, I continue to be amazed at the volunteers we continue to get. We've built some enthusiasm in our group - AND we've built our group itself. I think people want to be a part of that enthusiasm and growth. “
Don't wait for someone to approach you, get started now by contacting someone at your school. This can be the beginning of making some great friends and wonderful memories.
We have all heard the excuses. Too busy? So is everyone else. Most people can find at least a couple of spare hours sometime during the year to help out.
Are you are at work during the day? So are many other volunteers. They help outside of work hours, or use flex hours or vacation time.
Do you have younger children who can't accompany you when you volunteer? Some solutions would be volunteering for things you can do at home during your own time, or trading off babysitting with another parent in a similar situation.
Do you feel that language or cultural barriers make it difficult for you to volunteer in a school that may be quite unlike the school you attended? Your willingness to volunteer would be welcomed despite these perceived barriers. The teachers and parent groups would be happy to help you get started with something you'd be comfortable doing.
Do you have a child with special needs? That is all the more reason to be involved in PTA, so you can advocate for your own child as well as others.
If you don't know where help is needed in your school, ask your child's teacher or ask someone from your PTA or similar organization. Watch for your school's e-mail and newsletter publications that let the school's families know where help is needed.
Some feel that the PTA is a clique and that newcomers are treated like outsiders. The reason for this is that the PTA in many cases is made up of people who have spent many hours volunteering at school and therefore know each other well from working together over the years. Believe me, these groups are thrilled to welcome additional help.
District 204 has 34 local PTA and PTSA units. There are 3 high school, 7 middle school, 21 elementary school, and 1 preschool unit. There are also two district-wide units. One is the Indian Prairie Special Needs (IPSN) PTA and the other is the newly formed Project Arrow PTA. Membership in these 34 units totals close to 20,000. The funding and countless volunteer hours provided by the PTAs benefit all students throughout the district.
When you join PTA your membership dues are put to good use benefitting schoolchildren. In most cases you will also receive a school or PTA directory simply for joining. The National PTA website says “As the largest volunteer child advocacy association in the nation, National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) provides parents and families with a powerful voice to speak on behalf of every child and the best tools to help their children be safe, healthy, and successful - in school and in life.”
School volunteers provide for a wide variety and incredibly large number of activities and events both during and outside the school day. These include things like classroom parties, assemblies, field trips, picture parent, LMC volunteers, school greeters, bank at school, school store, Reflections, mini courses, writers' workshop, school newsletters and directories, staff appreciation, community service, and peer tutoring.
In the upper grades there are also vast opportunities to volunteer with additional school-related organizations such as the sports boosters, theatre, band, choir, and orchestra parent associations, and other opportunities related to specific extra-curriculars or events such as Waubonsie’s annual auction and Senior Sailabration and Neuqua’s Senior Spectacular. Chaperoning field trips and longer trips can also provide invaluable experiences for parents.
Your time and efforts will be rewarded with your child's appreciation and your knowledge that you have done something to benefit your school community. You may also enjoy getting an inside look at your child's school and getting to know other parents, teachers, and the school's administration.
Lori Price, president of the IPSN PTA, says of her PTA members “Because we all have children with special needs, there is a commonality that exists already. We all serve as a support system for each other simply because we understand what that parent is going through. Despite the fact that our parents have special needs children, I continue to be amazed at the volunteers we continue to get. We've built some enthusiasm in our group - AND we've built our group itself. I think people want to be a part of that enthusiasm and growth. “
Don't wait for someone to approach you, get started now by contacting someone at your school. This can be the beginning of making some great friends and wonderful memories.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
2009-10-23 Performance Pay for Teachers
One of the ideas being promoted by the Obama administration is performance pay for teachers. This seems to make sense. In most industries a worker's salary and/or bonus is tied to his or her own and the company's performance, rather than a combination of the worker's number of years of experience and education that disregards individual performance.
The problem comes in measuring teacher performance. Usually a person's performance is evaluated by his or her direct supervisor. Due to the nature of the job and the number of teachers working in a school, it might be difficult for a principal to accurately rate performance. Data would be needed, likely in the form of test scores, and possibly including feedback from parents and students. Yet care needs to be taken with this. I have found as a parent that some of the teachers my children have most loved and thrived under are the same ones with whom other families have had the worst experiences, and vice versa.
In order for test scores to be used, students would need to be tested at the beginning and end of each school year. What kind of tests would be used here, a test for each grade level in the lower grades and for each subject in the upper grades? Would this be in addition to the myriad of standardized tests our students are already subjected to?
Parents want their children's time spent learning. They do not want students spending vast amounts of time learning how to take tests, practicing tests, having their learning restricted to only things that will be on tests, and spending more and more time taking standardized tests. If our teachers' salaries were tied to the outcome of these tests, it seems that classroom learning and teacher creativity would take yet another turn for the worse. What would happen to art, music, sports, and other extra-curriculars and electives in such a system?
Even if the tests themselves could be agreed upon, how would the results be handled? At all levels students may have different teachers for different subjects. Would the scores be divided out by student by subject in order to allocate them to the proper teacher? This seems like it would get unwieldy rather quickly. Would teachers be held responsible for the learning of students who moved in during the course of the year, or those who had a high number of absences throughout the year?
When a teacher is doing a poor job it is likely apparent to the students and parents, and hopefully the principal as well. These teachers should be given some guidance for improvement as would an employee in any other organization. Because of tenure it can be very hard to do anything about this situation. Any plan that involves rewarding excellence needs to also allow for replacing teachers whose performance is not up to par.
We like to think that the quality of a person's teaching will have a huge impact on student learning, and in fact it should and in many cases it does, but there are many factors that teachers have no control over, which can have an even greater impact. A student's home life and their own internal motivation or lack thereof will in many cases be an even bigger indicator for that student's success in school. Teachers should not be blamed for having students who are not ready and able to learn. If teacher salaries are to be tied to student performance, then who in their right mind would choose to teach at the more challenging jobs at poorer schools over schools in more wealthy areas?
“The big question that looms over these pay for performance initiatives remains, ‘Is it the pay for performance or the programs that accompany this initiative that seems to increase student achievement?,’ said Val Dranias, Indian Prairie School District 204’s Education Association president. “The better pay for performance initiatives all include student-focused data analysis, targeted professional development for teachers, and strong mentoring programs. In many parts of the country, these programs do not exist. In Indian Prairie School District 204 we have worked together with the administration to initiate these methods of increasing student achievement.”
There are some teachers who absolutely excel at what they do — and while they do not get any extra monetary award for that, they may be rewarded with students who are eager to learn, who are actively engaged in classroom activities, and who come visit them years later to thank them. Teachers at the other end of the scale may find themselves with students who don't turn in their homework, who don't understand the material, who are unhappy to be in the classroom, and who never come back excited to see them.
“In my department I choose to put the best teachers with the lowest level learners; this is who and what they need to be successful learners,” said Molly Owles, math department chair at Waubonsie Valley High School. “If teachers were paid based on the performance of their students, no teacher would choose to teach these courses, and who could blame them?”
I have to believe that most teachers chose their profession not to get rich but to help guide young minds through either a particular subject or a year of elementary school. They want their students to learn. They are willing to jump through the hoops required by today's educational system in order to get the payoff of students understanding the topic at hand and possibly bringing them to a love of learning itself.
Some of the best things a good teacher provides students cannot be measured easily on a test. These include inspiring a passion for learning, inspiring a deeper interest in the topics presented, and instilling a sense of worth in the students themselves as well as possibly planting the seeds that will lead to a student pursuing a new passion or the beginnings of something that will become that child's career someday. Good teachers can make a lasting positive impact on the lives of their students in ways that go far beyond improving their test scores.
Pay for performance is one of those things that sounds like a great idea on the surface but there is a lot that needs to go into making it a viable program.
The problem comes in measuring teacher performance. Usually a person's performance is evaluated by his or her direct supervisor. Due to the nature of the job and the number of teachers working in a school, it might be difficult for a principal to accurately rate performance. Data would be needed, likely in the form of test scores, and possibly including feedback from parents and students. Yet care needs to be taken with this. I have found as a parent that some of the teachers my children have most loved and thrived under are the same ones with whom other families have had the worst experiences, and vice versa.
In order for test scores to be used, students would need to be tested at the beginning and end of each school year. What kind of tests would be used here, a test for each grade level in the lower grades and for each subject in the upper grades? Would this be in addition to the myriad of standardized tests our students are already subjected to?
Parents want their children's time spent learning. They do not want students spending vast amounts of time learning how to take tests, practicing tests, having their learning restricted to only things that will be on tests, and spending more and more time taking standardized tests. If our teachers' salaries were tied to the outcome of these tests, it seems that classroom learning and teacher creativity would take yet another turn for the worse. What would happen to art, music, sports, and other extra-curriculars and electives in such a system?
Even if the tests themselves could be agreed upon, how would the results be handled? At all levels students may have different teachers for different subjects. Would the scores be divided out by student by subject in order to allocate them to the proper teacher? This seems like it would get unwieldy rather quickly. Would teachers be held responsible for the learning of students who moved in during the course of the year, or those who had a high number of absences throughout the year?
When a teacher is doing a poor job it is likely apparent to the students and parents, and hopefully the principal as well. These teachers should be given some guidance for improvement as would an employee in any other organization. Because of tenure it can be very hard to do anything about this situation. Any plan that involves rewarding excellence needs to also allow for replacing teachers whose performance is not up to par.
We like to think that the quality of a person's teaching will have a huge impact on student learning, and in fact it should and in many cases it does, but there are many factors that teachers have no control over, which can have an even greater impact. A student's home life and their own internal motivation or lack thereof will in many cases be an even bigger indicator for that student's success in school. Teachers should not be blamed for having students who are not ready and able to learn. If teacher salaries are to be tied to student performance, then who in their right mind would choose to teach at the more challenging jobs at poorer schools over schools in more wealthy areas?
“The big question that looms over these pay for performance initiatives remains, ‘Is it the pay for performance or the programs that accompany this initiative that seems to increase student achievement?,’ said Val Dranias, Indian Prairie School District 204’s Education Association president. “The better pay for performance initiatives all include student-focused data analysis, targeted professional development for teachers, and strong mentoring programs. In many parts of the country, these programs do not exist. In Indian Prairie School District 204 we have worked together with the administration to initiate these methods of increasing student achievement.”
There are some teachers who absolutely excel at what they do — and while they do not get any extra monetary award for that, they may be rewarded with students who are eager to learn, who are actively engaged in classroom activities, and who come visit them years later to thank them. Teachers at the other end of the scale may find themselves with students who don't turn in their homework, who don't understand the material, who are unhappy to be in the classroom, and who never come back excited to see them.
“In my department I choose to put the best teachers with the lowest level learners; this is who and what they need to be successful learners,” said Molly Owles, math department chair at Waubonsie Valley High School. “If teachers were paid based on the performance of their students, no teacher would choose to teach these courses, and who could blame them?”
I have to believe that most teachers chose their profession not to get rich but to help guide young minds through either a particular subject or a year of elementary school. They want their students to learn. They are willing to jump through the hoops required by today's educational system in order to get the payoff of students understanding the topic at hand and possibly bringing them to a love of learning itself.
Some of the best things a good teacher provides students cannot be measured easily on a test. These include inspiring a passion for learning, inspiring a deeper interest in the topics presented, and instilling a sense of worth in the students themselves as well as possibly planting the seeds that will lead to a student pursuing a new passion or the beginnings of something that will become that child's career someday. Good teachers can make a lasting positive impact on the lives of their students in ways that go far beyond improving their test scores.
