D65 Receives $120K Energy Conservation Grant

School District 65 has received a grant of $120,000 from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation to upgrade indoor lighting systems in classrooms and offices in its 16 schools. As identified in a lighting assessment, the grant allows replacement of many of the District's fluorescent lights with energy efficient lamps and ballast. The District expects that retrofitting these fixtures will bring future savings of approximately $40,000 per year in energy costs.

"The grant offers an opportunity for the District to continue its plans to improve conditions that help the environment and reduce energy costs," said Don Stevenson, District 65's director of buildings and grounds. The District undertook an energy efficiency campaign several years ago with the assistance of an outside vendor that included training and in-house expertise from Lee Kulman, a full-time Haven Middle School teacher and District 65's energy manager.

New Direction for Special Education at District 65

By Mary Helt Gavin

After more than two decades of criticism, blue-ribbon panels, at least one specially commissioned report and review by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), the District 65 School Board is placing major focus on its special education programs.

Last year the Board adopted a goal to "meet the requirements for all students with individualized education programs (IEPs) and all other requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA)." This year, it adopted a goal "to ensure that students with special needs are provided an educational experience that enables them to realize their full potential." Subparts of this goal include providing professional development for teachers, meeting the IEPs for all students, increasing the number of students receiving services in less-restrictive environments, and addressing or correcting idens cited for corrective action in a special-education compliance audit.

Geneva Oatman, director of special services for the District, made a three-part presentation to at the Board at its Sept. 25 meeting, which included updates on the District's compliance with Board directives and with corrective action mandated by the ISBE. She also presented an outline of a proposal for a unified system of delivery (USD) of education services to special education students, which Superintendent Dr. Hardy Murphy said would represent a "cultural change" for the District.

Board directives
The directives, which were mandated for the 2005-06 school year, were again implemented this year, said Ms. Oatman. These include distributing a parent resource guide to all families of IEP students; providing those families with a "chain-of-command" outline of the special services hierarchy; and providing the Board sufficient information on plans and procedures that demonstrate that students' needs are being addressed.

Board member Jonathan Baum said he was very glad to see that the Board's directives were being implemented.

Areas identified by the State
Ms. Oatman also enumerated the areas that ISBE found in a 2005 audit were out of compliance with State mandates and described the corrective action being taken. The areas addressed were personnel, least restrictive environment, State assessments, over-representation, transition services and instructional time. (See sidebar).

She said, "The response provides an opportunity for the District to illustrate programmatic initiatives instituted since the compliance visit and present initiatives planned for the coming years.... Many of the areas covered in the compliance report have been addressed by the initiatives started within the District over the last two years."

While Board members appeared to accept the need for the proposed actions in most of the areas identified by the State, several objected to the State's saying that minorities are over-represented in special education classes at District 65. Both Board member Mary Rita Luecke and Dr. Murpy noted that the federal Office of Civil Rights had reviewed District data and found no evidence that the District discriminated in assigning students to special education classes or support services. (See story below).

Unified system of delivery of education services
Finally, Ms. Oatman presented a proposal for a USD that would provide more support to students with IEPs in general education classrooms rather than placing them into separate classrooms.

"The question becomes not ‘how to restructure special education' but rather ‘how to restructure education to meet the individual needs of every student,'" said Ms. Oatman. "USD provides for the needs of all students."

The proposal was written by a committee composed of Ms. Oatman; Assistant Superintendents Lynn McCarthy and Sue Schultz; school principals James McHolland and Shelley Carey; and Margie Lenoir-Davis, Marcy Canel, Joyce Bartz and Linda Fowlkes of the special services department.

Such a system depends on classroom teachers, with support personnel, to teach as many students as possible in their general education classrooms, differentiating instruction according to students' needs and abilities.

Proponents of USD say that giving more students access to general education classes is better than separating them into "parallel systems of service," such as bilingual education or special education.

Two major aspects of USD are a three-tiered model of service delivery and RTI, or response to intervention.

The three-tiered model is an increasingly intensive system of instruction and support aimed at keeping students in the general education classrooms. The support is coupled with activities that support and foster "instructional and behavioral practices ... designed to improve students' outcomes," according to the proposal.

