Monday Morning Memo: February 2023

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Monday Morning Memo 2/27/23

Thank you for joining for Friday's gathering with Devin Hughes. I hope you left with your bucket refilled a little and a commitment to make moments matter!

Each week, I'll share a video or two of the team chants from Friday for us all to enjoy. I'm so proud to work with you and grateful for all the moments that YOU make matter!

CLICK HERE to see a fabulous team sharing their chart!

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Click here to see what Devin's weekly "feel good" email looks like.

If you'd like to subscribe, just click here to get to his website.

For all those who do Medicaid billing, this is your reminder to do it! We need you to please stay on top of this!!! THANK YOU!!!! 😁

If you have no idea what this means...you don't have to do it! YAY!!!!

I want to shout out to Michael Szotek for going above and beyond to make sure our students had QR code log in’s before the bad weather!

From Chris Brown (Paraprofessional at Lotus

Kudos to Cassie Curtis for engaging her students in a Quiz, Quiz, Trade strategy while dividing integers. I got to participate....the kids and Cassie were awesome!!!!!!!!!!

and

Coach Bressett and Coach Medrano for holding extra practices for the girls before school!! The girls have really improved!!!

-From Jeff Sefcik (Principal at Stanton)

Kudos to Kelly Capp for the delicious KING CAKE on Fat Tuesday!

-From Michele Burgess (Administrative Assistant at Stanton)

A HUGE shout out to Jillian Rejczyk, the Stanton ILP-A teacher. Jillian has experienced some behavior issues in her classroom lately, but manages them with patience and grace. Her firmness in class expectations is appreciated by everyone in her class and the way she handles each situation shows a great amount of maturity. Stanton is very lucky to have this "go getter" on our team! Thank you Jillian for showing me how to accept our student's strengths as well as their struggles.

-From Betty Cwiak (Library Paraprofessional at Stanton)

Huge thank yous to:

Everyone for your positive vibes for Shaun's surgery!

Everyone for all your flexibility and "can do" attitudes with the weather "what ifs" last week.

Jeff, Don, Mike, Mary, Norm, and David for handling the Wednesday power outage at Stanton.

Don for coming in SUPER early on Wednesday to make sure we were good to open!

-From Heather 😘

Please send me your kudos for colleagues each week! I'll happily post them in this section!

Here's a link to all the ideas gathered for the HOW and WHY of the Friz 5...I'll keep adding as great ideas come forward.

Board Meeting Follow Ups

I got some really good questions after the meeting, and wanted to make sure the information was shared with everyone:

*The additional Special Education Coordinator will be partially funded by a grant from ISBE targeting us improving our retention rate for special education staff. The core team working on this grant also very much supported the idea.

*Funding for Panorama (which will replace SAEBRS next year but costs appx $9000 more) will come from federal grants as well as the funds that have been spend on SAEBRS...and we'll get WAY more for the money.

*The staffing plan is NOT finished. There are additional changes coming, and the paraprofessional staffing plan has not been started at all.

*We will post the additional Permanent Sub positions immediately in hopes that we can fill them in the near future.

*While you may not agree with the class size numbers, please keep in mind that, even at the projected numbers, we are FAR below other local districts. Additionally, as we head into bargaining next year, it would not make sense to have classes under 15 students.

Please let me know if you have additional questions. I'm happy to answer them. Just send me an email or let's set a time to meet.

SNEAK PEEK--SUMMER SCHOOL 2023!

Summer School 2023 is right around the corner! Here's what we know so far:

6 weeks

Monday-Thursday, mornings only

Both sites

Weeks in session

6/12

6/19 (Monday off for Juneteenth)

6/26

Off the week of July 3

7/10

7/17

7/24

Pay rates comparable to last year, which were:

Certified staff--$52/hour (this pay rate uses the end of our ESSR funds, and the rate is higher than other elementary districts in our area)

Support staff--hourly rate + $75 weekly bonus for each week with perfect attendance

Please email me if you are interested in working summer school this year!

February Wellness Calendar

Wishing you all a happy February!

Wellness Calendar

Lake County Educator of the Year Event!!!

Please see information on this year's event! I'd love to see some great D114 representation to share our awesomeness!!!!

PLEASE CONSIDER COMPLETING A NOMINATION, AND LET ME KNOW HOW I CAN HELP!

The Lake County Regional Office of Education will be hosting the second annual Educator of the Year Ceremony. The Ceremony will be held at the Lake County Fairgrounds on May 10th, at 5:30 pm. There will be a social hour with dinner. The awards ceremony will take place after the dinner. Ticket information will be provided at a later date.

The Educator of the Year Ceremony will resemble a mini Oscars like celebration. I have included all of the information in this email. The information can also be found on the ROE shared drive under the Educator of the Year folder and on the ROE website under the tab Educator of the Year. We will be honoring paraprofessionals this year as our special guest. The ROE will pay for 1 paraprofessional's dinner from each school district. The district can bring other paraprofessionals if they would like to be honored.