Pay for performance is one of those things that sounds like a great idea on the surface but there is a lot that needs to go into making it a viable program.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
2009-10-20 Curious cat's life cut far too short
It turns out that curiosity is not what killed the cat, at least not this time. Though it might not have been too surprising if it had, given this cat’s lack of common sense and his kitten-like sense of adventure.
Instead, one recent Saturday afternoon Buddy was instantly paralyzed right before our eyes. He panicked and ran down two flights of stairs dragging his motionless back half behind him. He was almost five years old and seemed to be completely healthy up to that moment.
While the kids tended to him I tried to think of the name of our vet. We hadn’t been there recently and the number I found in the Yellow Pages turned out to no longer be valid. I called two other local vets. Both happened to be closed at 3pm on Saturday, but both in their messages gave instructions go to our local emergency vet, VCA Aurora Animal Hospital.
Last time my family had used an emergency vet was several years ago and we’d had to drive to Lisle late one night. This time I found that we have an excellent facility conveniently located on the west side of Aurora. I called them right away and they said I didn’t need an appointment and should bring the cat right away. It was sadly easy getting Buddy into the cat carrier for the drive. He was terrified and I would have liked to let my daughter hold him for the drive but I didn’t feel it was safe to have him loose.
Because of Buddy’s ragged breathing he was instantly taken for treatment while I was left to fill out forms. After he was stabilized my daughter and I were brought to a room where the vet told us that Buddy had most likely suffered an embolism, a blood clot that blocked all blood flow to his back half. He told us what treatment could be attempted and about his chances for survival. We were given detailed information about the costs and choices involved.
The numbers were not good. However, Buddy was a part of our family, he was young and full of life and had arrived at the clinic a half hour after becoming paralyzed. I couldn’t give up on him that easily. The vet was soft-spoken and honest with us. We held our kitty for a few minutes before sending him for treatment. I figured I had at very least bought both time and hope. We made plans for the following morning when we’d know whether or not the treatment was working and would possibly need to make a decision about his life.
This cat was the most obnoxious, most annoying, and one of the most affectionate cats I’ve ever had. He was always somewhere he shouldn’t be, or doing something he’d been repeatedly stopped from doing, even right in front of us. He was a very friendly pet who would follow me around constantly, could be found in my lap anytime possible, and had an uncanny knack of curling up for a nap wherever I was going to sit next. He was always anxious for attention and would greet people at the door and hang out wherever he could get some company.
Pets bring so much joy into our lives and yet their loss gives us so much pain.
Buddy died a mere six hours after the first symptom occurred and while we were rushing to get there in time to see him one last time. I am still in disbelief that he is not here now in my lap interrupting my typing, not climbing on the back of my computer chair or lying on top of my scanner or getting into any other sort of trouble. Our hearts are broken. Our older cat cannot know what’s happened or whether his pal will be returning.
I’ve lost pets before, and I know the pain fades, and I know it is not nearly the same as losing a human family member. However, daily life changes when a member of your household dies, but when it’s only a pet you are expected to continue on as if all is normal. We thought we had many more years with this young pet. The only good that will come from this is that we will be able to provide a home for yet another cat waiting for a family.
For emergency care when referred by your vet or if your vet’s office is closed, check out VCA Aurora Animal Hospital, on the south side of Galena Blvd. just west of Orchard Rd. No appointment is necessary during their emergency service hours and there is no need to call ahead. See VCAAurora.com for more information.
The people there were very caring with us and our pet and they are a top notch animal medical facility. In addition to critical care for pets they are well-equipped with the necessary technology and offer a wide range of specialty services. The clinic is accredited by the American Animal Hospital Association.
My family appreciates the staff’s kindness and compassion during that Saturday and the thoughtful handwritten sympathy card received from them a few days later.
Instead, one recent Saturday afternoon Buddy was instantly paralyzed right before our eyes. He panicked and ran down two flights of stairs dragging his motionless back half behind him. He was almost five years old and seemed to be completely healthy up to that moment.
While the kids tended to him I tried to think of the name of our vet. We hadn’t been there recently and the number I found in the Yellow Pages turned out to no longer be valid. I called two other local vets. Both happened to be closed at 3pm on Saturday, but both in their messages gave instructions go to our local emergency vet, VCA Aurora Animal Hospital.
Last time my family had used an emergency vet was several years ago and we’d had to drive to Lisle late one night. This time I found that we have an excellent facility conveniently located on the west side of Aurora. I called them right away and they said I didn’t need an appointment and should bring the cat right away. It was sadly easy getting Buddy into the cat carrier for the drive. He was terrified and I would have liked to let my daughter hold him for the drive but I didn’t feel it was safe to have him loose.
Because of Buddy’s ragged breathing he was instantly taken for treatment while I was left to fill out forms. After he was stabilized my daughter and I were brought to a room where the vet told us that Buddy had most likely suffered an embolism, a blood clot that blocked all blood flow to his back half. He told us what treatment could be attempted and about his chances for survival. We were given detailed information about the costs and choices involved.
The numbers were not good. However, Buddy was a part of our family, he was young and full of life and had arrived at the clinic a half hour after becoming paralyzed. I couldn’t give up on him that easily. The vet was soft-spoken and honest with us. We held our kitty for a few minutes before sending him for treatment. I figured I had at very least bought both time and hope. We made plans for the following morning when we’d know whether or not the treatment was working and would possibly need to make a decision about his life.
This cat was the most obnoxious, most annoying, and one of the most affectionate cats I’ve ever had. He was always somewhere he shouldn’t be, or doing something he’d been repeatedly stopped from doing, even right in front of us. He was a very friendly pet who would follow me around constantly, could be found in my lap anytime possible, and had an uncanny knack of curling up for a nap wherever I was going to sit next. He was always anxious for attention and would greet people at the door and hang out wherever he could get some company.
Pets bring so much joy into our lives and yet their loss gives us so much pain.
Buddy died a mere six hours after the first symptom occurred and while we were rushing to get there in time to see him one last time. I am still in disbelief that he is not here now in my lap interrupting my typing, not climbing on the back of my computer chair or lying on top of my scanner or getting into any other sort of trouble. Our hearts are broken. Our older cat cannot know what’s happened or whether his pal will be returning.
I’ve lost pets before, and I know the pain fades, and I know it is not nearly the same as losing a human family member. However, daily life changes when a member of your household dies, but when it’s only a pet you are expected to continue on as if all is normal. We thought we had many more years with this young pet. The only good that will come from this is that we will be able to provide a home for yet another cat waiting for a family.
For emergency care when referred by your vet or if your vet’s office is closed, check out VCA Aurora Animal Hospital, on the south side of Galena Blvd. just west of Orchard Rd. No appointment is necessary during their emergency service hours and there is no need to call ahead. See VCAAurora.com for more information.
The people there were very caring with us and our pet and they are a top notch animal medical facility. In addition to critical care for pets they are well-equipped with the necessary technology and offer a wide range of specialty services. The clinic is accredited by the American Animal Hospital Association.
My family appreciates the staff’s kindness and compassion during that Saturday and the thoughtful handwritten sympathy card received from them a few days later.
2009-10-12 WVHS Orchestra NYC Trip
(published months later than expected...)
District 204’s music program gives music student the opportunity to travel twice during their high school years. Usually one domestic and one international trip is offered during each four year period for each of band, orchestra, and chorus. Students who are able to take advantage of this wind up with an unforgettable experience with their friends and teachers. Chaperones are required for the trips to happen, and they are rewarded with a memorable experience as well.
Sixty-five teenagers, fourteen adults, two buses, hundreds of miles, five days of spring break 2009 in New York City, thousands of photos – it all added up to a wonderful trip! I think the adults could have done without the two nights of sleeping on the bus, but the hotel where we stayed in New Jersey was very nice and our time spent in the huge and bustling Big Apple was incredible.
This was my second trip chaperoning Waubonsie Valley orchestra students, and the teens again showed themselves to be fantastic ambassadors for our school. Many of us had not visited New York City before. We were enthralled Monday morning by the sight of the Statue of Liberty as we neared it while freezing on top of the ferry, and then were surprised to be given the chance to walk around the island and get even closer. Next we visited Ellis Island, then took the ferry back to Manhattan and walked to Wall Street .
At St. Paul’s Chapel we walked somberly past the September 11 memorials and historical markers such as George Washington’s pew. The next block over is Ground Zero, enclosed now so we couldn’t even get a glimpse the big hole in the ground. Dinner in Little Italy was followed by some interesting shopping in that area and in neighboring Chinatown. Rehearsal that first evening in the hotel was marred when one student set his violin on the floor and it was accidentally stepped on and broken into two pieces by another student.
Tuesday morning began with a tour of Carnegie Hall, an absolutely gorgeous building with an interesting history, followed by lunch in the Trump Tower. The students played a beautiful concert in the Madison Avenue Sculpture Garden (formerly the IBM atrium). This was an unusual setting in a large enclosed area with birds flying around and people walking through the building. The student orchestra played Tocatta by Frescobaldi, Concerto Grosso by Corelli, The Godfather, Hoedown by Copland, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, and Sentimental Sariband. They were directed by Mr. Mark Liu, Mr. Will Burck, and Mrs. Deborah Schmaltz.
Next we visited the United Nations where we had guided tours and observed the UN in session. We rode the buses over to Broadway where we were given a mere 45 minutes to explore Broadway from 42nd to 48th. Times Square was an amazing sight! We walked up and down the whole way but barely had time to take in the huge Toys R Us, the chocolate stores, the statue of George M. Cohan, the unusual looking police station, the bright lights, the signs everywhere, the theaters, wow! After dinner at Planet Hollywood we walked to The Palace Theatre in the next block to see West Side Story. Some of the students on this trip performed in the pit orchestra for Waubonsie Valley’s performance of West Side Story May 7-10.
Wednesday we went on a multi-ethnic eating tour in which we walked all morning and tried a variety of foods while learning about the areas we visited and related history. After lunch in Little Italy and Chinatown the students had a clinic with a musician while we chaperones had two free hours to roam the area. During this time a few of us saw the Flatiron Building and we ran into Chris March from Project Runway. We managed to see many remarkable sights during our free time. Dinner was at a restaurant in the basement of the Empire State Building. We knew that Yo-Yo Ma had played in Carnegie Hall the prior evening so Mr. Liu was very excited when some of the students came running with the news that Yo-Yo Ma was signing autographs upstairs. How disappointed he was to find out it was only an April Fool’s joke.
Later I read that on a clear day one can see great distances and many states from atop the Empire State Building. This was not our experience. We were there on a very cloudy, windy, and rainy evening. It was so cloudy that we could only see about a block away. It was so windy that people’s umbrellas turned inside out and their hair blew straight out. We did not have to wait in any line to go up top because no one in their right mind would pay to go up in that kind of weather!
Thursday morning we packed up and headed into the city for the last time. We had a short time to tour the American Museum of Natural History and then saw an IMAX movie that had too much repetition in it and put many of the audience to sleep.
It was an absolutely gorgeous day, sunny and warm. We took a walk into Central Park where we saw Strawberry Fields after walking past the building where John Lennon had lived. We toured the Lincoln Center buildings which house the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet and the New York Philharmonic. After dinner we returned to spend an evening enjoying a performance of the New York Philharmonic.
We arrived home Friday afternoon exhausted and full of incredible memories.
District 204’s music program gives music student the opportunity to travel twice during their high school years. Usually one domestic and one international trip is offered during each four year period for each of band, orchestra, and chorus. Students who are able to take advantage of this wind up with an unforgettable experience with their friends and teachers. Chaperones are required for the trips to happen, and they are rewarded with a memorable experience as well.