RTI, the response to intervention, incorporates the intense support system and includes various "assessments, monitoring and interventions."
Ms. Oatman said focus groups this year would look at USD and RTI.

Over-Identification of Students for Special Education?

One of the areas of District 65's special education programs identified for corrective action by the Illinois State Board of Education was the disproportionate placement of minority students into special education classes.

Most Board members objected to that finding, in part because the District was cleared less than two years ago of charges of discrimination in placing students in special education.

Geneva Oatman, director of special services for the District, said the State would like the special education population to reflect the same racial makeup as the regular education classes.

"The overall rate for the State is 15 percent of students in special education classes; in District 65 it is 19 percent." She said, "Representation from the 2002-03 profile indicates that the District may be over-identifying students."

Figures from July of 2005 showed that while 40.2 percent of the District's students were white, 32.3 percent of students with IEPs were white; and while 41.3 percent of the District's students were black, 53.4 percent of students with IEPs were black.

Board member Mary Rita Luecke said that the District had been investigated by the United States Department of Education as to whether minorities were over-represented in special education classes and that the answer had been that the District does not discriminate.

"The Department of Education audits - when they did individual file reviews - did not find discrimination," said Ms. Luecke.

Superintendent Dr. Hardy Murphy said, "Overall, what you see here reflected is numbers that create some questions for us.... Our African-American students do less well, so as students fail to thrive in general education, they end up in special education. When OCR [Office for Civil Rights] came to look at it, they didn't see anything wrong."

Jonathan Baum said he believed "what the State was looking at was not discrimination but whether we understand [how to identify children for special education]."

Sharon Sheehan said, "If the number of students needing support is 19 percent, we're going to educate that 19 percent."

Suggested Corrective Action for Special Education Programs
The Illinois State Board of Education identified six areas for improvement or corrective action in School District 65's special education program in a Special Education Compliance Monitoring Report, dated May 2006. The District 65 School Board adopted a goal on Aug. 21 to correct or address the areas requiring corrective action. The six areas are as follows:

Personnel: State officials, as well as some District administrators, identified a need for additional speech therapists, school social workers/psychologists, teacher aides and special education teachers. Other District staff indicated a need for support for general education teachers. No corrective action was suggested.

Least restrictive environment: The District has a responsibility to educate all children in the least restrictive environment - when possible, in the general classroom in an attendance area school. The State found that this was not the case for many special education children. They found the District's own data showed that the District "lacks clear policies regarding ‘entrance and exit' for special education services identified as eligible under the category of emotional disturbance and that several District buildings are not ADA-compliant." The State mandated two corrective actions for the District: a) circulating to all staff a state memo about the requirements of educating children in the least restrictive environment; and b) reviewing and revising policies and procedures regarding placing children in the least restrictive environment. The District must submit to the State the results of the review process and any revised policies and procedures.

NCLB: The District's students with an IEP did not meet the adequate yearly progress goals set under the No Child Left Behind Act in reading. In addition, 9 percent fewer students with IEPs in District 65 met NCLB goals than students with IEPs Statewide. The corrective action includes reviewing and revising the school improvement plan to assist students with IEPs who are not meeting goals under NCLB or local objectives or both. In addition, the District must demonstrate that staff understands what test the students with IEPs should take, and how students should be accommodated for that test.

Over-representation: The State found that the racial breakdown of students in special education did not reflect the racial makeup of the District as a whole and concluded that black students are over-represented in special education. The State concluded, "Compared to those Statewide averages for percentages of students by disability and race, Caucasians, Hispanics and Asians are under-identified and African-Americans are over-identified in each of the following disability categories: mental retardation, specific learning disabilities, speech/language, emotional disabilities, other health impairment, developmental delays and autism." The State recommended that the District: "review its eligibility criterion to determine if there are warranted changes"; review students identified for special education because of speech/language impairments to see if they have been inaccurately or incorrectly identified; present a plan "to ameliorate any mitigating factors contributing to the issue of disproportionality"; to the; and demonstrate that staff are adequately informed about requirements for identifying children for special education.

