Thanks for all your positive feedback on the Monday Morning Memo! Remember, your suggestions are always welcome! ❤
To the administrative team for joining me at the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) Institute to start the week at Stevenson High School! I'm looking forward to learning with you and building our capacity to help lead D114 to even greater heights!
To everyone covering ESY so that we can attend the PLC Institute! 😁
To everyone covering ESY so that we can attend the PLC Institute! 😁
Thanks to Michele Burgess for painstakingly entering all PE lock serial numbers and combinations into the Skyward management system! Utilizing this resource will allow us to keep better track of our locks and more efficiently help kids when the forget their locker combinations.
-From Melissa Williams
Thanks to Matt Shannon, Rachelle Peters, and Jill Becmer for making the State Athlete Banners a reality... they are looking great, can't wait to see them hung up in the gym!
-From Melissa Williams
The Kinder team volunteered at Feed My Starving Children this evening.. Here are some pics!
It was an awesome experience, and we all agreed it would AMAZING to do as a whole district event in the future!!
-From Tiffany Tardio
When you have a kudo to share for someone, please just email me and I'll include it here! The goal is to create system celebrations--so your input is truly welcome!
News from the Business Office
PAYROLL UPDATE
I'm looking forward to a smooth payroll run for August 1! If, for some reason, there are any issues whatsoever, please contact Sandy Popp and me. We'll get it fixed and are committed to making sure payroll is accurate for everyone!
INSURANCE UPDATE
As shared last week, for 2017-18:
Medical insurance will be offered through Blue Cross Blue Shield
Dental insurance will be provided through Guardian
We are working on a "one pager" to set you up for informed decision making. While many of the details are hammered out, we found some errors in the initial memo from Horton. I'll share the updated and accurate version next Monday.
More information will be shared as it's available. The Horton Group will also be present on August 14 for a full presentation to make sure everyone has the information they need. If I can help along the way, please reach out.
ANNUITIES UPDATE
We had a fabulous meeting with the Horace Mann team on Wednesday. We talked at length to make sure we are all clear on how accounts needs to be set and how billing will work so that no further issues arise.
In a follow up email from Horace Mann, the following information was shared regarding issues with accounts from 2016-17:
To my knowledge the errors transpired when two bills were created early then the “regular” bills generated and was paid again (December 2016). This required us to reverse two payments that should not have been sent to Horace Mann. In order to fix the contracts so there is no loss of value each transaction that has generated on the clients contracts had to be reversed back to the date the money was sent in error. Once the money is revered off the contracts then we can come forward with the transactions that were reversed. Unfortunately, this is taking some extra time due to the amount of transactions and the complexity of reversing them. I hope these will be completed within the next 10 business days.
After the corrections are done, we will communicate with the clients by sending letters to them. Also, they will see all the corrections on the next quarterly statement. I will let them know there will be no loss of value from the corrections that we made. Now, there could still be a loss due to the stock market but not what we corrected. I will keep you and Dave in the loop and cc: him on any communication sent to the clients.
Again, if I can help at any point in this, please don't hesitate to reach out.
At the end of the Math curriculum writing, we asked all participants to leave an exit slip with their input on next steps for us to take. Click here to see the anonymous input. Please know that curriculum planning and pacing, as well as building greater connectivity between general and special education, are key areas of focus for our work in 2017-18. You can expect to see these priorities driving agenda meetings as well as Wednesday early release collaborative team time.
FACILITIES UPDATES
Just a reminder..
Seal coating of the parking lots will be completed as follows:
Stanton--starting at 8:00 a.m. on Friday, August 4.
Lotus--starting at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, August 4.
Both parking lots will be seal coated and striped between Friday and Sunday, with our staff able to drive on both lots by 6:00 a.m. on Monday, August 7.
Keep watching here for technology updates and news you can use!
Education Association of Fox Lake News and Updates
Melissa and Katy will be attending a financial procedures and member processing training on Thursday of this week. We are looking forward learning about these areas of our organization so we can continue to help out association run smoothly and efficiently.
If you have had any changes to your personal contact information recently, including home address, phone number, or email address, please take a minute to visit www.ieanea.org to update this information using the "Members Only Login" link at the top of the page.
Melissa Williams, President
Maureen DeVoss, Vice President for Certified Staff
Chris Brown, Vice President for Non-Certified Staff
Katy Gardner, Treasurer
Betty Cwiak, Secretary
Barb Brown, Region Representative
Matt Shannon, Stanton School Representative
Gayle Mondie, Lotus School Representative
True Grit
This is an excerpt from the "Marshall Memo", one of my go-to resources. Enjoy this summary of key info, and follow the link at the bottom if you'd like to see the full piece!
Questions to ponder while you read:
What does RESILIENCE mean to you?
About what cause do you show resilience?
How do we help our students build resilience?
In this New York Times column, David Brooks says there’s a narrative among middle-
aged Americans that once upon a time, kids were toughened up by doing hard manual chores at home and surviving fights on the playground – whereas today, helicopter parents protect their children from adversity and kids don’t learn to handle conflicts or deal with pain. Some of this is true, says Brooks, “but let’s not be too nostalgic for the past. A lot of what we take to be toughness of the past was really just callousness. There was a greater tendency in years gone by to wall off emotions, to put on a thick skin – for some men to be stone-like and uncommunicative and for some women to be brittle, brassy, and untouchable. And then many people turned to alcohol to help them feel anything at all.”
A more helpful way to think of toughness is resilience, says Brooks. “The people we
admire for being resilient are not hard; they are ardent. They have a fervent commitment to some cause, some ideal, or some relationship. That higher yearning enables them to withstand setbacks, pain, and betrayal. Such people are, as they say in the martial arts world, strong like water… In this way of thinking, grit, resilience, and toughness are not traits that people possess intrinsically. They are not tools you can possess independently for the sake of themselves. They are means inspired by an end.”
John Lewis was tough in the name of civil rights. Mother
Teresa was steadfast in the name of God. Ordinary people can be gritty when protecting their loved ones or pursuing a dream.
If people today are less tough or resilient, Brooks concludes, it may be because they
lack purpose. “If you really want people to be tough,” he says, “make them idealistic for some cause, make them tender for some other person, make them committed to some worldview that puts today’s temporary pain in the context of a larger hope… People are really tough only after they have taken a leap of faith for some truth or mission or love. Once they’ve done that, they can withstand a lot. We live in an age when it’s considered sophisticated to be disenchanted. But people who are enchanted are the real tough cookies.”
“Making Modern Toughness” by David Brooks in The New York Times, August 30, 2016,
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/30/opinion/making-modern- toughness.html
August 8--New Staff Orientation
August 14 and 15--Welcome Back Institute Days--agendas and welcome back letters to be mailed at the end of this week!
August 16--FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS!!!!
Curriculum Night dates coming soon!!!
September 23--TRIVIA NIGHT! Let's show our D114 pride! I'd love to have a couple of D114 tables...can you join???
Congrats to Donielle Williams and her hubby!
They welcomed Colton Jeremiah Williams July 29th at 12:27 pm. He weighed in at 4 pounds 6 ounces and is 17 inches long.
Donielle says:
He was in a hurry to meet everyone and came early at 32 weeks and 3 days. He's a strong little guy, already breathing on his own. We are so lucky he came safely into this world.
ISN'T HE ADORABLE!!!!???!!!
Congrats, Donielle!
Have a wonderful week!
Heather 😎