Sixty-five teenagers, fourteen adults, two buses, hundreds of miles, five days of spring break 2009 in New York City, thousands of photos – it all added up to a wonderful trip! I think the adults could have done without the two nights of sleeping on the bus, but the hotel where we stayed in New Jersey was very nice and our time spent in the huge and bustling Big Apple was incredible.
This was my second trip chaperoning Waubonsie Valley orchestra students, and the teens again showed themselves to be fantastic ambassadors for our school. Many of us had not visited New York City before. We were enthralled Monday morning by the sight of the Statue of Liberty as we neared it while freezing on top of the ferry, and then were surprised to be given the chance to walk around the island and get even closer. Next we visited Ellis Island, then took the ferry back to Manhattan and walked to Wall Street .
At St. Paul’s Chapel we walked somberly past the September 11 memorials and historical markers such as George Washington’s pew. The next block over is Ground Zero, enclosed now so we couldn’t even get a glimpse the big hole in the ground. Dinner in Little Italy was followed by some interesting shopping in that area and in neighboring Chinatown. Rehearsal that first evening in the hotel was marred when one student set his violin on the floor and it was accidentally stepped on and broken into two pieces by another student.
Tuesday morning began with a tour of Carnegie Hall, an absolutely gorgeous building with an interesting history, followed by lunch in the Trump Tower. The students played a beautiful concert in the Madison Avenue Sculpture Garden (formerly the IBM atrium). This was an unusual setting in a large enclosed area with birds flying around and people walking through the building. The student orchestra played Tocatta by Frescobaldi, Concerto Grosso by Corelli, The Godfather, Hoedown by Copland, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, and Sentimental Sariband. They were directed by Mr. Mark Liu, Mr. Will Burck, and Mrs. Deborah Schmaltz.
Next we visited the United Nations where we had guided tours and observed the UN in session. We rode the buses over to Broadway where we were given a mere 45 minutes to explore Broadway from 42nd to 48th. Times Square was an amazing sight! We walked up and down the whole way but barely had time to take in the huge Toys R Us, the chocolate stores, the statue of George M. Cohan, the unusual looking police station, the bright lights, the signs everywhere, the theaters, wow! After dinner at Planet Hollywood we walked to The Palace Theatre in the next block to see West Side Story. Some of the students on this trip performed in the pit orchestra for Waubonsie Valley’s performance of West Side Story May 7-10.
Wednesday we went on a multi-ethnic eating tour in which we walked all morning and tried a variety of foods while learning about the areas we visited and related history. After lunch in Little Italy and Chinatown the students had a clinic with a musician while we chaperones had two free hours to roam the area. During this time a few of us saw the Flatiron Building and we ran into Chris March from Project Runway. We managed to see many remarkable sights during our free time. Dinner was at a restaurant in the basement of the Empire State Building. We knew that Yo-Yo Ma had played in Carnegie Hall the prior evening so Mr. Liu was very excited when some of the students came running with the news that Yo-Yo Ma was signing autographs upstairs. How disappointed he was to find out it was only an April Fool’s joke.
Later I read that on a clear day one can see great distances and many states from atop the Empire State Building. This was not our experience. We were there on a very cloudy, windy, and rainy evening. It was so cloudy that we could only see about a block away. It was so windy that people’s umbrellas turned inside out and their hair blew straight out. We did not have to wait in any line to go up top because no one in their right mind would pay to go up in that kind of weather!
Thursday morning we packed up and headed into the city for the last time. We had a short time to tour the American Museum of Natural History and then saw an IMAX movie that had too much repetition in it and put many of the audience to sleep.
It was an absolutely gorgeous day, sunny and warm. We took a walk into Central Park where we saw Strawberry Fields after walking past the building where John Lennon had lived. We toured the Lincoln Center buildings which house the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet and the New York Philharmonic. After dinner we returned to spend an evening enjoying a performance of the New York Philharmonic.
We arrived home Friday afternoon exhausted and full of incredible memories.
Friday, October 2, 2009
2009-10-02 School Bus Chaos
Indian Prairie School District families faced big changes related to bus scheduling when school started this year. People complaining about bus issues were not overreacting to the usual glitches that come with the start of a new school year. The problems this year were on a whole different scale than we’ve ever seen before.
Hundreds, maybe thousands, of families faced very serious bus issues. Thankfully most have been resolved at this point. However there were entire neighborhoods that either had no bus service at all initially, or had buses so overcrowded that the drivers wound up not able to finish their routes once they had all seats full and some students standing in the aisles. Some students called for rides after school because once their assigned bus was full and no more students were allowed to board, they needed to find an alternate way to get home. Some had very long waits for very late buses as drivers did the best they could with the routes they’d been assigned.
Half day kindergarten students had a whole different array of bus problems – no bus scheduled to transport them at all, then a bus with an impossible schedule including pick-up times after the start of their school day, then no bus showing up to drive them home from school for more than an hour after their first day ended, and yet another day early in the year they were sent home on the wrong bus.
Minor bus issues included those cases were stops were so consolidated that now some bus stops had 30, 40, or even 50 kids waiting for the bus in a single location. Even as more buses and forgotten routes were added there continued to be reports of neighborhoods left behind, buses not able to fit all the of their assigned route, and large numbers of students at individual stops. The district office was inundated with more complaints than they could handle and worked to resolve the worst issues as quickly as possible.
This year the district added a new high school and converted a freshman campus to a middle school. In addition, the administration decided to purchase a bus routing system and move the bus routing in-house. The new system allowed each family to see information online about their own bus stop and pick-up and drop-off times, but did not give the complete route, as has been available in prior years. This meant that until the first day rolled around, parents didn’t know how completely crazy some of these routes were. In the first days after the information became available and school started routing changes were needed constantly.
Something particularly puzzling was the high school buses that had a hundred or more students assigned to them. These students were issued school IDs that included their bus numbers, so it seems that the district would have known some buses would be unable to transport the assigned number of students. Later I heard that the district underestimated the number of students who would ride the buses. There are always some students who have another mode of transportation and/or before and after school activities so do not use the buses on a regular basis.
One change that was to be implemented this year was the requirement that middle school and high school were to show an ID with the proper bus number on it in order to ride buses. As it turned out, many IDs had the wrong information to start with, or information that became wrong as routes were added or changed. Students from some neighborhoods had IDs incorrectly showing them as walkers. Because of the large number of issues, students have been riding the buses without showing IDs as they always have before, and I’ve heard of no incidents related to this.
I recently wrote about the district’s decision to assign bus seats for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, and my hopes that this decision would be revisited. I am happy to say that in light of all the other bus issues and changes, the district decided not to go forward with assigned seating for this school year. This can now still be used as a disciplinary measure when necessary.
Parents wondered why the district would take bus routing in-house on this particular year when there were already so many other changes going on. It turns out that no cost savings is realized with this change. The reason for taking routing in-house is that the district will be getting bids on a new bus contract to begin next school year. Whichever bus company the district contracts with in the future will use routes provided by the district. The district’s administration believes it can better manage the technology piece of the bus routing and that this is to the benefit of the residents, though we have yet to see evidence of that. The district says it can do better with customer service, better fit the district needs, and keep student and bus data in sync as student data gets to the Versa Trans system on a daily basis. The district attempted to better utilize full capacities on the buses as it tried to make do with the same number of buses as were used last year while busing to an additional building and adding students. They also apparently hoped to decrease bus route times by drastically reducing the number of stops.
I have the greatest respect and appreciation for our bus drivers and realize they have a difficult job, made even more so this year with the new routes. We can all hope that things will be better from here on out due to moving the scheduling in-house. Anyone still having bus issues should contact the district’s director of support services.
Hundreds, maybe thousands, of families faced very serious bus issues. Thankfully most have been resolved at this point. However there were entire neighborhoods that either had no bus service at all initially, or had buses so overcrowded that the drivers wound up not able to finish their routes once they had all seats full and some students standing in the aisles. Some students called for rides after school because once their assigned bus was full and no more students were allowed to board, they needed to find an alternate way to get home. Some had very long waits for very late buses as drivers did the best they could with the routes they’d been assigned.
Half day kindergarten students had a whole different array of bus problems – no bus scheduled to transport them at all, then a bus with an impossible schedule including pick-up times after the start of their school day, then no bus showing up to drive them home from school for more than an hour after their first day ended, and yet another day early in the year they were sent home on the wrong bus.
Minor bus issues included those cases were stops were so consolidated that now some bus stops had 30, 40, or even 50 kids waiting for the bus in a single location. Even as more buses and forgotten routes were added there continued to be reports of neighborhoods left behind, buses not able to fit all the of their assigned route, and large numbers of students at individual stops. The district office was inundated with more complaints than they could handle and worked to resolve the worst issues as quickly as possible.
This year the district added a new high school and converted a freshman campus to a middle school. In addition, the administration decided to purchase a bus routing system and move the bus routing in-house. The new system allowed each family to see information online about their own bus stop and pick-up and drop-off times, but did not give the complete route, as has been available in prior years. This meant that until the first day rolled around, parents didn’t know how completely crazy some of these routes were. In the first days after the information became available and school started routing changes were needed constantly.
Something particularly puzzling was the high school buses that had a hundred or more students assigned to them. These students were issued school IDs that included their bus numbers, so it seems that the district would have known some buses would be unable to transport the assigned number of students. Later I heard that the district underestimated the number of students who would ride the buses. There are always some students who have another mode of transportation and/or before and after school activities so do not use the buses on a regular basis.
One change that was to be implemented this year was the requirement that middle school and high school were to show an ID with the proper bus number on it in order to ride buses. As it turned out, many IDs had the wrong information to start with, or information that became wrong as routes were added or changed. Students from some neighborhoods had IDs incorrectly showing them as walkers. Because of the large number of issues, students have been riding the buses without showing IDs as they always have before, and I’ve heard of no incidents related to this.
I recently wrote about the district’s decision to assign bus seats for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, and my hopes that this decision would be revisited. I am happy to say that in light of all the other bus issues and changes, the district decided not to go forward with assigned seating for this school year. This can now still be used as a disciplinary measure when necessary.
Parents wondered why the district would take bus routing in-house on this particular year when there were already so many other changes going on. It turns out that no cost savings is realized with this change. The reason for taking routing in-house is that the district will be getting bids on a new bus contract to begin next school year. Whichever bus company the district contracts with in the future will use routes provided by the district. The district’s administration believes it can better manage the technology piece of the bus routing and that this is to the benefit of the residents, though we have yet to see evidence of that. The district says it can do better with customer service, better fit the district needs, and keep student and bus data in sync as student data gets to the Versa Trans system on a daily basis. The district attempted to better utilize full capacities on the buses as it tried to make do with the same number of buses as were used last year while busing to an additional building and adding students. They also apparently hoped to decrease bus route times by drastically reducing the number of stops.
I have the greatest respect and appreciation for our bus drivers and realize they have a difficult job, made even more so this year with the new routes. We can all hope that things will be better from here on out due to moving the scheduling in-house. Anyone still having bus issues should contact the district’s director of support services.
Friday, September 25, 2009
2009-09-15 My Cat, Buddy
It turns out that curiosity is not what killed the cat, at least not this time. Though in a five-year-old cat who never lost his kitten-like sense of adventure and seemed to lack any sort of common sense, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities.
This cat, as cats tend to be, was part of our family. We loved him and he loved being around his family, me in particular. He followed me around and it seemed as if every time I sat down he’d be in my lap. He loved to go places where he shouldn’t and especially where it seemed like he couldn’t. He was quite the explorer, extremely friendly and affectionate, and very cute and fun.
I said this when he was living so I have no qualms about saying it now, either, but Buddy was the dumbest cat I’ve ever had. He would jump into my lap while I was at the table eating, and continue to jump back up repeatedly as I continued to put him back on the floor. He would blatantly do things right in front of us that he should have known were wrong.