Transition services: The State found that few of the students leaving District 65 had a transition plan. Several parents had expressed concern that there is no transitional planning for District 65 students entering Evanston Township High School and that there is little or no communication between the two school districts. Geneva Oatman, the District's director of special services, said staffs from both school districts are hoping to meet and address the problem.

Instructional time: The State found that the majority of parents who responded to its parent survey said parents believed they were sufficiently involved in developing their child's IEP, that their children's goals were individualized and that their children were making progress toward IEP goals. However, the State noted that in order for time to qualify as instructional classroom time, a qualified teacher, not an aide, must be present in the classroom. The State's corrective action was that instruction must be provided by a certified special education instructor.

D65 Superintendent Evaluation Criteria Finally Resolved

By Mary Helt Gavin

The District 65 School Board evaluated Superintendent Hardy Murphy last week using a two-part evaluation instrument that was approved by the Board on Sept. 25, almost nine months to the day after it was originally proposed.

School Board member Marianne Kountoures objected to the "management qualities" section of the evaluation tool because she felt it was subjective and that some Board members should not be allowed to perform subjective evaluations of the Superintendent. She said the management qualities section "focuses on the Superintendent's traits and skills."

She added "because people go in with an ax to grind, it's a reason not to allow subjectivity.... There are people who want to punish the Superintendent. Criticism is OK if they want to support the Superintendent, not if they want to punish him.

"What I'm saying is that subjectivity in the hands of this School Board is dangerous."

Ms. Kountoures has often expressed the position that the Board should set goals, leaving the Superintendent to determine how to best achieve those goals, and then hold him accountable in the evaluation process.

Ms. Kountoures said she had repeatedly objected to the management qualities section, which had been used by the School Board in 2003 and drafted at that time by Mary Erickson (now Board president) and then-Board member Bob Eder. According to some Board members, the document was discussed and informally agreed upon several months ago in closed session, but no public vote was taken on it.

Jerome Summers said he had "read some of the numbers: Are scores going up? Yes. Is technology improving? Yes. Is the budget balanced? Let him do his work."

Ms. Erickson said she had asked Dr. Murphy "if he'd go along with this [instrument] in this evaluation cycle and he said ‘OK.'" She said the evaluation instrument was prepared from "a number of documents from the firm that did our superintendent search for us. A number of evaluations have objective and subjective parts to them." She added she was "sort-of like-minded" with Ms. Kountoures about subjectivity but supported the evaluation instrument.

Jonathan Baum said, "I'd like to underscore that this is how CEOs are evaluated. This is how we evaluate our principals."

Julie Chernoff said, "There is a difference between ‘positive' criticism and ‘constructive' criticism. Constructive criticism helps to improve and change things."

In urging the Board to approve the document, Ms. Erickson said, "All of us feel that this document has some shortcomings. But we're working on the next step: We're working on setting up a process to get a[n evaluation] vehicle we know we can use - setting up a public meeting at which we will set up an evaluation for the Superintendent. We have a professional coming in [for that]. This is a matter of personal feelings versus moving forward. This is not stacking the deck [against the Superintendent]."

PTA Council Seeks Improvements to Registration Process

Special to RoundTable from PTA Council

District 65 is considering online registration but is not making any promises that such a system could be in place by next August, Chief Information Officer Paul Brinson told 25 people attending the school year's first meeting of the District 65/202 PTA Council.

Four years ago, Mr. Brinson said the District looked into a student-data system that would have made online registration possible but was dissuaded by the initial $500,000 cost. The District, which now belongs to a software consortium, has begun designing a registration system that can work with the existing student-data system.

Mr. Brinson attended the Council - a networking organization consisting of representatives from each of the local PTAs - to address problems with the registration process. In recent weeks, the topic generated a spirited online exchange among parents on the PTA Council Yahoo Group.

He said stricter enforcement of residency requirements was a goal of the in-person registration system that District 65 instituted two years ago. That year, approximately 150 fewer students registered than were anticipated. Last year, the monitoring process resulted in a further reduction in enrollments.

