Dear Families,
Thank you to all the parents and students for joining us for our Fall Parent-Teacher Conferences. We really enjoyed goal setting together and are excited to see the students’ progress throughout the school year. We believe that when children know the target, they can reach any goal!
Parents may be noticing that some assessments are coming home with the content area standards provided. This is a practice we are building in Medinah so that students, parents, and teachers are all aware of the standards the students are learning in the classroom. A few teachers at both MPS and MIS are piloting Standards-Based Reporting, and are grading each child’s progress based on their understanding of the specific learning standards for their grade level.
This week, Medinah Intermediate School participated in “Red Ribbon Week” and Primary School celebrated “Good Choices Week”! Students at MIS discussed the importance of saying NO to drugs and both schools learned about making positive choices. Thank you to all students and staff that participated!
Our students in first,
third and fifth grade will be participating in our CAP (Child Assault
Prevention) Program the beginning
of November. This is one way our district continues to provide programming that
focuses on our students’ safety and well-being. In addition to the CAP program, we always encourage our families to revisit the Family Handbook we sent home at the beginning of the year with your child to review the rules and expectations at MPS and MIS to ensure they are continuing to be safe and making those positive choices on a daily basis.
We are quickly
approaching the end of Trimester 1, which ends on November 9th. Please look forward to receiving your child’s report card on Friday, November 16th. As always, if you have any questions or concerns after reviewing the report card, please contact your child’s teacher.
In closing, please continue to reinforce the importance of learning in school and at home. Ask your children to share with you what they are learning at school. Continue to read with your children every night. Share your love of learning with your child by checking homework, reviewing take home folders, and continuing to review the school’s website and newsletters. Thank you for being a partner in your child’s education!
Natalie Czarnecki,
Principal, Medinah
Intermediate School
5ESSENTIALS SURVEY
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Teachers, parents and students across Illinois will have an opportunity to participate in the Illinois 5Essentials Survey: Organizing Schools for Improvement. The Illinois 5Essentials Survey is an Illinois State Board of Education initiative designed to generate a detailed picture of the inner workings of your child’s school. The University of Chicago is conducting the survey on behalf of the State Board of Education. District 11 teachers and students in grades 4-8 will complete the survey during the regular school day.
District 11 parents may visit www.5-essentials.org/illinois to complete the Illinois 5Essentials Parent Survey starting October 23, 2018 through January 18, 2019.
Your participation in the Survey will help us understand the conditions at your child’s school and guide improvement. However, District 11 will ONLY receive the survey results if at least 20 percent of parents respond to the survey. Your identity and responses will be kept completely confidential and will never be connected to you or your child. We strongly encourage our parents to participate, as the feedback generated from the survey will only help us to focus our improvement efforts.
For more information about the Illinois 5Essentials Survey, please visit https://5-essentials.org/illinois/5e/2018/. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact 5Essentials Client Services at 1-866-440-1874 or 5essentials@uchicago.edu.
Thank you,
Dr. John K. Butts
Superintendent