He seemed clairvoyant about where I was going to sit next because regardless of whether it was my desk chair, my chair at the dinner table, or even the couch, he would be already curled up comfortably right in my way.
Like dogs do, Buddy rushed to greet people who arrived home or came to the front door and was anxious for attention. Whenever I was getting ready to leave the house, he’d get onto a chair or barstool and grab at me with his front paws as if asking me to stay. He loved climbing on furniture, playing with anything that moves (including one of my bookmarks that has a tassel), romping with our other cat, and generally being obnoxious.
One of his annoying but endearing habits was how he would spend several minutes kneading and walking around on me trying to find the exact right spot. Sometimes I’d be ready to get up and do something else by then! This process couldn’t be sped up though, because if I tried to get him to settle before he was ready, he’d start all over.
Pets bring so much joy into our lives and their loss gives us so much pain.
As far as we knew, Buddy was perfectly healthy when on Saturday afternoon right before our eyes he became paralyzed. He ran down two flights of stairs to the basement, dragging his motionless hindquarters behind him. Within moments he began exhibiting other symptoms. At the emergency vet he was taken from us immediately to be stabilized.
He had suffered from an embolism due to a heart condition, and the prognosis was poor. He could possibly be cured, and having gotten him there so soon after it happened was a good thing. We decided to go forward with treatment, then held him for a couple minutes before leaving. He was alert and feisty. We left there with some hope, figuring that the following day we’d either visit a recovering cat or face that treatment wasn’t working and we’d have to say good-bye to him.
Just six hours after the symptoms began and while we were rushing to get there in time to see him, Buddy died. I am still in disbelief that he is not here now in my lap interrupting my typing, not climbing on the back of my computer chair or lying on top of my scanner or getting into any other sort of trouble. My oldest daughter, away for school, was unreachable until the next day. Our hearts are broken. Our older cat cannot know what’s happened or whether his pal will be returning.
I’ve lost pets before, and I know the pain fades, and I know it is not the same as losing a human family member. When a member of your household dies, daily life changes, yet it’s only a pet and you are expected to continue on as if all is normal. Sympathy from friends and family has been appreciated. It is hard to go on with all the usual work and other activities as if nothing has changed.
Comforting my young daughter wracked in sobs over her loss is something I wish hadn’t had to happen. Mothers feel the pain of their children as well as their own, making such a loss even more difficult. We thought we had many more years. The only good that will come from this is that we will be able to provide a home for yet another cat waiting for a family.
For now my lap is empty and my heart is heavy.
SherryTatar@ameritech.net
This cat, as cats tend to be, was part of our family. We loved him and he loved being around his family, me in particular. He followed me around and it seemed as if every time I sat down he’d be in my lap. He loved to go places where he shouldn’t and especially where it seemed like he couldn’t. He was quite the explorer, extremely friendly and affectionate, and very cute and fun.
I said this when he was living so I have no qualms about saying it now, either, but Buddy was the dumbest cat I’ve ever had. He would jump into my lap while I was at the table eating, and continue to jump back up repeatedly as I continued to put him back on the floor. He would blatantly do things right in front of us that he should have known were wrong.
He seemed clairvoyant about where I was going to sit next because regardless of whether it was my desk chair, my chair at the dinner table, or even the couch, he would be already curled up comfortably right in my way.
Like dogs do, Buddy rushed to greet people who arrived home or came to the front door and was anxious for attention. Whenever I was getting ready to leave the house, he’d get onto a chair or barstool and grab at me with his front paws as if asking me to stay. He loved climbing on furniture, playing with anything that moves (including one of my bookmarks that has a tassel), romping with our other cat, and generally being obnoxious.
One of his annoying but endearing habits was how he would spend several minutes kneading and walking around on me trying to find the exact right spot. Sometimes I’d be ready to get up and do something else by then! This process couldn’t be sped up though, because if I tried to get him to settle before he was ready, he’d start all over.
Pets bring so much joy into our lives and their loss gives us so much pain.
As far as we knew, Buddy was perfectly healthy when on Saturday afternoon right before our eyes he became paralyzed. He ran down two flights of stairs to the basement, dragging his motionless hindquarters behind him. Within moments he began exhibiting other symptoms. At the emergency vet he was taken from us immediately to be stabilized.
He had suffered from an embolism due to a heart condition, and the prognosis was poor. He could possibly be cured, and having gotten him there so soon after it happened was a good thing. We decided to go forward with treatment, then held him for a couple minutes before leaving. He was alert and feisty. We left there with some hope, figuring that the following day we’d either visit a recovering cat or face that treatment wasn’t working and we’d have to say good-bye to him.
Just six hours after the symptoms began and while we were rushing to get there in time to see him, Buddy died. I am still in disbelief that he is not here now in my lap interrupting my typing, not climbing on the back of my computer chair or lying on top of my scanner or getting into any other sort of trouble. My oldest daughter, away for school, was unreachable until the next day. Our hearts are broken. Our older cat cannot know what’s happened or whether his pal will be returning.
I’ve lost pets before, and I know the pain fades, and I know it is not the same as losing a human family member. When a member of your household dies, daily life changes, yet it’s only a pet and you are expected to continue on as if all is normal. Sympathy from friends and family has been appreciated. It is hard to go on with all the usual work and other activities as if nothing has changed.
Comforting my young daughter wracked in sobs over her loss is something I wish hadn’t had to happen. Mothers feel the pain of their children as well as their own, making such a loss even more difficult. We thought we had many more years. The only good that will come from this is that we will be able to provide a home for yet another cat waiting for a family.
For now my lap is empty and my heart is heavy.
SherryTatar@ameritech.net
2009-09-25 Mustang spirit alive and well
Opinions may vary on its exterior appearance, but we all know that it’s what’s on the inside that counts. What you’ll find inside Metea Valley High School is a great deal of enthusiasm, energy, and school spirit in an environment well-designed for student learning.
After seeing the hubbub of construction on a daily basis for over a year, we finally got to see the interior on Tuesday, August 11. This is when incoming students had their orientation and dance and their parents had an information session and were given the chance to tour the building.
Everyone else gets their turn to go inside on Sunday, October 4, when the public is invited to attend the school’s formal dedication at 2pm followed by an open house until 5pm. The day before, on the afternoon of Saturday, October 3 the Mustangs will play a home football against the Neuqua Valley Wildcats at 1pm. There is no cost to attend this meeting of sophomore teams and this is a great opportunity to see an exciting football game as well as performances by the Metea Valley marching band, color guard, poms, and cheerleaders.
On Saturday, August 22 the school held Mustang Mania. Here we had our first glimpse of several different sports teams and the marching band. The PTSA and Sports Boosters had tables set up and concessions were available. This was a well-attended event, as was the first home football game on September 11, in which the stands were well over half filled despite the fact the school’s student body will more than double in size in the next two years. Many families who don’t even have high school students were there with their young children.
The great things going on here didn’t start with the first day of school. Principal Jim Schmid, his staff, the PTSA, and sports booster parents have been hard at work for quite some time, yet it feels like school spirit happened virtually overnight. Many new Mustangs had been looking forward to being Waubonsie Valley Warriors, yet the transition has gone well. Some MVHS students attended the first football game at WVHS with friends, and then some WV students attended MV’s first home game the following week.
The start of the school year is by all appearances going remarkably well. Clubs and sports have larger than expected numbers of participants. Sports teams are winning. Audition and non-audition extra-curricular music groups are set up and rehearsing. A spring break band trip to Disney World and a summer break trip to Spain for students who will have completed Spanish 2 are in the works.
The school’s fall play, “I’m getting Murdered in the Morning” has been cast. It will be a dinner theater wedding reception held in the school’s cafeteria on October 22, 23, and 24.
Metea Valley Student Government (MVStudentGo) is working on its constitution and planning fall events. In lieu of homecoming a new high school has events that are like homecoming would be in another school, but named differently since there are not yet any alumni. Metea’s Black and Gold Masquerade Dance will be held the evening of Saturday, October 3. Leading up to that weekend will be spirit week with the following days – Monday is Sports Team Day, Tuesday is Twin Day, Wednesday is Decades Day, Thursday is College Day, and Friday is Black and Gold.
As expected, freshman and sophomore students get to do things in this school they would not have if they’d been in a school that has juniors and seniors. They get to join some organizations and/or hold leadership roles that would not have been available to them otherwise. I heard from chorus director Nathan Bramstedt that he is working with his students to perform at the upper level from the start, that they will be performing as juniors and seniors would. In this district’s music program, that’s impressive.
At curriculum night on September 17 I was impressed by the professionalism and enthusiasm of the teachers and other staff as well as by the number of parents in attendance; it was standing room only in almost every classroom I was in.
I love the layout of the building and how easy it is to get from one place to another, in addition to how easy it is to find the rooms and for the students to have access to their lockers, their counselors, and academic help throughout the day. The facilities are impressive and the new Mustang mural in the gym is beautiful.
The administration, staff, students, and parents have already come together to form a new school community and have begun new traditions in an environment with ample opportunity for all.
Metea Valley High School is located at 1801 N. Eola Road, Aurora.
SherryTatar@ameritech.net
After seeing the hubbub of construction on a daily basis for over a year, we finally got to see the interior on Tuesday, August 11. This is when incoming students had their orientation and dance and their parents had an information session and were given the chance to tour the building.
Everyone else gets their turn to go inside on Sunday, October 4, when the public is invited to attend the school’s formal dedication at 2pm followed by an open house until 5pm. The day before, on the afternoon of Saturday, October 3 the Mustangs will play a home football against the Neuqua Valley Wildcats at 1pm. There is no cost to attend this meeting of sophomore teams and this is a great opportunity to see an exciting football game as well as performances by the Metea Valley marching band, color guard, poms, and cheerleaders.
On Saturday, August 22 the school held Mustang Mania. Here we had our first glimpse of several different sports teams and the marching band. The PTSA and Sports Boosters had tables set up and concessions were available. This was a well-attended event, as was the first home football game on September 11, in which the stands were well over half filled despite the fact the school’s student body will more than double in size in the next two years. Many families who don’t even have high school students were there with their young children.
The great things going on here didn’t start with the first day of school. Principal Jim Schmid, his staff, the PTSA, and sports booster parents have been hard at work for quite some time, yet it feels like school spirit happened virtually overnight. Many new Mustangs had been looking forward to being Waubonsie Valley Warriors, yet the transition has gone well. Some MVHS students attended the first football game at WVHS with friends, and then some WV students attended MV’s first home game the following week.
The start of the school year is by all appearances going remarkably well. Clubs and sports have larger than expected numbers of participants. Sports teams are winning. Audition and non-audition extra-curricular music groups are set up and rehearsing. A spring break band trip to Disney World and a summer break trip to Spain for students who will have completed Spanish 2 are in the works.
The school’s fall play, “I’m getting Murdered in the Morning” has been cast. It will be a dinner theater wedding reception held in the school’s cafeteria on October 22, 23, and 24.
Metea Valley Student Government (MVStudentGo) is working on its constitution and planning fall events. In lieu of homecoming a new high school has events that are like homecoming would be in another school, but named differently since there are not yet any alumni. Metea’s Black and Gold Masquerade Dance will be held the evening of Saturday, October 3. Leading up to that weekend will be spirit week with the following days – Monday is Sports Team Day, Tuesday is Twin Day, Wednesday is Decades Day, Thursday is College Day, and Friday is Black and Gold.
As expected, freshman and sophomore students get to do things in this school they would not have if they’d been in a school that has juniors and seniors. They get to join some organizations and/or hold leadership roles that would not have been available to them otherwise. I heard from chorus director Nathan Bramstedt that he is working with his students to perform at the upper level from the start, that they will be performing as juniors and seniors would. In this district’s music program, that’s impressive.