"With Districtexpenditures running atmore than $11,000per student, the enrollment reduction resulted in a significant savings to the District," Mr. Brinson says. "That means more money available to instruct students who reside in the District's attendance area."

Several parents said an online system could eliminate the need to fill out the same form manually for every teacher. One Council member suggested registration be moved from mid-August to spring when parents are focused on school. This shift would also provide District officials the time to come up with more accurate enrollment numbers.

The registration issue will again be on the table when Mr. Brinson returns to the Council's Oct. 19 meeting.

This year's Council PTA president is Rochelle Whyte-Washington - an Evanston native with grandchildren in the local schools. Vice-president Althea Ricketts is a Jamaican native who attended Evanston public schools and now has a child in the system.

Drawing on Ms. Whyte-Washington's experience as an alderwoman, the Council is forming a network of subcommittees that include: communication, health, safety and transportation, special education, TWI, African-American curriculum implementation; registration process; middle schools, diversity, and child care. Subcommittee chairs will make monthly updates at Council meetings.

To avoid duplication, the Council will coordinate efforts with District 65 committees - including parent communications, the Wellness Council, African-American student achievement, middle school and the Council for Excellence in Learning.

"You'll always see an administration presence here," says Superintendent Hardy Murphy who introduced Dr. Valorie Moore—the new assistant superintendent for operations—as the District's Council representative. Also in attendance from District 65 were the new chief financial officer Mary Brown, information services assistant director Lora Taira and transportation manager Roger Allen.

Ms. Washington-Whyte said: "We're trying to make the Council a forum that members of the Evanston Skokie school community want to attend." The Council meets the third Thursday of every month at 7-8:30 p.m. at the Hill Education Center board room.

D65 Approves $84.5 Million Operating Budget for 2006-2007

By Larry Gavin

The District 65 School Board approved its 2006-07 budget on Sept. 25, which contains a few adjustments from the tentative budget it approved on Aug. 14. As finally approved, the budget projects operating revenues at $86.3 million, up $5 million or 6 percent over the prior year. Operating expenses are pegged at $84.6 million, up $4 million or 5 percent over the prior year. The budget shows an operating surplus of $1.7 million for the year.

The District is reporting on an unaudited basis that it finished the 2005-06 year with an operating surplus of $752,079. At fiscal year ending June 30, 2006, the District had a cash balance of about $19 million in its operating funds (which includes $11.5 million in its working cash fund). The cash reserves are equivalent to about 80 days of operating expenses.

Options for Long-term Placement of TWI to be Presented On Nov. 6

On Sept. 25, Superintendent Hardy Murphy presented to the School Board a conceptual framework that he plans to use in making recommendations for the long-term placement of the Two-Way Immersion (TWI) program. The framework was intended to list options and considerations discussed by members of the Board at an earlier meeting.

The framework lists six possible configurations to house the TWI program:
· Keeping strands of TWI at the attendance area schools - the current model.
· Convert one or more attendance area schools to language centers.
· Convert one or both magnet schools to language centers.
· Convert attendance area or magnet schools or a combination to language centers, split between primary and intermediate grade levels.
· Convert a middle school to a language center.
· Convert an attendance -area school to a language center and leave strands of TWI at selected sites.

The framework also lists three possible educational programs to provide bilingual education. Two of the three have been discussed during the past year: continuing the TWI program with "unrestricted expansion" and capping the TWI program and adding an "alternative bilingual education model" to educate limited English proficient (LEP) students. The third model, somewhat of a hybrid, would allow "controlled" expansion of the TWI program by capping the enrollment at a certain cut-off date during the registration process; LEP students who enrolled after the cut-off date would be assigned to an alternate bilingual education model.

Dr. Murphy proposed to evaluate the various program configurations and models in light of 20 different considerations, including: academic achievement expectations; flexibility in adjusting to fluctuations in the number of LEP students; the fit within current class size guidelines; costs; impact on student movement, transportation and sibling splits; impact of the program on overall school climate; impact on diversity in the general education classes; and impact on parental involvement and staffing.

