The Aug. 25, 2025, board meeting covered various topics, including a revision of the E-learning schedule and a review of last year’s goal from each school. With the exception of Dr. Aaron Lawler, all board members were present.
The meeting began with sophomore Jack Bicker being honored for being cast in Newsies, this year’s All-State musical. He is the first student in Kaneland history who has been in the All-State production.
The district administrative team, led by Director of Communications David Chavez, has been continuously working on the website to provide a place for all the information any community member would need to know. These changes and updates are due to community feedback. The website will have all relevant information, while things of a celebratory nature will be posted on social media platforms.
Next, Assistant Superintendent for Business Dr. Jackie Bogan introduced Becky Thompson from Community Solar. Thompson explained that the solar field contract is for 25 years, but it will be renewed in five-year increments. All of the terms of the contract will remain the same throughout the entire period. It will renew automatically unless the board decides to end it. This is currently seen as merely precautionary in case something unexpectedly went wrong. The contract states that Kaneland is only renting the land. They will not have to deal with maintenance, issues and any liability if things go wrong. This will save $46,000 annually on electricity. The motion to finalize the solar contract pending legal review was approved 6-0.
Afterwards, Superintendent Dr. Kurt Rohlwing talked about the beginning of the school year. Blackberry Creek has a new motto that some have even started singing. The motto is, “If something you are doing interferes with learning, hurts someone’s heart or prevents you from being your best self, then you should not be doing it.” The new math resource has been extremely helpful at John Shields Elementary; both staff and students are greatly enjoying it. The students at John Stewart Elementary are very excited about the new LED lights and dimmers. At Harter Middle School, new sixth and seventh graders were taken to the cafeteria during homeroom to get Kaneland swag. The high school had one of the best attended orientations in many years and a promising start for fall sport and activities.
Following the updates, the board then moved on to the E-learning schedule. Rohlwing proposed that the E-learning schedule be revised to reduce Google Meet times and increase independent work. Each class will only be a 20-minute period where teachers will give a brief lesson or set their class up to do independent work. The afternoon portion of the day will be for this independent work, and teachers will be available to answer questions. While this will not change the expectations of an E-learning day, it will change the amount of time students are sitting in front of a screen. These changes were approved 6-0.
Then, Director of Educational Services 6-12 Dr. James Horne spoke about curriculum resources. A new feature on the Kaneland website is curriculum documents. These documents show a curriculum for each class offering, including topics, learning standards and the approximate time frame for each one. It is not intended for students, but for their parents to keep up with what their kids are learning and assist if necessary. As it is still a work in progress, the documents are still being updated.
Next, the principals of each school spoke about the goals of their school for this year and whether they had met their goals last year. In addition and subtraction, Blackberry Elementary had students achieve 70% proficiency by the end of the year. Shields saw reading scores increase by 10.7% across grade levels. Stewart saw a 50% growth based on writing from a passage and prompt at their level. McDole Elementary saw writing skills increase by 35%. KIPLA’s writing goal of 3 points on their proficiency achievement system was met by 82% of students, and 76% got 4 or more points. Harter’s i-Ready based reading goal saw 52% of students who reached their growth goal. The high school saw a rise in enrollment for many different programs. Career and Technical Education (CTE) class enrollment increased by 18%, and AP/dual credit enrollment increased by 5%.
Rohlwing then gave a construction planning update. Since the last update, there have been many preliminary meetings. Those meetings have included potential furniture and playground partners. There will also be a meeting with panels of 4th and 5th graders to give feedback.
Additionally, Rohlwing announced that the Kaneland Sports Boosters agreed to fund nearly $10,000 worth of new athletics-related equipment. This includes three 10×20 tents, golf balls, football chains, down markers and a hydrocollator. A hydrocollator is a device used to warm and store moist heat packs for athletes.
At the end of the meeting, Student Representative Sophia Schroll spoke about the beginning of the school year at the high school. The annual Knights Under the Lights was a great success, with the watermelon eating contest being the highlight of the event. There were also food trucks and a parade of athletes. Girls volleyball begins their season tonight. Schroll stated that students are still adjusting to the new policies and procedures, and so far reactions have been mixed.
The board members decided that at the next meeting, they would like to explore encouraging more student participation in the PSAT and to discuss talented and gifted programs going forward. There were no other topics that were brought up to be discussed at the next meeting. The next board meeting will be held on Monday, Sept. 15.