At curriculum night on September 17 I was impressed by the professionalism and enthusiasm of the teachers and other staff as well as by the number of parents in attendance; it was standing room only in almost every classroom I was in.
I love the layout of the building and how easy it is to get from one place to another, in addition to how easy it is to find the rooms and for the students to have access to their lockers, their counselors, and academic help throughout the day. The facilities are impressive and the new Mustang mural in the gym is beautiful.
The administration, staff, students, and parents have already come together to form a new school community and have begun new traditions in an environment with ample opportunity for all.
Metea Valley High School is located at 1801 N. Eola Road, Aurora.
SherryTatar@ameritech.net
Monday, August 24, 2009
2009-08-09 Assigned Bus Seats
Too many of childhood’s small freedoms and joys seem to be disappearing as children’s lives become more and more regimented. While I have many examples in mind, I’ll focus here on one which I hope could still be changed.
This spring there was a bus incident in which a student whose parent had an emergency situation wrote a note for her daughter to ride another bus. The bus driver forced this student to get off the bus in an unfamiliar location. I believe this improper behavior by a single driver may have been one of the instigating factors for two new policies that will be implemented this school year in Indian Prairie District 204.
The first is that all students in grades 6-12 must show a school ID that indicates they belong on a particular bus before boarding.
The second is that all students in K-8 will have assigned bus seats. This is being done for “student safety and management.” While I commend safety as a priority, after being in contact with the school board and administration about this very issue I have not yet heard of a single example of how assigning seats improves safety. The students will have a few days at the beginning of the school year to choose their seats, and then must sit in those same seats for the entire semester. This leaves the bus driver in charge of making sure that children are in their assigned seats in addition to safely transporting our children to and from school.
Assigned seating has been used in the past on some buses as a means of dealing with problem behaviors. Kids who don’t behave well on the bus may have been required to sit up front near the driver. For bus routes that have many behavioral issues, assigned seating can make sense as a solution to that problem, or can be used as a threat to help encourage better behavior.
Children who are new to the bus may not have made friends yet when the bus seats are assigned and when they do make friends on the route, won’t get to sit with them until the following semester. Kindergarteners may ride with a sibling the first few days as they get the hang of being a bus-rider, but then both siblings may have trouble finding other seats a few days into the school year. They could wind up riding together for the entire semester. While some kids would be happy with this situation, others would not.
Will students who ride the bus only a few times during the school year have an assigned seat? Will the drivers give permission for students to change their assigned seats if they have a good reason? How strictly will this policy be enforced, and how?
In middle school there is a wide variance as to which students are actually on the bus on any given trip due to the many before and after school activities the students may be involved in. The seatmates of students who are not on the bus due to school activities will then be left sitting alone, while other students do the same, unable to move to another seat to sit together if they’d like. Some students will prefer this, while others might like to socialize with some of their other friends for the bus ride. Regardless of the length of the bus ride, it’s still one of the rare social times that our students may have in an ever more strictly controlled school day.
Somehow my kids have survived riding buses in 204 since 1995, as have thousands of other children, and serious incidents have been rare. Bad behavior on the bus can be dealt with in a variety of manners other than assigning seats for all students, and this new policy ensures that whomever is unfortunate enough to sit near someone who behaves badly will be stuck sitting near them every day for the whole semester. Children’s friendships are often rapidly evolving and it makes sense to let kids chose whom to sit with on a daily basis. Children may even make new friends by sitting with different people throughout the year.
Our district is implementing new programs with an emphasis on social-emotional learning, and it seems like navigating relationships and free time on the bus would be a great opportunity for students to develop in this area outside of the program implemented in school.
Yes, kids need to be orderly during the school day when they are being taught, but let’s give them a little freedom to grow and become more responsible during the times of day when this is not required. Let’s allow some fun where we can since there is already plenty of time that children must be quiet and attentive, and only assign bus seats when necessary.
I ask that District 204 administrators please reconsider this new policy.
This spring there was a bus incident in which a student whose parent had an emergency situation wrote a note for her daughter to ride another bus. The bus driver forced this student to get off the bus in an unfamiliar location. I believe this improper behavior by a single driver may have been one of the instigating factors for two new policies that will be implemented this school year in Indian Prairie District 204.
The first is that all students in grades 6-12 must show a school ID that indicates they belong on a particular bus before boarding.
The second is that all students in K-8 will have assigned bus seats. This is being done for “student safety and management.” While I commend safety as a priority, after being in contact with the school board and administration about this very issue I have not yet heard of a single example of how assigning seats improves safety. The students will have a few days at the beginning of the school year to choose their seats, and then must sit in those same seats for the entire semester. This leaves the bus driver in charge of making sure that children are in their assigned seats in addition to safely transporting our children to and from school.
Assigned seating has been used in the past on some buses as a means of dealing with problem behaviors. Kids who don’t behave well on the bus may have been required to sit up front near the driver. For bus routes that have many behavioral issues, assigned seating can make sense as a solution to that problem, or can be used as a threat to help encourage better behavior.
Children who are new to the bus may not have made friends yet when the bus seats are assigned and when they do make friends on the route, won’t get to sit with them until the following semester. Kindergarteners may ride with a sibling the first few days as they get the hang of being a bus-rider, but then both siblings may have trouble finding other seats a few days into the school year. They could wind up riding together for the entire semester. While some kids would be happy with this situation, others would not.
Will students who ride the bus only a few times during the school year have an assigned seat? Will the drivers give permission for students to change their assigned seats if they have a good reason? How strictly will this policy be enforced, and how?
In middle school there is a wide variance as to which students are actually on the bus on any given trip due to the many before and after school activities the students may be involved in. The seatmates of students who are not on the bus due to school activities will then be left sitting alone, while other students do the same, unable to move to another seat to sit together if they’d like. Some students will prefer this, while others might like to socialize with some of their other friends for the bus ride. Regardless of the length of the bus ride, it’s still one of the rare social times that our students may have in an ever more strictly controlled school day.
Somehow my kids have survived riding buses in 204 since 1995, as have thousands of other children, and serious incidents have been rare. Bad behavior on the bus can be dealt with in a variety of manners other than assigning seats for all students, and this new policy ensures that whomever is unfortunate enough to sit near someone who behaves badly will be stuck sitting near them every day for the whole semester. Children’s friendships are often rapidly evolving and it makes sense to let kids chose whom to sit with on a daily basis. Children may even make new friends by sitting with different people throughout the year.
Our district is implementing new programs with an emphasis on social-emotional learning, and it seems like navigating relationships and free time on the bus would be a great opportunity for students to develop in this area outside of the program implemented in school.
Yes, kids need to be orderly during the school day when they are being taught, but let’s give them a little freedom to grow and become more responsible during the times of day when this is not required. Let’s allow some fun where we can since there is already plenty of time that children must be quiet and attentive, and only assign bus seats when necessary.
I ask that District 204 administrators please reconsider this new policy.
2009-07-26 Split Siblings
When school starts next month many families will send one of their children to one school and another child to another school. This happens to families all the time when children are split between various levels of school such as preschool, elementary, middle, and high school. The difference this fall in Indian Prairie District 204 is that just like a decade ago, some families will be sending students to two different high schools.
Mine is among these families this time. In my household, we have had one year where all school-age children were in one building. This fall will be our 11th year of having our kids split among two or more schools, and our fourth year of having kids in four different schools. I don’t think having these two kids in two different high schools will be significantly different than this past year when one was in Waubonsie Valley HS while the other attended Granger Middle School.
There have been complaints from parents regarding students who will attend Waubonsie while they will have a sibling still at Neuqua Valley HS. There are many more students who will attend Metea Valley HS while having siblings at WV. Since none of these students are in the same grade as their sibling, this means that they have attended different schools from each other for 2-6 years already.
I have read and heard the most incredible arguments about why it’s important for siblings to attend school together. One that often comes up is that this requires families to choose one child’s event over another. I am certain that anyone with more than one child routinely has to make choices when their children’s events occur at the same time. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that many families with only one child find they have conflicts as well.
Most of those with children attending two different high schools next fall will likely find that it does not cost their families substantial time or money or additional conflicts beyond what happened when the older was in high school and the younger in middle school.
Yes, things will be more difficult than originally anticipated for some and especially for those few families whose children would have been on the exact same sports team or club or in the same music group, because for one or two school years things would have been easier for them. However, most siblings will stand on their own and thrive being on that team or in that club or performance group without being known as so-and-so’s younger brother/sister.
For most split families curriculum nights at the two schools will be easier than dealing with two students’schedules in one evening would have been. The Fine Arts Festival will be split over two Saturdays rather than one long crazy day for many of us. My own high school students would have both performed in Waubonsie Valley’s Prism concert this one year but I don’t think either of them is heartbroken that this won’t happen, as they’ve never been in the same school concert before anyway.
My son would have ridden to and from school with his sister. Now he won’t. This is not a tragedy. He will get to and from school the same way he would have if he didn’t have a sister who drives.
Some will disagree, but I feel strongly that in most cases it would be a bad thing for the affected families to have had a choice about which school their children attend. At least from my own limited perspective of having been a teenager, being the parent of teenagers, and talking with other parents, I expect that given a choice many of the students would choose the school where most of their current friends will be attending next year. This would mean an agonizing choice of which friends to choose over which other friends, at very least causing some hurt feelings. Later anything that is not going well for the students at the school they chose, or looks like it would have been better at the other school, could be an anguishing time for them.
The district is doing what they can to help the families with siblings split between two high schools, similarly to how they have always tried to schedule events such that feeder schools do not have conflicts when possible.
At this point neither the number of students affected nor the reasons why grandfathering is not allowed are no longer relevant. The students know where they’re attending school this fall and which school they will graduate from. The teachers and administrators have planned for the upcoming school year. Courses have been scheduled and staffing has been done based on the numbers of students enrolled in courses.
We have all been through a lot these past few years and the best we can do now is look for the positives in the situations we have and make the best of it. Students will be welcomed into their high schools and other families are willing to lend a hand where needed for those of us who are split between schools.
I hope that all high school families help their students feel good about being a part of whatever high school they are attending this year, and that all district parents, regardless of where are from, will step forward and become a part of their school communities, whether or not they have changed schools and whether that is one school, or two or more.
Mine is among these families this time. In my household, we have had one year where all school-age children were in one building. This fall will be our 11th year of having our kids split among two or more schools, and our fourth year of having kids in four different schools. I don’t think having these two kids in two different high schools will be significantly different than this past year when one was in Waubonsie Valley HS while the other attended Granger Middle School.
There have been complaints from parents regarding students who will attend Waubonsie while they will have a sibling still at Neuqua Valley HS. There are many more students who will attend Metea Valley HS while having siblings at WV. Since none of these students are in the same grade as their sibling, this means that they have attended different schools from each other for 2-6 years already.
I have read and heard the most incredible arguments about why it’s important for siblings to attend school together. One that often comes up is that this requires families to choose one child’s event over another. I am certain that anyone with more than one child routinely has to make choices when their children’s events occur at the same time. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that many families with only one child find they have conflicts as well.
Most of those with children attending two different high schools next fall will likely find that it does not cost their families substantial time or money or additional conflicts beyond what happened when the older was in high school and the younger in middle school.
Yes, things will be more difficult than originally anticipated for some and especially for those few families whose children would have been on the exact same sports team or club or in the same music group, because for one or two school years things would have been easier for them. However, most siblings will stand on their own and thrive being on that team or in that club or performance group without being known as so-and-so’s younger brother/sister.