In an effort to reduce the number of options that would be evaluated, Dr Murphy asked, "Can we take off converting one of the attendance area middle schools to a language center?" Board member Marianne Kountoures said, "You should have the latitude to reduce any of the options." Jonathon Baum said if an option was eliminated, he would want to know why.

Dr. Murphy said he would bring back options that the administration wants the Board to consider, together with an evaluation of the options. The administration is scheduled to present the options to the Board's Program/Policy Committee on Nov. 6.

ETHS Career and Technical Education Provides Many New Opportunities

By Jennie Berkson

"A high school education is no longer sufficient to compete for more than two-thirds of new jobs created between 2000 and 2010," Shelley Gates, chair of Evanston Township High School's Applied Sciences and Technology (AST) department told the District 202 School Board at its meeting of Sept. 25. "An ever-increasing number of jobs in today's economy require some form of post-secondary education or training."

The idea that the vocational track has lower academic expectations and less rigorous mathematics, science and English courses is outdated, said Ms. Gates, who presented key aspects of the AST department to the Board.

The "career pathways" model
"Research shows that for those who do not go on to college directly from high school, jobs found with the help of career-focused programs in high school have significant short- to mid-run labor market payoff, particularly for low-income students and those who are most at risk." She added that the mission of the AST department is to provide students with real-world career and job-related skills so they can successfully pursue post-secondary options upon graduation.

ETHS adopted a Career Pathways model for the AST Department in the early 1990s. The department offers 42 courses in five different career strands: Arts and Communications, Business/Management-Information Systems, Environmental and Natural Resources, Health Science and Human Services and Industry/Engineering. ETHS requires students to take three credits of either fine arts or AST; some choose to concentrate all or most of their electives in a particular area of AST.

More than 2,000 ETHS students are enrolled in AST courses this year, with some taking more than one AST class at a time. The department's most popular courses are Graphic Design, Smart Lab - Business, 1 Culinary Arts, and Metal Sculpture. Some of the AST courses are eligible for Tech-Prep or dual credit which permits students to receive college credit from Oakton Community College upon successful completion.

Partnerships
Ms. Gates told the Board that a number of specialized AST programs help prepare or familiarize students with a variety of career options. For example, a partnership between Walgreen's and ETHS offers students the opportunity to complete internships and pursue a pharmacy technician's license. Last year 15 students enrolled in the program.

In addition, Presbyterian Homes and ETHS partner to enable students who successfully complete the health science rotation course to enroll in a summer Certified Nursing Assistant training program. Four students completed the training in last year's pilot program and will take the state licensing examination in October.

"This year we are offering our first Project Lead The Way [PLTW] course, called Principles of Engineering," said Ms. Gates. PLTW is a national not-for-profit organization that provides a pre-engineering curriculum for middle and high schools. "There are 15 students enrolled in the class," Ms. Gates continued, "and we are looking forward to the completion of a new classroom within the next few weeks. We received a $25,000 grant from the Kern Family Foundation to help pay for the equipment, supplies and teacher training required by PLTW. Over the next four years, we will add four additional PLTW courses."

Internships
The AST department also offers business internships and health sciences rotations for students interested in learning on the job. Clubs such as the Distributive Education Club of America (DECA) and Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) give students a chance to compete in their fields of interest locally, statewide and nationally. E-Town Tuners gives students an extracurricular opportunity to continue their academic work in automotive technology.

Several students from the AST department told the Board about their studies and extracurricular activities. Christian Estrada, a senior who is president of the E-Town Tuners, said the club was his only activity at ETHS and that it had helped him realize that he wanted to pursue a career in automotive technology. Sofia Martin said that the automotive maintenance class had motivated her to consider working in the automotive field as well. Senior Maria Mendoza took the Certified Nursing Assistant training course last summer. "I plan to go to Loyola University to become a nurse and specialize in geriatrics," Ms. Mendoza said. "The health sciences rotation inspired me to make this decision."

Community awareness
"We need to do more to make the community aware of the AST department," said Board member Mary Wilkerson, who has often urged more focus on vocational education at ETHS. "I suggest that we visit ward meetings and talk about it there."