There will be 9 categories for nominations. Districts can submit as many nominations for the categories, but all the paperwork must be included for each nomination to be considered. Paper or electronic nomination packets are due to the ROE by Friday, March 17, 2023.

Here is a link if you would like to submit the nomination packet electronically. 2023 Lake County Educator of the Year

This folder contains all the information needed for the 2023 Lake County Educator of the Year.

2022-2023 Information

If you have any questions please let me know. This will be a great event to recognize our amazing educators.

Have a great day,

Mike

Michael Karner, Ed.D.

Thanks to everyone for your feedback! Erica and Stephanie are sending out Lotus- and Stanton-specific supports, but I'll also post the link to a folder containing them all here so they are easy to find, everyone can see everything, and you're reminded to check them out!

INFO COMING SOON!

Monday, March 6--SCHOOL IN SESSION

Tuesday, March 21--Board of Education meeting at Lotus

2022-23 Fencepost Standards all grades, all content areas!

22-23 Second Step Pacing Guide

PBIS World--This site is awesome for identifying strategies to use to support challenging behaviors!

2022-23 Early Release/Professional Development Planning Calendar

2022-23 Assessment Calendar

2022-23 D114 Calendar

2022-23 Parent/Student Handbook

Shared folder of resources

Link to D114 Business Office Share Folder

*check here for documents most frequently used/requested

Please let Heather know of suggestions for any documents to add to this

folder!

D114 Family Update

Work Order Request

Technology Support Request

Love, love, love this...

Let's all seek to find moments that matter every day!

-Heather 💝

Sunday, February 19, 2023

Monday Morning Memo 2/20/23

Thank you for joining for Friday's gathering with Devin Hughes. I hope you left with your bucket refilled a little and a commitment to make moments matter!

Each week, I'll share a video or two of the team chants from Friday for us all to enjoy. I'm so proud to work with you and grateful for all the moments that YOU make matter!

CLICK HERE to see a fabulous team sharing their chart!

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Click here to see what Devin's weekly "feel good" email looks like.

If you'd like to subscribe, just click here to get to his website.

For all those who do Medicaid billing, this is your reminder to do it! We need you to please stay on top of this!!! THANK YOU!!!! 😁

If you have no idea what this means...you don't have to do it! YAY!!!!

Thank you to all the Administration for a fun Institute Day! The speaker was wonderful and the yoga with Roni was relaxing. Having time with our teams was appreciated, too.

and

Thanks to the Kitchen staff for another delicious breakfast and lunch. I look forward to the meals that you prepare for the staff.

and

Thank you to Erica Barraza, Amanda Lorenz, Matt Peters, Natalie Udstuen, Joan Kantenwein, Ellen Stirrat, Joe Fernandez, Kim Leable and Abbey Kadera for joining all the grade level teams for Speed "Data"ing on reading.

and

Thanks to Kim VanHoorelbeke and Victoria Miller and the PBIS committee for all of the time you've put into the Teacher Rewards program. Your effort is appreciated!

Mary Santi (2nd and 3rd grade Case Manager)

Thank you to everyone who our class depends on to support us throughout the day when things get exciting! The office staff (Sue, Paula, Sharon) and admin (Matt, Natalie, Lynn) and behavior support (Molly, Nicole, Ellie) and support from the specials teachers (Victoria, Kim, Gayle, Erin, Amber, and especially Lisa) and the special education specialists we rely on for options (Sherry, Cathy, Kimberly, Alana, Fiona, Stephanie, Lisa) and the reg ed teachers our kiddos push into (Nicole, Cary) have all been available on a moments notice to help!

I personally am grateful to all of my friends and co-workers who help me to debrief (listen to me) and encourage me before, during and after said excitement!

And I am grateful to Ryan and Kelly for being on this ride with me! You both help me to celebrate the little wins!

And the kitchen staff (Sonia, Yesenia, Eddie etc.) who go out of their way to make our littles happy and NOT HUNGRY! Which is not an easy task for growing boys!

And the bus drivers and aides who keep a special eye on our kiddos!

And Tim who makes everything right before the next day!

What a blessing to work in a place that brings joy through hard work to our students!

-From Chris Brown (Paraprofessional at Lotus)

Kudos to Kim Husko, who makes the best pancakes and brightened our dreary weather Wednesday!

-From Michele Burgess (Administrative Assistant at Stanton)

Veronica Kretz for going the extra mile and submitting 3 of her students' final projects to ARC for publication. Each student received Honorable Mention certificates for their hard work!

and

The 8th grade team for stepping up to take care of the classroom/office recycling this week!!

and

Our kitchen staff - Sue, Yvette, Karen and Georgette for a wonderful breakfast on Friday!

and

Jillian Rejczyk for her work with some of our most complex little people!

