Monday Morning Memo: Welcome to the Monday Morning Memo!

Welcome to the first D114 Monday Morning Memo! The goals of this weekly blog are to connect us all, share key information, communicate consistently, and CELEBRATE the amazing things happening in our schools! You can expect a link to the weekly update to be in your email each Monday morning, so please get in the habit of reading it! Your feedback is welcome, so please share your ideas!

And with that...here we gooooo!

To EVERYONE for making me feel so welcome--I'm loving it in D114!

To everyone working to support and lead our ESY program! It's been going great, thanks to each of you!

To staff who volunteered their time in any way to support each other, our families, and the community with flood recovery!

To the Business Office team for putting in so many long hours--including all day SATURDAY--to help us solve problems, create processes, and support the staff! You are APPRECIATED!

To all the staff who participated in Math curriculum writing on Thursday and Friday---what amazing learning!

To Andrea and Georgette for the fabulous Food Service audit. It didn't start out pretty, but with your hard work, we got where we needed to go...and were praised by our state auditor!!! WOW!

To Melissa Williams for all your hard work, time, and dedication. Your input and support are truly appreciated.

To the EAFL leadership team for meeting with me to help me better understand D114. I'm excited to partner with you!

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

In an effort to help everyone know who does what, we've created this WHO DO I GO TO document. You'll see each Business Office staff member listed, with a thorough listing of the tasks for which they are responsible. It's our hope that this clarifies who does what and to whom you should reach out with questions or for support. Please make all requests via email so that we have documentation and can follow up efficiently. Please also copy me as/when you are comfortable so I can monitor our work.

PAYROLL UPDATE

Please note that, in the August 1 pay, dues/fees that should have been "on" for July 15 but were not will be adjusted. You can trust that we are working to streamline this so that errors in payroll do not happen. Thanks to Annie Mulvaney, who used to work in our business office, Sandy Popp now has a learning partner and coach to help her even more effectively set up payroll moving forward.

INSURANCE UPDATE

After lots of research and analysis on how to provide our staff with the best quality and most cost effective insurance coverage, we wanted to let you know ASAP that we will be making the following changes for 2017-18:

Medical insurance will be offered through Blue Cross Blue Shield

Dental insurance will be provided through Guardian

We'll have lots more information to share regarding pricing and details, but wanted you to know the carrier change immediately. We are still investigating wellness options, and will share that information with you as more decisions are made.

ANNUITIES UPDATE

In an effort to solve annuity issues, we are meeting on Wednesday with Horace Mann to determine how to both resolve outstanding issues as well as put into place processes to eliminate issues. I'll share updates from this next week. We'll also conduct similar conversations with our other vendors in the near future, as we all want these issues resolved.

What amazing Math work! The majority of our teachers of Math came in on Thursday and Friday to learn and work together to make our Math instruction even more powerful, specifically through work on standards "unwrapping", pacing guides, and learning target "deep dives". We had great conversations about vertical alignment, and have identified key next steps. Here are a few pictures of our hard work!

More to come on this work, and the same kind of work across content areas and grade levels! See below for a GREAT READ about the "what" and "why" of unpacking standards...

FACILITIES UPDATES

Our facilities team is working very, very hard to make sure the schools are ready to open for August! I'm so grateful that Don Ukleja and I will be meeting weekly to stay connected on all things buildings and ground related!

Two quick updates:

We'd ask that staff use this link to request work to be completed moving forward. This will help us stay organized and efficient!

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.

On July 26, we'll be working through some upgrades/maintenance that will make internet/server access spotty. Just want everyone to be aware and plan accordingly.

To submit a Technology Support request, please use this link.

Education Association of Fox Lake News and Updates

The EAFL Board was excited to be invited to meet with Heather on Wednesday of last week. In our meeting we had the opportunity to share some things we are proud of as a district, as well as discuss ideas as to how we can be even better moving forward. We are thrilled to be apart of a collaborative process to help make District 114 the best it can be for students, staff, and the community!

Thank you to our insurance committee members (Chris Brown, Lisa Huck, Tegan Maybrun, Tiffany Tardio, Shar Wade, and Melissa Williams) for taking time out this summer to meet with Heather, business office staff, and The Horton Group to hear our insurance options and make important decisions for our staff as a whole. Your time and input is greatly appreciated!

Thank you Don Ukleja for your service to the EAFL as treasurer during the 2017-2018 school year. We hope everyone will join us in thanking Katy Gardner, Stanton School math teacher, for stepping into this role for the upcoming school year!

Melissa Williams, President

Maureen DeVoss, Vice President for Certified Staff

Chris Brown, Vice President for Non-Certified Staff

Betty Cwiak, Secretary

Barb Brown, Region Representative

Matt Shannon, Stanton School Representative

Gayle Mondie, Lotus School Representative

More to come, but here's a start...

Business Office "Who Do I Go To"

Work Order Request

Technology Support Request

Unpacking Standards Leads to Confidence, Not Chaos, for Teachers and Students

By Maria Nielsen

July 19, 2016

Questions to ponder while you read:

What do we already do well?

What can we do even better?

How can this work impact the way we allocate team time on Wednesdays?

With all of the published materials and frameworks available, teachers often ask why they should invest their time in unpacking standards. Consider the following:

Teachers who do the work to unpack standards are the ones who understand them. It is through collaborative conversations that we come to collective clarity on what we want our students to know and be able to do. When teachers unpack standards in isolation they are likely to interpret the intent and rigor differently resulting in an educational lottery for students rather than a guaranteed and viable curriculum.

Understanding all of the standards helps teachers wisely choose the essential or power standards. These are the standards guaranteed to all students at grade level. Identification of the depth of knowledge required of the standards leads to more thoughtful lesson design.

Laser-like focus on the standards and team-created common formative assessments go hand-in-hand. When standards and assessments align it is easier to catch students quickly when they don’t understand and to provide extension when they do understand. The unpacking process keeps the focus on ALL students learning at high levels.