Vice-president Jane Colleton agreed that the community could be better informed about the opportunities offered by the AST department. "There are portions of our community who believe that ETHS is too college-oriented. We need to better publicize how we provide a range of preparedness for life after high school."

Ms. Wilkerson requested that the Board receive data about the number of males and females who register for the different AST classes. "I would like to know how many young women and young men are pursuing careers in areas not traditionally associated with their gender," she said. Ms. Gates agreed that was important information and that it would be provided in the future.

Ms. Wilkerson also suggested that the administration consider setting an objective to increase the number of students taking AST courses. "We should add it to our strategic action plans so it stays on our radar screen as a priority," she said.

District 202 Weighs Positives and Negatives of NCLB

By Jennie Berkson

Continued compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) came up for review again at the Sept. 25 District 202 Board meeting.

Over the last few years, the School Board has considered the ramifications of opting out of compliance with NCLB. Doing so would mean that the District would no longer receive approximately $174,000 in Title I funds but would not be subject to federal sanctions, although some State sanctions would still apply if the District was not meeting standards. As a result, the Board has asked for updates on the impact of compliance; the last update was in 2004.

NCLB background
NCLB requires that school districts receiving Title I funds establish proficiency levels that 100 percent of all students - including specified subgroups - must attain in reading/language arts by 2014. These sub-groups include black, Latino, low-income, limited-English proficient (LEP) and special education students (those with individual education programs, IEPs).

The State has also set yearly, incremental targets, mandating that students be assessed annually against them. For example last year, 47 percent of students in each subgroup had to meet State standards.

Data disaggregated by race and other subgroups must be reported yearly, and school districts failing to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward those targets receive increasingly stringent sanctions: Such schools are subject to improvement, corrective action and restructuring measures aimed at helping them to meet State standards. Illinois uses the Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE), administered in the junior year of high school, of which one component is the ACT examination, for its measure of whether or not high school students are meeting standards.

NCLB at ETHS
"We are currently moving into the fifth year of evaluation," said Board President Ross Friedman. "This is a critical time for us to look at the impact of the law on the school."

ETHS has not made AYP for the last four years - that is, not all students in each subgroup have met state targets each year. Judith Levinson, director of Research, Evaluation and Assessment for District 202 told the Board that the administration has not yet received the results of last spring's PSAE. "We don't officially know that we haven't made AYP because the state is way behind in providing results," said Dr. Levinson.

Because ETHS has failed to meet AYP, it had to offer a choice of schools and supplemental educational services (SES), such as tutoring by outside providers, to students in the District.

However, Dr. Levinson reported, "School choice is not an option, because schools in adjacent districts need to agree to take ETHS students if anyone wants to move. No other schools are willing to take our kids." The SES requirement was also frustrating, she said. "We were authorized to spend $36,000 of our Title I funds on this effort, which meant that we could offer tutoring to 36 students. Despite significant outreach activities to attract students, we only ended up having six take advantage of the tutoring."

All the previous requirements will still apply if ETHS does not make AYP this year, Dr. Levinson said. In addition, ETHS would have to revise its School Improvement Plan, subject to approval by the District School Board and the State Superintendent.

Dr. Levinson highlighted both the benefits of and the problems with NCLB for District 202 and its students: "The law has put positive pressure to produce better programs to help kids who are not making standards," she said.

"The Title I funds we receive allow us to support Project Excel," said Superintendent Eric Witherspoon. Project Excel targets students, who, based on District research, have the best chance of improving their PSAE scores. "They get dedicated study coaches who work with them on reading and math," continued Dr. Witherspoon. "There is also a parent component to Project Excel and other enrichment opportunities. Some students just need more time and more support," he said.

"The NCLB Act has provided a means of focusing attention on improving the academic performance of all students, and in particular, black, Hispanic, special education and LEP students," said Dr. Levinson, citing another benefit. At ETHS, she said, other new initiatives include algebra and reading programs and a stricter attendance policy. In addition, the school has reviewed grouping practices, such as mixed-level and regular classes, and has changed the "reclassification policy" to identify students not earning enough credits to graduate on time.