-From Jeff Sefcik (Principal at Stanton)

Thank you to the Super Food Service Teams for an amazing Teacher's lunch!

You girls ROCK!

and

Thank you Al for moving tables in and out and helping as needed!

and

Thank you Russ for helping with everything we need!

-From Georgette Franco (Food Services Coordinator)

A big shout out to Russ for finding my phone! Russ you are a lifesaver. I can't thank you enough. Love all you do for our school. I am so glad you work here. You always have our back. Thank you, thank you!

-From Ellen Stirrat (Paraprofessional at Lotus)

Thank you so much to the Calendar Committee! You came up with some really wonderful and creative options for us to look at. Your time and commitment are very appreciated.

and

Cheryl, Katy, Katie, Oner, Amber, Cathy, and Victoria- Thank you so much for sitting on the EAFL board with me. I could not do this without you. Your time and efforts do not go unnoticed or unappreciated. We have done some great work and there is still great work to be done.

-From Maureen DeVoss (2nd Grade Teacher and EAFL President)

Thank you to everyone who make Friday's Institute Day happen.

Thanks to everyone who has said/sent kind words about snow days, Katie taking the semester off...just all the things. It truly matters and makes my day brighter. I really, really appreciate it.

Thanks to our Kitchen teams for always treating us with such TLC.

Thank you to the Administrative Team for being a true team of collaborators---I couldn't do my job without you. For real!

-From Heather 😘

Please send me your kudos for colleagues each week! I'll happily post them in this section!

Here's a link to all the ideas gathered for the HOW and WHY of the Friz 5...I'll keep adding as great ideas come forward.

The GOILS structure we used on Friday is linked here. Please just make a copy and then use as you like. It's a great engagement task and only takes about 5 minutes to get EVERYONE talking!

Board Meeting Preview

At Tuesday night's Board meeting, we'll be:

*Recommending the 23-24 calendar. Click here to see the slides.

*Doing a preliminary approval of the 23-24 staffing plan (click here to view). LOTS more to come, but this gets us started. You'll note that we plan to bring back a Special Education Coordinator for EACH site (we'll use grant $$$ for a chunk of this), and we plan to ask for additional permanent subs since we have been unable to hire all the paraprofessionals we need. I'll share more insights when I update the Board, so join the meeting (in person or virtual) if you're interested.

*Recommend a shift to Panorama for our SEL benchmarking/intervention planning/progress monitoring starting in 23-24. This platform is a huge WIN/WIN and will do so much more for our system...in less time! Thank you to the Mental Health team for bringing this idea forward!!! Click here for more information on Panorama.

February Wellness Calendar

Wishing you all a happy February!

Wellness Calendar

Reimbursement

I know LOTS of you are doing special little (and sometimes big!) things to keep students motivated and to celebrate successes, especially related to attendance and iReady work. I'm happy to reimburse for these purchases as long as:

*They are preapproved (just send me an email to tell me what, why, and approximate cost).

*You do your best to use our Tax Exempt status when purchasing, as we cannot reimburse sales tax. If you need a tax exempt form, please see either school office or Andrea DeMatteo.

*You keep your receipt and send it to me with a check request (forms to attach to receipts are available in both school offices).

Let me know if you have any questions, and THANK YOU for all you do for our students!

Lake County Educator of the Year Event!!!

Please see information on this year's event! I'd love to see some great D114 representation to share our awesomeness!!!!

PLEASE CONSIDER COMPLETING A NOMINATION, AND LET ME KNOW HOW I CAN HELP!

Here is a link if you would like to submit the nomination packet electronically. 2023 Lake County Educator of the Year

This folder contains all the information needed for the 2023 Lake County Educator of the Year.

2022-2023 Information

If you have any questions please let me know. This will be a great event to recognize our amazing educators.

Have a great day,

Mike

Michael Karner, Ed.D.

Don't forget....Tuesday is EAFL Spirit Day! Wear your EAFL shirt and then join us at the board meeting at 7 PM. You can join virtually or in person!

As spring break approaches, don't forget to look into the deals through the IEA. You can find discounts on hotels and car rentals for your spring break trip!

Here are a couple of other opportunities that might interest you...

*NEW* Skills Training Workshops: All Education Support Professional members are encouraged and invited to participate in these monthly one-hour conversations designed to help ESPs develop specific union and/or job-related skills. Here is the monthly schedule of Skills Training Workshops.

The first Skills Training is Feb. 25, 10-11 a.m. "Emotions at the Table - How to Handle the Emotional Aspect of Bargaining." Register now

IEA Special Education Cooperative Roundtable Discussion

April 24, 4-6 p.m. Learn more and register.

February is Black History Month and the Racial & Social Justice Department is here to share with you several of our favorite resources for inspiring and equipping educators during this reflective time! End up having a favorite resource or activity you used? Let us know your story by emailing IEA Equity Paraprofessional Rachel Dye!