For most split families curriculum nights at the two schools will be easier than dealing with two students’schedules in one evening would have been. The Fine Arts Festival will be split over two Saturdays rather than one long crazy day for many of us. My own high school students would have both performed in Waubonsie Valley’s Prism concert this one year but I don’t think either of them is heartbroken that this won’t happen, as they’ve never been in the same school concert before anyway.
My son would have ridden to and from school with his sister. Now he won’t. This is not a tragedy. He will get to and from school the same way he would have if he didn’t have a sister who drives.
Some will disagree, but I feel strongly that in most cases it would be a bad thing for the affected families to have had a choice about which school their children attend. At least from my own limited perspective of having been a teenager, being the parent of teenagers, and talking with other parents, I expect that given a choice many of the students would choose the school where most of their current friends will be attending next year. This would mean an agonizing choice of which friends to choose over which other friends, at very least causing some hurt feelings. Later anything that is not going well for the students at the school they chose, or looks like it would have been better at the other school, could be an anguishing time for them.
The district is doing what they can to help the families with siblings split between two high schools, similarly to how they have always tried to schedule events such that feeder schools do not have conflicts when possible.
At this point neither the number of students affected nor the reasons why grandfathering is not allowed are no longer relevant. The students know where they’re attending school this fall and which school they will graduate from. The teachers and administrators have planned for the upcoming school year. Courses have been scheduled and staffing has been done based on the numbers of students enrolled in courses.
We have all been through a lot these past few years and the best we can do now is look for the positives in the situations we have and make the best of it. Students will be welcomed into their high schools and other families are willing to lend a hand where needed for those of us who are split between schools.
I hope that all high school families help their students feel good about being a part of whatever high school they are attending this year, and that all district parents, regardless of where are from, will step forward and become a part of their school communities, whether or not they have changed schools and whether that is one school, or two or more.
2009-05-26 Combining federal and local elections
April’s local elections brought yet another dismal voter turnout. What happened to all the excitement from last fall’s presidential election? Some have still not gotten the news about all politics being local.
I think I did my part – I gathered signatures, met candidates, spoke with people about the election, wrote a column on the importance of local elections, wrote a letter to the editor about the candidates I supported, attended forums, put signs in my yard, distributed fliers, sent e-mails, etc. Many others did the same and more.
Yet even given the option of early voting, only a small percentage of registered voters cast ballots in the spring election. According to news reports, this is considered to be undesirable because a small number of people are making decisions for everyone. The suggested solution is to increase the number of voters by combining the local elections onto the fall ballot along with the races for state and federal offices.
My immediate reaction upon reading this was NO this is not a good idea! People I’ve spoken with who have run for office at the local and/or state level wholeheartedly agree that for many reasons this would not be a positive change.
For starters, it is not helpful to have more voters for an election in which those voters do not care about the outcome or have not been paying attention to the local races. I’m always glad when I hear that people choose not to vote in races in which they don’t have knowledge of the candidates, it’s dismaying to hear of people voting for those whose names sounded familiar or possibly choosing some even worse method to avoid skipping any of the races on the ballot.
It is a lot of work to become educated about every race on one’s ballot – whether federal, state or local level and it would be quite a burden on voters if all of these elections were held at once. How would people have time to attend or watch so many debates and political forums? It would be difficult for the organizations that set up these sorts of events. Some of the same people who campaign hard for the fall elections are at it again for the local elections in the spring and would have a hard time working on all the races at once. There would be a larger burden on the news media to keep the public informed and to interview candidates for endorsements.
There may be voter fatigue now due to having so many elections held, but I think we’d see something much worse if we had a several page ballot. As it is, my April ballot was on two pages and covered twelve races (some, sadly, were uncontested). Even those that want to be involved in the process may become apathetic due to the sheer energy required to be a good citizen.
A problem that really needs to be addressed is voter education. The newspapers don’t seem to do as good a job of this as they could. At every election the voters should have a non-biased source they can turn to in order to find out what exactly will be on their ballot, including the pay, responsibilities, and length of term for each office, as well as some information about the candidates or issues at hand, along with endorsements in all races.
While combining elections would save in election costs, it would be impossible to calculate the true additional costs.
One suggestion is to always hold primaries at the same time – say the second Tuesday of April, followed by the general election on the first Tuesday of November. This schedule would be the same every year regardless of which elections are being held that year. Campaigning for local offices would not need to occur over the holidays and during the time of year in which we have the worst weather. The longer campaign cycle would allow voters more time to learn about the candidates.
As for the people who don’t come out to vote, we’ll have to assume they are ok with the rest of us choosing whoever we think are the best candidates. It would be great if more people would take an interest, but tacking local races onto the already lengthy fall ballot is not the answer.
I think I did my part – I gathered signatures, met candidates, spoke with people about the election, wrote a column on the importance of local elections, wrote a letter to the editor about the candidates I supported, attended forums, put signs in my yard, distributed fliers, sent e-mails, etc. Many others did the same and more.
Yet even given the option of early voting, only a small percentage of registered voters cast ballots in the spring election. According to news reports, this is considered to be undesirable because a small number of people are making decisions for everyone. The suggested solution is to increase the number of voters by combining the local elections onto the fall ballot along with the races for state and federal offices.
My immediate reaction upon reading this was NO this is not a good idea! People I’ve spoken with who have run for office at the local and/or state level wholeheartedly agree that for many reasons this would not be a positive change.
For starters, it is not helpful to have more voters for an election in which those voters do not care about the outcome or have not been paying attention to the local races. I’m always glad when I hear that people choose not to vote in races in which they don’t have knowledge of the candidates, it’s dismaying to hear of people voting for those whose names sounded familiar or possibly choosing some even worse method to avoid skipping any of the races on the ballot.
It is a lot of work to become educated about every race on one’s ballot – whether federal, state or local level and it would be quite a burden on voters if all of these elections were held at once. How would people have time to attend or watch so many debates and political forums? It would be difficult for the organizations that set up these sorts of events. Some of the same people who campaign hard for the fall elections are at it again for the local elections in the spring and would have a hard time working on all the races at once. There would be a larger burden on the news media to keep the public informed and to interview candidates for endorsements.
There may be voter fatigue now due to having so many elections held, but I think we’d see something much worse if we had a several page ballot. As it is, my April ballot was on two pages and covered twelve races (some, sadly, were uncontested). Even those that want to be involved in the process may become apathetic due to the sheer energy required to be a good citizen.
A problem that really needs to be addressed is voter education. The newspapers don’t seem to do as good a job of this as they could. At every election the voters should have a non-biased source they can turn to in order to find out what exactly will be on their ballot, including the pay, responsibilities, and length of term for each office, as well as some information about the candidates or issues at hand, along with endorsements in all races.
While combining elections would save in election costs, it would be impossible to calculate the true additional costs.
One suggestion is to always hold primaries at the same time – say the second Tuesday of April, followed by the general election on the first Tuesday of November. This schedule would be the same every year regardless of which elections are being held that year. Campaigning for local offices would not need to occur over the holidays and during the time of year in which we have the worst weather. The longer campaign cycle would allow voters more time to learn about the candidates.
As for the people who don’t come out to vote, we’ll have to assume they are ok with the rest of us choosing whoever we think are the best candidates. It would be great if more people would take an interest, but tacking local races onto the already lengthy fall ballot is not the answer.
2009-05-11 Year Round School
Year round schooling seems to be gaining popularity. Thankfully there has been no suggestion of doing this in our local districts. When I recently heard of the plans to increase the number of year round schools in the Chicago Public School District I wondered if this trend might come our direction, possibly due to the flawed nature of No Child Left Behind requiring districts to attempt the impossible.
I am firmly opposed to such a schedule change for several reasons. Kids only get the chance to be a kid once. Children are not robots. They are young people who can benefit from long breaks from formal schooling to recharge and have different experiences. Their teachers likely expected similar breaks when choosing this profession.
Many of our schools lack air conditioning, which means it is crazy to have students attend and teachers teach during the hottest days of the year. In fact, we are doing that already with school starting on August 20 this year. The first day of school in this climate for schools that do not have air conditioning would be best pushed back to after Labor Day.
Studies have been inconclusive as to whether there are academic benefits to year round schooling. Even if all studies were to show that students had higher test scores with several shorter breaks throughout the year instead of a longer summer break, I contend that there are other factors in childhood that are important that are independent of scoring highly on academic achievement tests. Some form of summer school should be readily available, but only for those who want or need it. School should not be used as a way to keep kids from getting bored or from getting into trouble.
Summer is a great time for kids to pursue all kinds of activities, to relax, to read for pleasure instead of homework, and to hang out with friends, all without worrying about daily homework and school schedules. The days are longer and it is a good time of year to stay up later and sleep in for those who can.
In my own family we find that it’s hard to squeeze in all the summer activities we want to do as a family and as individuals – a vacation and a local weekend trip, Bible School, swimming, day trips, summer festivals, picnics, a variety of camps and a mission trip. None of these things would make much sense to do at another time of year when the weather here is not conducive to it. There is so little good weather in northern Illinois for outdoor activities that it would be a downright shame to have children sitting in classrooms during a majority of those days.
Year round schools use a variety of scheduling techniques and frequently incorporate the same number of days in the school year that we have now, just spread out differently with breaks interspersed throughout the year. I’d argue that having extra breaks during cold weather times would not make up for the lack of a longer break in summer. These schedules may cause issues for families if their children wind up on different schedules, or if the people they carpool with do, and for extra-curriculars that have events with other districts including band, sports, and many other student groups. It would also be a huge issue for those organizations that provide activities during times that kids are not in school such as the YMCA, park district, outdoor pools, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. Many of these depend on parent volunteers and teen workers.
Our students are under tremendous pressure during the school year. Many high school students already have the additional demand of summer homework, yet they still enjoy the break from attending classes all day. Many use this chance to do some volunteering, to pursue other interests, and to work summer jobs.
Some would argue that we need to go this route to keep up with the world. In the five years my children have been attending Waubonsie Valley High School I have seen some remarkable high school students. I have been very impressed with what these students are doing and I think that the opportunity is already there for any interested student to be well-prepared to compete successfully in the modern-day world.
I am firmly opposed to such a schedule change for several reasons. Kids only get the chance to be a kid once. Children are not robots. They are young people who can benefit from long breaks from formal schooling to recharge and have different experiences. Their teachers likely expected similar breaks when choosing this profession.
Many of our schools lack air conditioning, which means it is crazy to have students attend and teachers teach during the hottest days of the year. In fact, we are doing that already with school starting on August 20 this year. The first day of school in this climate for schools that do not have air conditioning would be best pushed back to after Labor Day.
Studies have been inconclusive as to whether there are academic benefits to year round schooling. Even if all studies were to show that students had higher test scores with several shorter breaks throughout the year instead of a longer summer break, I contend that there are other factors in childhood that are important that are independent of scoring highly on academic achievement tests. Some form of summer school should be readily available, but only for those who want or need it. School should not be used as a way to keep kids from getting bored or from getting into trouble.
Summer is a great time for kids to pursue all kinds of activities, to relax, to read for pleasure instead of homework, and to hang out with friends, all without worrying about daily homework and school schedules. The days are longer and it is a good time of year to stay up later and sleep in for those who can.
In my own family we find that it’s hard to squeeze in all the summer activities we want to do as a family and as individuals – a vacation and a local weekend trip, Bible School, swimming, day trips, summer festivals, picnics, a variety of camps and a mission trip. None of these things would make much sense to do at another time of year when the weather here is not conducive to it. There is so little good weather in northern Illinois for outdoor activities that it would be a downright shame to have children sitting in classrooms during a majority of those days.