"Overall, we have seen a change in the culture of ETHS, with more of a results-based focus than prior to the implementation of the NCLB law," Dr. Levinson reported.

On the negative side, Dr. Levinson described a number of negative effects as a result of NCLB. "There is more focus on standardized tests and test preparation in the school," she reported. "In addition, many of the requirements are labor-intensive, and there have been no additional funds to defray administrative and clerical costs to implement components."

The need to work with outside providers in order to offer supplemental services can also be a problem, she said. "We believe we could do a better job of providing SES since we know these students and can tailor tutoring to their needs," said Dr. Levinson. In addition, she said, "Educational measurement experts have conducted studies on the criteria and make clear that the underlying assumptions are faulty and fraught with problems."

Board Reaction
Eight Illinois districts have opted out of NCLB, and many states have protested the Act. Board member Missy Fleming asked why. "They seem to have decided that the juice isn't worth the squeeze," said Dr. Levinson. "Just because you stop taking Title I funds and are no longer subject to the federal requirements, you still have to comply with state regulations," she cautioned. President Friedman questioned whether or not the State would impose sanctions.

Mr. Friedman asked the Board if they wanted to discuss the possibility of opting out of compliance with NCLB. "This is the worst piece of anti-public school legislation in years," he remarked. "Just the fact that the NCLB has unattainable goals is reason enough to opt out."

Board member Rachel Hayman said she thought Dr. Levinson's report indicated that compliance with NCLB was "a raw deal for us. It seems like we're always asking if we can get two more kids over the bar. Why, as educators, do we need to continue with this focus?"

"I don't feel we should opt out," said Board member Mary Wilkerson. "It would send the wrong message. I think it made us focus on students who were ‘left behind.' Some of these special programs have had a positive effect."

Dr. Witherspoon said that 75 - 80 students were being helped by Project Excel. "We don't want to lose the safety net. Let's keep looking at it."

Other Board members seemed to agree. They asked Dr. Levinson to update them as soon as the results were received from the State.

District 202 Board Begins Outreach Activities

By Jennie Berkson

District 202 Board members will attend a variety of community meetings and sponsor coffees at Evanston Township High School and elsewhere in an effort to reach out to the community, according to Board members Rachel Hayman and Martha Burns, who are spearheading the effort.

Board President Ross Friedman and members Missy Fleming, Rachel Hayman and Margaret Lurie will be at the ETHS parent/teacher conferences in the main lobby on Thursday, Oct. 12, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Mr. Friedman and Ms. Lurie will hold the first "Coffee with the Board" on Monday, Oct. 23, at 7:15 a.m. in the ETHS main office.
Other opportunities to meet and talk with Board will be scheduled throughout the year.

District 65 School News

Lincolnwood School held its annual fall festival last weekend, including games and prizes, a never-ending cake walk, dunk tank, moonwalk and inflatable slide and a pie- eating contest. The day also featured live music, hair and face painting, pumpkin decorating and the Lincolnwood grill with lots of yummy food.

Willard School, 2700 Hurd Ave., will celebrate the season by hosting its annual fall carnival from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14, on the school's playground. This year, Willard welcomes the Two-Way Immersion (TWI) program to the school by renaming the annual "Fall Fest" to Fall Fiesta. Sponsored by the PTA, this event will offer games, crafts and food. The fiesta is open to the public, and tickets are available at the entrance to the playground.

Four students at King Lab School have been selected as winners in the Design-A-Calendar contest sponsored by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Twelve boys and girls across America were selected as winners for this unique calendar, which will be distributed nationwide to thousands of schools for Animal Action Week in October. The winning student artists are Anna Cable (February), Katie Pointer (January), Quinn Shaw (December), and Avery Shikanai (March).

Kingsley School reports that the year is off to a terrific beginning. The first week capped off with the school's second annual pep rally. Principal Mike Martin led the entire school in several cheers. Sporting red Kingsley t-shirts and lots of school spirit, everyone squeezed in for an enormous group picture in the schoolyard. In the next few weeks there will be a welcome-back potluck and a community kick-off night. In addition, the PTA has plans this year to initiate a family-mentoring program.