EARLY EDITION
BACK TO SCHOOL 2024-2025
AUGUST 18, 2024
SUPERINTENDENT'S GREETING
Our schools might be quiet during summer break, but staff are busy every day with projects, deliveries, setups, learning, and planning for a new school year.
Please join me in a special “thank you” to the Buildings & Grounds team for their exceptional work during summer break. Indoor and outdoor spaces have been deep cleaned and refreshed, mechanical systems repaired or replaced, and new flowers are blooming on school and district grounds.
We are excited to welcome back our students, staff, and families to a new school year! Read on for some highlights from “Skokie73.5 Days of Summer 2024.”
Dr. Zipporah Hightower
WHILE YOU WERE OUT...
Buildings & Grounds Director Ed Kerrigan and Assistant Director Rosa Raya met with staff at the end of last school year to gather building “wish lists” of work to be done over summer break. Based on that feedback, the B&G Team painted or refreshed details on 57 classrooms, the cafeterias, restroom vestibules, handrails, and sections of hallways; McCracken’s fitness room, girls locker room, and performance stage; and areas in the District Office. The Team also completed several installations, renovations, and repairs:
- New rooftop unit over the McCracken main office to improve heating, cooling, and air circulation
- New basketball frame and basket on the west side of McCracken’s gym
- Fresh landscaping at Middleton's main and MPR entrances
- New and improved McCracken Student Garden
- In-depth cleaning of all classrooms, restrooms, offices, HVAC equipment, and air ducts in each school’s gymnasiums
Teachers engaged in a total of 54 staff-created and staff-led summer workshops focused on subjects ranging from foundational literacy, to building thinking classrooms in mathematics, to robotics and STEM learning.
Our Student Services and Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment teams hosted additional professional development and training last week. Teachers gathered with Angela DeMay, Kevin Poduska, Lyla Nissan, and our newest Student Services mate, Dr. Perry Finch, for New Educator and Leadership Academies and specialized training to support our multilingual students and those with diverse learning needs.
The Technology Staff worked all summer to refresh our systems, services, and devices for a new school year. This year’s “summer refresh” went smoother than ever with help from a team of high school student workers. Under the leadership of Technology Support Manager Ninos Khnanisho, the teens assisted with technology projects and gained work experience along the way.
In partnership with Niles Township, Skokie73.5 distributed 300 school supply kits to students in need who will attend Meyer, Middleton, or McCracken this year.
WHO'S NEW...
Over the summer we welcomed three new administrators:
- Kristine Paulson begins the new year as Middleton’s Principal
- Elizabeth Parker starts as Middleton’s new Assistant Principal
- Dr. Perry Finch joins the district as our new Special Education and MTSS Coordinator
More than 20 new teachers, paraprofessionals, and support staff were hired between the end of last school year and beginning of this new year. Watch your inbox for their introductions in school welcome packets and the August 23rd edition of The Weekly newsletter.
We are excited to welcome more than 50 new families to the district. All three schools hosted meetup events earlier this month to introduce parents and students to our schools, staff, and each other.
WHAT'S NEW...
Our new Attendance Monitor system allows parents to report student absences online from the convenience of a computer, tablet, or mobile phone.
The Student/Family Handbook is now available in a fully online format with options for language translation. A print copy of the Handbook will also be distributed to each family early in the school year and will include an embedded QR code to quickly guide users to the online version.
WHAT'S NEXT...
Check our District Calendar to keep up with school and district events and our Food Service Calendar to see what’s on the menu for lunch and breakfast.
Watch our website and your inbox for The Weekly newsletter. Each issue includes news and information from our district, schools, PTO, and around town. The Weekly is published on Friday at 5:00 p.m. when school is in session.
Sign up and opt in to receive text messages from the district on your mobile device. We use text messages to notify parents, guardians, and Skokie73.5 staff about special announcements, website news, and in the event of a school closure or emergency.
Follow Skokie735 and our schools on Facebook!
We look forward to greeting our K-8 students this week and Preschool students on August 26th!
BREAKFAST: Bagel & Cream Cheese, Fresh Fruit, Milk
BREAKFAST: Pancakes OR Cereal Bowl, Fresh Fruit, Milk
BREAKFAST: Egg & Cheese Sandwich OR Whole Grain Muffin, Fresh Fruit, Milk
BREAKFAST: Waffles OR Bagel & Cream Cheese, Fresh Fruit, Milk
BREAKFAST: Turkey Sausage Biscuit OR Breakfast Bar, Fresh Fruit, Milk
District Priorities
WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT. We will welcome and engage staff, students, families and community members in our schools.
HIRING & RETENTION. We will recruit, hire, and retain a diverse workforce and improve our human resource processes, procedures, and materials.
INFRASTRUCTURE & FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY. All financial decisions and investments will meet the needs of our diverse learners and staff and promote academic and social growth. We will provide a safe, inclusive, flexible, and innovative space for teaching, learning, and growing.
TEACHING & LEARNING. All students will engage in learning experiences that are cohesive and articulated across PreK-8, flexibly designed to engage all learners and leading to rigorous outcomes for all. We will be a future-focused, real-world learning environment that is responsive, accessible, and meaningful for all. We will become a model district on the use of data for making instructional, curriculum, and programmatic decisions.
Equity Mission Statement
WE BELIEVE that inclusivity and belonging is the foundation for equity.
ALL CHILDREN CAN LEARN, at high achievement levels, when equity is infused into every aspect of education.
WE ACKNOWLEDGE the systemic inequities present in school systems and recognize the impact they continue to have on marginalized communities.
WE COMMIT to teaching, learning, and growing in order to identify and dismantle inequitable systems and to create a community where barriers are removed so that everyone can reach their full potential.
WE BELIEVE that students succeed when they can see themselves represented in our staff, curriculum, opportunities, and our shared environment. We accomplish this through professional development, curriculum revision, community engagement, and systems evaluations.
WE RECOGNIZE the need to teach our students to identify the origins of unjust systems and empower them to use their critical thinking skills and agency to responsibly disrupt the policies and practices that perpetuate inequalities.
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