Year round schools use a variety of scheduling techniques and frequently incorporate the same number of days in the school year that we have now, just spread out differently with breaks interspersed throughout the year. I’d argue that having extra breaks during cold weather times would not make up for the lack of a longer break in summer. These schedules may cause issues for families if their children wind up on different schedules, or if the people they carpool with do, and for extra-curriculars that have events with other districts including band, sports, and many other student groups. It would also be a huge issue for those organizations that provide activities during times that kids are not in school such as the YMCA, park district, outdoor pools, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. Many of these depend on parent volunteers and teen workers.
Our students are under tremendous pressure during the school year. Many high school students already have the additional demand of summer homework, yet they still enjoy the break from attending classes all day. Many use this chance to do some volunteering, to pursue other interests, and to work summer jobs.
Some would argue that we need to go this route to keep up with the world. In the five years my children have been attending Waubonsie Valley High School I have seen some remarkable high school students. I have been very impressed with what these students are doing and I think that the opportunity is already there for any interested student to be well-prepared to compete successfully in the modern-day world.
2009-05-06 NYC Orchestra trip
(still hasn't been published, I don't know why)
Sixty-five teenagers, fourteen adults, two buses, hundreds of miles, five days of spring break in New York City, thousands of photos – it all adds up to a great time! Spending two nights on the bus wasn’t that wonderful, but the hotel where we stayed in New Jersey was very nice and our time spent in the city was incredible. What a huge and bustling city it is and what amazing experiences we had!
This was my second trip with Waubonsie Valley orchestra students, and the teens again showed themselves to be fantastic ambassadors for our school. Many of us had not visited New York City before. We were enthralled Monday morning by the sight of the Statue of Liberty as we neared it while freezing on top of the ferry, and then were surprised to be given the chance to walk around the island and get even closer. Next we visited Ellis Island, then took the ferry back to Manhattan and walked to Wall Street.
At St. Paul’s Chapel we walked somberly past the September 11 memorials and historical markers such as George Washington’s pew. The next block over is Ground Zero, enclosed now so we didn’t even glimpse the big hole in the ground. Dinner in Little Italy was followed by some interesting shopping there and in neighboring Chinatown. Rehearsal this first evening in the hotel was marred when one student set his violin on the floor and it was accidentally stepped on and broken into two pieces by another student.
Tuesday morning began with a tour of Carnegie Hall, an absolutely gorgeous building with an interesting history, followed by lunch in the Trump Tower. The students played a beautiful concert in the Madison Avenue Sculpture Garden (formerly the IBM atrium). This was an unusual setting in a huge enclosed area with birds flying around and people walking through the building. They played Tocatta by Frescobaldi, Concerto Grosso by Corelli, The Godfather, Hoedown by Copland, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, and Sentimental Sariband.
Next we visited the United Nations where we had guided tours and saw the UN in session. We took the buses over to Broadway where we were given a mere 45 minutes to explore Broadway from 42nd to 48th. Times Square was an amazing sight! We walked up and down the whole way but barely had time to take in the huge Toys R Us, the chocolate stores, the statue of George M. Cohan, the unusual looking police station, the bright lights, the signs everywhere, the theaters, wow! After dinner at Planet Hollywood we walked to The Palace Theatre in the next block to see West Side Story. Some of the students on this trip will be performing in the pit orchestra for Waubonsie Valley’s performance of West Side Story May 7-10.
Wednesday we went on a multi-ethnic eating tour in which we walked all morning and tried a variety of foods while learning about the areas we visited and related history. After lunch in Little Italy and Chinatown the students had a clinic with a musician while we chaperones had two free hours to roam the area. During this time a few of us saw the Flatiron Building and we ran into Chris March from Project Runway. We managed to see many remarkable sights during our free time. We had dinner at a restaurant in the basement of the Empire State Building. We knew that Yo-Yo Ma played in Carnegie Hall the prior evening so Mr. Liu was very excited when some of the students came running with the news that Yo-Yo Ma was signing autographs upstairs. How disappointed he was to find out it was only an April Fool’s joke.
Later I read that on a clear day one can see great distances and many states from atop the Empire State Building. This was not our experience. We were there on a very cloudy, windy, and rainy evening. It was so cloudy that we could only see about a block away. It was so windy that people’s umbrellas turned inside out and their hair blew straight out. We did not have to wait in any line to go up top because no one in their right mind would pay to go up in that kind of weather!
Thursday we packed up and headed into the city for the last time. We had a short time to tour the American Museum of Natural History and then saw an IMAX movie that put many of the audience to sleep. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, sunny and warm. We took a walk into Central Park where we saw Strawberry Fields after walking past the building where John Lennon had lived. We toured the Lincoln Center buildings which house the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet and the New York Philharmonic. After dinner we returned to spend an evening enjoying a performance of the New York Philharmonic.
After another exciting overnight bus ride we arrived home Friday afternoon exhausted and full of great memories.
Sixty-five teenagers, fourteen adults, two buses, hundreds of miles, five days of spring break in New York City, thousands of photos – it all adds up to a great time! Spending two nights on the bus wasn’t that wonderful, but the hotel where we stayed in New Jersey was very nice and our time spent in the city was incredible. What a huge and bustling city it is and what amazing experiences we had!
This was my second trip with Waubonsie Valley orchestra students, and the teens again showed themselves to be fantastic ambassadors for our school. Many of us had not visited New York City before. We were enthralled Monday morning by the sight of the Statue of Liberty as we neared it while freezing on top of the ferry, and then were surprised to be given the chance to walk around the island and get even closer. Next we visited Ellis Island, then took the ferry back to Manhattan and walked to Wall Street.
At St. Paul’s Chapel we walked somberly past the September 11 memorials and historical markers such as George Washington’s pew. The next block over is Ground Zero, enclosed now so we didn’t even glimpse the big hole in the ground. Dinner in Little Italy was followed by some interesting shopping there and in neighboring Chinatown. Rehearsal this first evening in the hotel was marred when one student set his violin on the floor and it was accidentally stepped on and broken into two pieces by another student.
Tuesday morning began with a tour of Carnegie Hall, an absolutely gorgeous building with an interesting history, followed by lunch in the Trump Tower. The students played a beautiful concert in the Madison Avenue Sculpture Garden (formerly the IBM atrium). This was an unusual setting in a huge enclosed area with birds flying around and people walking through the building. They played Tocatta by Frescobaldi, Concerto Grosso by Corelli, The Godfather, Hoedown by Copland, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, and Sentimental Sariband.
Next we visited the United Nations where we had guided tours and saw the UN in session. We took the buses over to Broadway where we were given a mere 45 minutes to explore Broadway from 42nd to 48th. Times Square was an amazing sight! We walked up and down the whole way but barely had time to take in the huge Toys R Us, the chocolate stores, the statue of George M. Cohan, the unusual looking police station, the bright lights, the signs everywhere, the theaters, wow! After dinner at Planet Hollywood we walked to The Palace Theatre in the next block to see West Side Story. Some of the students on this trip will be performing in the pit orchestra for Waubonsie Valley’s performance of West Side Story May 7-10.
Wednesday we went on a multi-ethnic eating tour in which we walked all morning and tried a variety of foods while learning about the areas we visited and related history. After lunch in Little Italy and Chinatown the students had a clinic with a musician while we chaperones had two free hours to roam the area. During this time a few of us saw the Flatiron Building and we ran into Chris March from Project Runway. We managed to see many remarkable sights during our free time. We had dinner at a restaurant in the basement of the Empire State Building. We knew that Yo-Yo Ma played in Carnegie Hall the prior evening so Mr. Liu was very excited when some of the students came running with the news that Yo-Yo Ma was signing autographs upstairs. How disappointed he was to find out it was only an April Fool’s joke.
Later I read that on a clear day one can see great distances and many states from atop the Empire State Building. This was not our experience. We were there on a very cloudy, windy, and rainy evening. It was so cloudy that we could only see about a block away. It was so windy that people’s umbrellas turned inside out and their hair blew straight out. We did not have to wait in any line to go up top because no one in their right mind would pay to go up in that kind of weather!
Thursday we packed up and headed into the city for the last time. We had a short time to tour the American Museum of Natural History and then saw an IMAX movie that put many of the audience to sleep. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, sunny and warm. We took a walk into Central Park where we saw Strawberry Fields after walking past the building where John Lennon had lived. We toured the Lincoln Center buildings which house the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet and the New York Philharmonic. After dinner we returned to spend an evening enjoying a performance of the New York Philharmonic.
After another exciting overnight bus ride we arrived home Friday afternoon exhausted and full of great memories.
2009-03-22 School Board LTE
I support Sue Rasmus, Mark Rising, Cathy Piehl, Dawn DeSart for the Indian Prairie District 204 School Board.
In February I knew very little about most of the people running. I attended both candidate forums, read campaign literature, watched interviews, had conversations with people throughout the district, and spoke with some of the candidates before arriving at this conclusion.
These four have been actively involved in their own children’s schools and care deeply about providing excellence for all of the district’s students. They have a known history of integrity and several years of community involvement. They have shown that they are capable of the time commitment this unpaid position requires.
They have an understanding of where the district has been and where we’re headed as well as some ideas for improvement. They will not need time to get up-to-speed with district issues. They have no hidden agenda and are not associated with one another.
From my perspective, their hearts are in the right place and they know the balance between the role of the school board and the role of the administration, which is made up of paid professionals who provide the necessary expertise in areas such as curriculum, finance, and law.
They have a variety of experiences and viewpoints. I do not agree with all of them on everything nor do they agree with each other on everything. This is a good thing as a board should be comprised of independent thinkers with differing views.
I give this endorsement as a parent of four, with fifteen years of involvement in this district in a wide variety of ways, as both a Naperville and an Aurora resident and one of six finalists interviewed for last fall’s vacant school board seat. Others whom I know and respect have individually come to the decision to support these same candidates.
Please vote for Rasmus, Rising, Piehl, and DeSart on April 7.
In February I knew very little about most of the people running. I attended both candidate forums, read campaign literature, watched interviews, had conversations with people throughout the district, and spoke with some of the candidates before arriving at this conclusion.
These four have been actively involved in their own children’s schools and care deeply about providing excellence for all of the district’s students. They have a known history of integrity and several years of community involvement. They have shown that they are capable of the time commitment this unpaid position requires.
They have an understanding of where the district has been and where we’re headed as well as some ideas for improvement. They will not need time to get up-to-speed with district issues. They have no hidden agenda and are not associated with one another.
From my perspective, their hearts are in the right place and they know the balance between the role of the school board and the role of the administration, which is made up of paid professionals who provide the necessary expertise in areas such as curriculum, finance, and law.
They have a variety of experiences and viewpoints. I do not agree with all of them on everything nor do they agree with each other on everything. This is a good thing as a board should be comprised of independent thinkers with differing views.
I give this endorsement as a parent of four, with fifteen years of involvement in this district in a wide variety of ways, as both a Naperville and an Aurora resident and one of six finalists interviewed for last fall’s vacant school board seat. Others whom I know and respect have individually come to the decision to support these same candidates.
Please vote for Rasmus, Rising, Piehl, and DeSart on April 7.
2009-03-04 Local Elections
Are you paying attention? Do you know who you’re voting for on April 7?
When it comes to politics on the national level there is much more information and debate than any one person can keep up with.
On the other hand, those elected to local offices often have a great impact on our daily lives, yet information is harder to come by and it is less common for the public to get caught up in heated debate about the candidates and their vision for the offices they seek.
On April 7 many of us will have the chance to vote for mayor, alderman, school board and possibly other offices and issues as well. Do you even know which contested races you need to be prepared for? This is not like voting for president, when you have ample opportunity to see the candidates on TV and read all about them and discuss them with everyone you know for months on end.
