The Kaneland District 302 Board of Education met at Kaneland Harter Middle School on Wednesday, Oct. 16, to discuss curricular expectations of the school district and to recognize art students from each school.
All Board members were present with Dr. Aaron Lawler coming in late.
In the New Business section of the meeting, the Board handed out their Art Awards for students in art classes last year. There are first and second place awards for students of each school. The Board frames, adds a plaque and purchases their pieces to hang in the district office. The first place winner at each school gets $50, and the second place winner gets $25. These awards were presented through the Board by Deputy Superintendent Dr. Kurt Rohlwing and Superintendent Dr. Todd Leden.
The awards were as follows: From John Stewart Elementary, first place was awarded to Liv Chessman, and second place was awarded to Shay Albrecht-Frasch. At John Shields Elementary, first place went to Clara Putzler, and second place went to Harrison ‘Sonny’ Picton. First place from Blackberry Creek Elementary was Sophia Hilby, and second place was Melanie Surin. At McDole Elementary, first place went to Declan Murphy, and second place went to Savanna Brach. Jocelyn Ortega was awarded first place from Harter Middle School, and Victoria Staszak was awarded second place. At the high school, first place went to Lucy Wold, and second place went to Adrianna Wells.
After the awards, Director of Educational Services 6-12 Dr. James Horne presented the Post-Secondary and Career Expectations (PaCE) framework to the Board. PaCE is based on the Public Act 102-0917, which was signed into law in 2022. It requires Illinois schools to offer classes that will help students in terms of wherever they want to go after graduation, such as Advanced Placement (AP) and dual credit classes, the Fox Valley Career Center (FVCC) and Career and Technical Education (CTE) classes. The law gave schools three years to put together a plan and implement it. Kaneland has already started to put this plan in place with several classes and programs that are currently offered. . Horne shared the current state of the plan as well as the future outlook of PaCE.
“The goal is to fulfill the mission of the district,” Horne said. “[We want to] make sure everyone is graduating college and career ready.”
Horne explained in further detail the PaCE framework that is currently accessible on the high school’s Student Services home page. He also plans to work with Director of Communications David Chavez to have the information available on the district website for parents and community members to see. This presentation was purely informational, so no action was taken regarding the framework.
Another presentation was made by the Director of Educational Services EC-5 Dr. Sarah Mumm. She presented information regarding early entrance into kindergarten at Kaneland. Currently, students must be five years old by Sept. 1 of the upcoming school year in order to enroll in kindergarten. However, there are opportunities to sign up for an early entrance into kindergarten if it is believed that the four-year-old child would be able to academically and socially match with the older children. These four year olds take a test called the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) to see if they meet the standards of being at or above kindergarten level.
“[We start] in February and [parents] ask for the early entrance testing, [and] we typically have them assessed in June, July and August to try to give the maximum amount of time and exposure,” Mumm said.
Mumm suggested that there should be a behavioral screening as part of the requirements to enroll early in kindergarten. She has been monitoring the pathways of children who entered kindergarten at four years old through the end of their second grade year. She specifically looks for possible behavioral or academic problems. Mumm found that those who enter kindergarten early have a greater likelihood of struggling socially and behaviorally in the classroom.
“The trend that we are seeing is that those who have entered at the age of four typically are needing a lot of behavioral support,” Mumm said.
When inquiring about other districts’ early kindergarten entrance policies, Mumm found that about half of the districts she asked also charged a fee to go through the process of applying for early enrollment. Nothing has been decided regarding the fee, and the topic will be brought up again for a decision to be made in a December Board meeting.
There was a public comment made by a parent of students in the district, Audrey Wirth. Wirth expressed her concern regarding bus safety. Her concern was in relation to her son who takes a transfer bus that leaves the middle school and stops at the high school to pick up students before starting their route to drop off kids.
“We live just 12 minutes away from the school, but it takes him over an hour to get home,” Wirth said. “The Illinois State Board of Education recommends that students not ride the bus for longer than an hour.”
As the meeting came to an end, the Board completed their Superintendent and Board Report. Board of Education Student Ambassador Sarah Slattery started by updating the Board on recent or upcoming events at Kaneland. She highlighted the wins and losses from the football and volleyball teams since their last meeting and discussed a recent field trip. Some Kaneland students attended the annual Interstate 8 Leadership Conference at Morris High School to learn about leadership skills.
The next report came from Assistant Superintendent for Business Jackie Bogan. Bogan updated the Board about upcoming meetings that Board members are welcome to attend. She also brought news about the high school’s track progress. There was a setback due to high winds, but she hopes that the track will be done by the end of the week of Oct. 21.
“We are inching closer to having a fully operational track,” Bogan said. “Not just for athletes, but for all of our students at the high school and some community members as well.”
Bogan also thanked parents and community members for letting the district know about different safety concerns regarding the buses. She explained that the week of Oct. 21 is National School Bus Safety Week and said that she believes the transportation department at the district will help students learn about bus safety across the district.
“Over the course of next week, our district, particularly the transportation department, will be sharing safety related information to help promote safe behaviors for students, drivers and the public,” Bogan said.
Leden and Rohlwing also gave reports. Leden talked about a Community Advisory Committee (CAC) meeting that will take place on Oct. 24, which has the upcoming referendum proposal on its agenda. Rohlwing also talked about the referendum and updated the Board on the methods of communication with the community and public surveys. High school staff members were given a survey to alert the Board of aspects of the school they would want to have fixed.
“[There were] over 500 responses [to the survey], which I was really happy to see,” Rohlwing said. “Chavez is going to work with the high school to schedule some student focus groups.”
Rohlwing also updated the Board about curriculum presentations that will be occurring in future meetings. In November, they will compare and review the School Report Card with surrounding districts, reviewing English Language Arts (ELA) in February, math in March, electives and exploratory classes in May and special education in June.
The next Board meeting will be held on Monday, Oct. 28.
