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@D114Stanton
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Two more weeks 'til WINTER BREAK!
High five to Don Ukleja for an excellent job salting the Lotus parking lot. I appreciate feeling safe walking in on an icy morning!
-From Maureen Koenig
A huge thank you goes out to Cari Miller for sitting with one of my students and cheering him on during his MAP test. Your encouragement and support are greatly appreciated!!
-From Natalie Miller
Thank you to Christina Martorano and Cari Miller for always going the extra mile to ensure encouragement and positive experiences daily for so many of our students.
-From Natalie Udstuen
Kudos to Becky and Billy Laverdure and Don Ukleja for helping me make sure we're all set for winter weather! So glad to partner with you...and I won't be asking for my driveway to be plowed! ;)
Thank you to the ELA, Science, and Social Studies teachers at Stanton for letting me join you during Wednesday's team time. It was awesome and I really appreciate your hard work. Can't wait to keep going to identify our 5-8 "fence posts"!
-From Heather
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
Stipend Payments
Thanks so, so much for all the great questions and feedback on the stipend memo and forms sent out earlier this week! I truly appreciate your collaboration!
Please find, attached, added to the link list below, a revised and improved version based on your input. I'll also send attached as a separate email, subject line "Stipends", so you can save it and find it easily.
Tax Deduction Changes
As with everything, I learn every day about things that have been done in the past. While trying to honor many of those things, there are some that just have to change.
One relates to changing income tax deductions. This specifically came to light on stipend payment request forms on which staff asked that no taxes be withheld. It seems this was a very informal process in the past...
The issue with this is that any tax processes are governed by the IRS. To adjust wages related to withholdings, a new W4 form MUST be completed and the setting formally changed in your Skyward profile. There's no if's, and's, or but's around this.
If you have questions, please see/email/call Becky Allard or me. THANKS!
Contract Verification Letters
Thanks to the expert eyes of Becky Allard, our Interim CSBO, and partnership with Maureen Koenig, I'm happy to report that contract verification letters will go out by mid-day Tuesday for all certified staff. Support staff will follow ASAP.
The reasons for the delay on this come down to:
*Inaccurate roll over of staff within Skyward prior to July 1.
*Our commitment to review all details of every staff member's salary and benefits for accuracy.
I can assure you that this delay will not happen in the future, and I sincerely apologize for it taking place this year. My intent moving forward is that each staff member will have contract verification letter ready for their review on or before the first day of staff attendance for the 2018-19 school year.
Infinitec Webinars
I got a GREAT question this week regarding Infinitec trainings (information posted last week). Yes, you can earn CPDUs for participation. At the end of a training, there will almost be a quiz to complete. Upon completion of this, a CPDU certificate should then become available for viewing. YAY! If you have questions about Infinitec or issues with log in, please contact Brandt Rosen at brosen@elced.org or (224)513-6455.
Standards Unwrapping Follow Ups
As promised, I'm happy to share the slides we used last week at both buildings' agenda meetings. They're attached to the blog email for you to use as you'd like. You'll also find the slides used at Stanton during Wednesday's team time, where we worked on prioritization of the CCSS literacy targets across grades 5-8. This work will continue this Wednesday!!!
FACILITIES UPDATES
As promised, we're ready with emergency closing procedures...and I'm really hoping we DON'T have to use them!
Check the D114 website page to see the info, which was also communicated to all families via the Friday Facts.
Finally, as a staff member, we're going to make sure you get one email and one phone call with any and all emergency information. It's my hope that this will get you the information you need while not bugging you! :)
Keep watching here for updates!
Education Association of Fox Lake News and Updates
Thank you to Matt Shannon and Tiffany Tardio for coordinating the election for representatives to the IEA Regional Assembly on December 1st. The ballots were tallied at last Monday's Region 49 Council Meeting; Sharon Rada and Stephanie Kaye from Gavin will represent our cluster. Also, a HUGE thank you to Barb Brown for bringing the ballots to the meeting, and more importantly for representing us at the Regional Assembly for many years, your service is appreciated!
Region Representative Apprentice Needed! We are still looking for a person interested in possibly filling Barb Brown's role as our region representative when her terms is up and she retires this spring. The Region Representative is responsible for attending monthly region meetings (typically in Libertyville), sharing any information from our local, and bringing information from the region back to our local. Additionally this person would serve as an EAFL executive board member. It would be great if an interested person could attend the next few meetings with Barb to ease into the position. If you might be interested, or just would like to attend a meeting or two to see what it's all about, please get in touch with Barb Brown or Melissa Williams for more information.
We have been in touch with IEA membership services and believe we have all outstanding membership card issues resolved. Missing cards should be here in the next week and we will pass them along to you as soon as they arrive.
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
Tiffany Tardio, Lotus School Representative
17-18 Payroll Schedule--UPDATED 10/22/17
Blue Cross Blue Shield:
Guardian:
This is just too good not to post...short and sweet, but makes you think!
Questions for thought as you read...
How do we view things as a school district?
How does this connect to how you think about students and learning?
Moving From Obstacle to Advantage
By George Couros on Dec 10, 2017 05:35 am
In the same week, I heard the following obstacles shared by two different organizations that were significantly different in the number of students they served:
School District 1 – We are so small that we don’t have the resources that we need to do the things that we want.
School District 2 – We are so large that there are so many obstacles to get things done across our district.
So the thinking is that if the first organization had the size of the second one, they would be successful, and vice versa.
So let’s switch the thinking around.
School District 1 – We are so small that we can move very quickly to change our culture.
School District 2 – We are so large that we have access to so many resources that we can take advantage of to move our district forward.
You can wish you had something else, or you can take advantage of where you are.
This is not about moving from a pessimist to an optimist, but finding strengths where you may have seen weakness.
Instead of thinking about whether you are a “glass-half-full” or “glass-half-empty” person, why not ask, “what’s in the glass?” Figure that out, work from there, and use it to your advantage.
Source: https://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/7918
December 19--Board of Education Meeting (approve levy, review audit)--7:00 PM at Lotus
December 20--Collaborative Team Time Celebrations during Early Release Time
Strategic Planning Committee
Dates:
January 23, 30
February 6, 13
Likely times 6:30PM-8:30PM
So thankful for my amazing family...here's the Friziellie family Christmas card for 2017!
So thankful to work with YOU, too!
Heather