It may take some effort on your part to be an educated and informed voter. For starters, if you live in DuPage County you can get a sample ballot from the DuPage County Election Commission website. There you can see which races will be on your ballot and which candidates are running. You can search for candidate websites and find out what voter guides may be available. You may be able to obtain some candidate questionnaires as well as information about when debates, forums, or meet and greets will be held as well as when some of these will be broadcast on local cable channels. Newspaper websites and candidate sites frequently provide this information.
Some candidates may be very familiar to you because they are currently or have previously held office or have been otherwise prominent in the community, so what you already know will give you a starting point for evaluating them against their opponents. Reading local newspaper articles and letters to the editor will help you become informed, but beware of potential bias.
Find out when and where you can meet the candidates in person. Meet and greets are a great opportunity to see a candidate face-to-face and perhaps get answers to whatever questions are most pressing to you.
Candidate forums in which all candidates are asked the same questions are, in my opinion, the best way to get a feel for the candidates. I have found that my perceptions of candidates can change greatly after hearing them in person.
The elections I’m most concerned about this time are for Mayor of Aurora and for Indian Prairie School Board. The three mayoral candidates have different experiences and visions for our city. I encourage all City of Aurora residents to attend or watch at least one mayoral forum, to read the questionnaires available on the Beacon website, and to check out the candidates’ websites.
Many local school districts are holding elections this spring. There are thirteen candidates running for four open school board seats in Indian Prairie School District. The board is comprised of seven people, so it’s quite possible that the new people on the board will outnumber the experienced members. Even if you don’t have children in school, what happens with the school district greatly affects the community, the value of your home, the kind of people who choose to live in your neighborhood, the taxes you pay. If you do have children in the schools now or will in the future, it’s all the more important to pay attention and get involved.
There are a few opportunities to meet and hear from all of the school board candidates as well as some smaller get-togethers set up by individual candidates and one slate of four. There are questionnaire answers available at scullen.ipsd.org and possibly other sites.
Considering how much of a difference the results of these elections have on our lives, a surprisingly low number of registered voters tend to show up at the polls for local elections. I have a hard time understanding this apathy.
Please take the time and effort to find out about the candidates and make an educated choice at the polls this April and for future local elections.
When it comes to politics on the national level there is much more information and debate than any one person can keep up with.
On the other hand, those elected to local offices often have a great impact on our daily lives, yet information is harder to come by and it is less common for the public to get caught up in heated debate about the candidates and their vision for the offices they seek.
On April 7 many of us will have the chance to vote for mayor, alderman, school board and possibly other offices and issues as well. Do you even know which contested races you need to be prepared for? This is not like voting for president, when you have ample opportunity to see the candidates on TV and read all about them and discuss them with everyone you know for months on end.
It may take some effort on your part to be an educated and informed voter. For starters, if you live in DuPage County you can get a sample ballot from the DuPage County Election Commission website. There you can see which races will be on your ballot and which candidates are running. You can search for candidate websites and find out what voter guides may be available. You may be able to obtain some candidate questionnaires as well as information about when debates, forums, or meet and greets will be held as well as when some of these will be broadcast on local cable channels. Newspaper websites and candidate sites frequently provide this information.
Some candidates may be very familiar to you because they are currently or have previously held office or have been otherwise prominent in the community, so what you already know will give you a starting point for evaluating them against their opponents. Reading local newspaper articles and letters to the editor will help you become informed, but beware of potential bias.
Find out when and where you can meet the candidates in person. Meet and greets are a great opportunity to see a candidate face-to-face and perhaps get answers to whatever questions are most pressing to you.
Candidate forums in which all candidates are asked the same questions are, in my opinion, the best way to get a feel for the candidates. I have found that my perceptions of candidates can change greatly after hearing them in person.
The elections I’m most concerned about this time are for Mayor of Aurora and for Indian Prairie School Board. The three mayoral candidates have different experiences and visions for our city. I encourage all City of Aurora residents to attend or watch at least one mayoral forum, to read the questionnaires available on the Beacon website, and to check out the candidates’ websites.
Many local school districts are holding elections this spring. There are thirteen candidates running for four open school board seats in Indian Prairie School District. The board is comprised of seven people, so it’s quite possible that the new people on the board will outnumber the experienced members. Even if you don’t have children in school, what happens with the school district greatly affects the community, the value of your home, the kind of people who choose to live in your neighborhood, the taxes you pay. If you do have children in the schools now or will in the future, it’s all the more important to pay attention and get involved.
There are a few opportunities to meet and hear from all of the school board candidates as well as some smaller get-togethers set up by individual candidates and one slate of four. There are questionnaire answers available at scullen.ipsd.org and possibly other sites.
Considering how much of a difference the results of these elections have on our lives, a surprisingly low number of registered voters tend to show up at the polls for local elections. I have a hard time understanding this apathy.
Please take the time and effort to find out about the candidates and make an educated choice at the polls this April and for future local elections.
2009-02-22 MVHS Music
It’s astounding how much work is involved with opening a new high school. Although I lived in District 204 when Neuqua Valley opened, my children were small then and destined for Waubonsie Valley so I paid little attention.
Metea Valley will open this fall and my son will be in the first class that attends the school all four years, so what's going on now is of great interest to me.
I’ve gotten information from numerous meetings including principal Jim Schmid’s monthly updates, monthly Indian Prairie Parents Council meetings and School Board meetings. At January’s meeting with Mr. Schmid parents had many questions about the Metea Valley music program. I think for many the strong academics are a given, and parents want to know that as we leave behind Grammy-winning WVHS our kids will still be offered exceptional musical opportunities.
We received this assurance on February 10 at a presentation given by the Metea music department. Parents and students were given a chance to meet the staff, ask questions and sign up to help with a myriad of tasks that the new department will need.
All of the Metea staff who have been introduced at public meetings have impressive credentials and the music department staff is no exception. The department chair, Mr. Don Devany, will be the band director and currently teaches at Neuqua. The orchestra director will be Waubonsie’s very talented Mr. Mark Liu. Mr. Nathan Bramstedt, currently teaching at Crone Middle School and Neuqua, will direct choir. All are highly qualified, having extensive education and experience and incredible excitement about the programs for their students at the new high school. They know that the quality of music education is a priority for many in the district and this is their passion.
Plans are in place for the music department’s offerings to grow as the school does over the next three years. Choir, band and orchestra will each begin next year with two or three curricular ensembles, growing to between five and six by the third year. Each will have audition and non-audition groups available. There will be a multitude of co- and extra-curricular opportunities for music students including Tri-M Honor Society, Solo & Ensemble Festival, a Steel Drum Ensemble, the Spring Musical, Metea Valley United Voices, and a Symphony Orchestra.
Yes, there will be marching band from the very start. Yes, there will be summer music programs this year for students heading to Metea next fall. And yes, there will be trips. There may be only one trip next year but it’s hoped that the Metea Valley Mustangs will enjoy trips similar to what the other high schools offer. Trip planning is one of those items on the long, long list that will have to wait until some other more pressing logistics have been taken care of.
Some are concerned that students won’t have the option next year of being in the “top” music ensemble as they would if they were attending Waubonsie. The music directors assured us that next year the audition groups will be the top group for each of them and the students will be treated accordingly.
Though the music wing of the high school will not yet be ready when the building opens in August, the forum rooms will be used in their place for a semester. These are large rooms with risers that will later have furniture in them, but will be left open now for use for chorus, band, and orchestra. The auditorium will also not yet be open for the first semester. Performances during that time period will be held at Waubonsie and Neuqua. There is also a chance that the Mustangs will get to perform at the beautiful new Wentz Hall at North Central College. When the new auditorium does open at Metea, there may be a large concert held there to celebrate.
I know there are many more interested music parents and students than those who were able to attend the music department meeting. The department is in need of lots of help as soon as they are allowed in the building. All equipment will be brand new. Help will be needed with unboxing, preparing, and setting up the music library, the instruments, music stands, the choir robes and band uniforms, and much more.
The band, orchestra, and choir parents’ groups will be getting some seed money and startup help from the corresponding organizations at Waubonsie and Neuqua. Help is needed specifically in the areas of Ways and Means, Concert Uniforms, Historical Records, Transportation and Logistics, Hospitality, Concerts, Publicity, and Website Development. Please contact Mr. Devany at don_devany@ipsd.org or 428-6669 with questions or to offer your assistance.
This is a very exciting time. It is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Mustang families to be in on the firsts at the new school and to help create lasting tradition.
Metea Valley will open this fall and my son will be in the first class that attends the school all four years, so what's going on now is of great interest to me.
I’ve gotten information from numerous meetings including principal Jim Schmid’s monthly updates, monthly Indian Prairie Parents Council meetings and School Board meetings. At January’s meeting with Mr. Schmid parents had many questions about the Metea Valley music program. I think for many the strong academics are a given, and parents want to know that as we leave behind Grammy-winning WVHS our kids will still be offered exceptional musical opportunities.
We received this assurance on February 10 at a presentation given by the Metea music department. Parents and students were given a chance to meet the staff, ask questions and sign up to help with a myriad of tasks that the new department will need.
All of the Metea staff who have been introduced at public meetings have impressive credentials and the music department staff is no exception. The department chair, Mr. Don Devany, will be the band director and currently teaches at Neuqua. The orchestra director will be Waubonsie’s very talented Mr. Mark Liu. Mr. Nathan Bramstedt, currently teaching at Crone Middle School and Neuqua, will direct choir. All are highly qualified, having extensive education and experience and incredible excitement about the programs for their students at the new high school. They know that the quality of music education is a priority for many in the district and this is their passion.
Plans are in place for the music department’s offerings to grow as the school does over the next three years. Choir, band and orchestra will each begin next year with two or three curricular ensembles, growing to between five and six by the third year. Each will have audition and non-audition groups available. There will be a multitude of co- and extra-curricular opportunities for music students including Tri-M Honor Society, Solo & Ensemble Festival, a Steel Drum Ensemble, the Spring Musical, Metea Valley United Voices, and a Symphony Orchestra.
Yes, there will be marching band from the very start. Yes, there will be summer music programs this year for students heading to Metea next fall. And yes, there will be trips. There may be only one trip next year but it’s hoped that the Metea Valley Mustangs will enjoy trips similar to what the other high schools offer. Trip planning is one of those items on the long, long list that will have to wait until some other more pressing logistics have been taken care of.
Some are concerned that students won’t have the option next year of being in the “top” music ensemble as they would if they were attending Waubonsie. The music directors assured us that next year the audition groups will be the top group for each of them and the students will be treated accordingly.
Though the music wing of the high school will not yet be ready when the building opens in August, the forum rooms will be used in their place for a semester. These are large rooms with risers that will later have furniture in them, but will be left open now for use for chorus, band, and orchestra. The auditorium will also not yet be open for the first semester. Performances during that time period will be held at Waubonsie and Neuqua. There is also a chance that the Mustangs will get to perform at the beautiful new Wentz Hall at North Central College. When the new auditorium does open at Metea, there may be a large concert held there to celebrate.
I know there are many more interested music parents and students than those who were able to attend the music department meeting. The department is in need of lots of help as soon as they are allowed in the building. All equipment will be brand new. Help will be needed with unboxing, preparing, and setting up the music library, the instruments, music stands, the choir robes and band uniforms, and much more.
The band, orchestra, and choir parents’ groups will be getting some seed money and startup help from the corresponding organizations at Waubonsie and Neuqua. Help is needed specifically in the areas of Ways and Means, Concert Uniforms, Historical Records, Transportation and Logistics, Hospitality, Concerts, Publicity, and Website Development. Please contact Mr. Devany at don_devany@ipsd.org or 428-6669 with questions or to offer your assistance.
This is a very exciting time. It is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Mustang families to be in on the firsts at the new school and to help create lasting tradition.
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