Dear District 39 Community,

Here are some D39 updates: 

School Calendar

The draft 2017-18 School Calendar was presented at the December 12th Board of Education meeting. At that meeting, the Board asked us to consider starting school after Labor Day. The later start of school would have our calendar more closely aligned with New Trier High School. We are exploring ways to have the first day of school be Tuesday, September 5th. The Board will have the opportunity to approve this option when it is presented at the January 23rd Board of Education meeting.

 

Building a Climate of Empathy Forum

On December 6th, District 39 hosted a panel discussion on building a climate of empathy. We had a good turnout of about 80 parents, and our panelists provided much meaningful and thought provoking information. I was very pleased to see an open and honest Q & A. Diversity and inclusiveness will be an ongoing focus in D39, and you will hear more about this in the months to come.

 

Assessments

We continually strive to use assessments that best support student growth. Due to limitations of Performance Series, and the inability of PARCC to provide timely results, the District is considering adopting MAP (Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measures of Academic Progress) to replace Performance Series. MAP is another computer adaptive assessment system that is widely used locally and nationally. Four New Trier sender districts use MAP and another is considering a change, like us.  With MAP, D39 would be better able to construct a local model for student growth comparisons. We will carefully explore this potential change and will keep parents informed. The report at the December 12th Board meeting provides more detail and another report will come in January.

In closing, I hope all of you have a wonderful winter break with time to enjoy your family. And, I wish all of you a happy and healthy new year. We’ll see you in 2017!


Happy Holidays...from your partner in education,

Ray
Dr. Ray Lechner
Superintendent
Wilmette Public Schools District 39