Every new school year starts with anticipation and excitement. This year, in particular, Niles Community Schools has a lot to be thankful and excited about considering the overwhelming community support in passing the bond last May.

While our focus will continue to be on improving student performance, we look forward to the positive changes this bond will bring for our district and our community.

Since one of the biggest changes resulting from the bond will be the transformation of Ring Lardner Middle School to a sixth through eighth grade building, a team of teachers, parents, staff, and administrators worked together to prepare for the adjustment and transition.

As the adults were planning, our middle school students were hard at work assisting in the Summer My Way program. Many fifth- through eighth-graders were growing alongside each other, as older students served as mentors for younger students. We want to build on the leadership skills our older students demonstrated to help make the redesigned middle school a great learning environment.

To support improvements in student achievement, we looked closely at our curriculum to ensure we are challenging our children to learn and providing the tools necessary to meet our objectives. To that end, our curriculum leaders have been preparing a new elementary math program that will be introduced this year.

Our teachers have expressed excitement about this program’s emphasis on using concrete and real-life examples, as well as providing repeated exposure to math concepts and skills. Additionally, this program offers frequent practice of basic computation skills for students and a great online parent support component.

Several schools got a jump start on the school year by providing some wonderful experiences over the summer that have the potential for lasting impact.

Northside Development Center opened its doors this summer to more than 30 local daycare providers to attend training relative to kindergarten readiness and developmentally appropriate literacy skills. The students and parents enrolled in Northside’s Early Childhood Special Education program were also able to take part in an exciting learning experience at Potawatomi Zoo.

The foundation to learning begins at an early age and this program is an example of Niles Community Schools’ commitment to preparing our children for their educational careers.

Students at the high school level will notice and benefit from many of the changes in place for the upcoming school year, including the shift to a seven-period day. The new schedule was designed to allow for additional electives and a more well-rounded curricular experience.

At the senior high, a common culture and service learning experiences will be a point of renewed emphasis this year. With that in mind, I’m proud to say that a group of New Tech students got a head start on community service efforts through their participation in a weeklong service learning trip to the Dominican Republic this summer. We look forward to building off their efforts and will encourage all students to engage in community-related activities.

It’s an amazing time at Niles Community Schools and we cannot wait to welcome our families back to school. It’ll be great to hear the familiar sounds of children laughing in our halls and on our playgrounds and, most importantly, see the enthusiasm that they have for learning. It also will be wonderful to see the contributions that our community members continue to make to their learning experience.

 

Dr. Dan Applegate is Superintendent at Niles Community Schools.