Board of Education

Michelle Lillis, Girls AA Track Coach of the Year

The Board of Education recognized three coaches in the Rock Island-Milan School District who received awards for their outstanding coaching abilities. Rock Island High School Boys Track Coach Ed Lillis and Softball Coach Steve Ebner were inducted into the State of Illinois Coaches Hall of Fame, and Rock Island High School Girls Track Coach Michelle Lillis was selected as Girls AA Track Coach of the Year. “Besides being outstanding coaches, they are excellent in the classroom with students,” said Athletic Director Bob Swanson. “They are teachers on and off the track and field.”

Reports from Board Members
Linda Dothard attended the Science Fair at the Rock Island Center for Math & Science (Audubon Campus). There were many families in attendance and a representative from the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy was there as well. Ms. Dothard also attended the Sankofa performance on Saturday in the Rock Island High School Auditorium. The group did an excellent job and Ms. Dothard recommended that everyone attend their next performance.

Board member Earl Strupp attended the Edison Jr. High School Trivia Night. There are two more schools planning Trivia Nights: Earl Hanson and Ridgewood, both are on Saturday, March 6.

Board member Jim Bishop attended the Boys Sectional Swim meet which was hosted at Rock Island High School on Saturday. “It was an exciting event – standing room only.” Senior Kilian Macias was the sectional champion and state qualifier in the 100 yard freestyle.  The Rocks 200 Free Relay team Austin Beine, Reed Duyvejonck, Charles Holliday, and Kilian Macias took top honrs and will compete at state this weekend.

Board President Bill Cleaver reminded the board that Linda Golden’s Thurgood Marshall class now has the Kenya Water Project bracelets for sale. The money raised will be used

Student Board Member Zavier Clark reported that the Interact Club sponsored a dance on Feb. 12 was a success and made about $300. The money raised will go toward Haiti Earthquake Relief.

Superintendent Report
Superintendent Loy attended a fundraiser last week for the HAVlife Foundation. At the end of the event, HAVlife donated $15,000 to Rock Island-Milan Schools specifically to support junior high level youth programs in memory of Hunter Aaron Vondran. www.havlife.org Mr. Loy also announced that the school district has three Illinois Spotlight Schools this year: Denkmann, Longfellow and Thomas Jefferson. There are nearly 900 school districts and thousands of schools, and RISD 41 had three of 425 schools being honored with the award.

Mr. Loy reported that the State of Illinois just passed HB 2240, and in that bill, the state wants to hear from the citizens of Illinois on how to resolve the budget crisis. There is a two week window of opportunity to send letters to the Governor and have Rock Island & Milan voices heard. “We have a chance to be heard, let’s take them up on their offer.” Visit the web site for more information http://bit.ly/atVYsP >>

Rock Island Education Association Report
Bob Smith, President of the Rock Island Education Association announced that the organization will be participating in a letter writing campaign to support HB 174. Also, on February 27, U.S. representative Phil Hare will be holding an educational roundtable at the Regional Office of Education. The Board of Education is invited to attend.

High School Progress Report on Math Department

Associate Principal Georgia Kouris commended the Math Data Team for working hard over the last year to build rigor and relationships to improve math achievement and success at the high school. The team is made up of Emily Bohling, Ryan Kelly, Susie Stark, Connie Brackney, Jon Catterton, Mike Melody, Shawn Trask, Mike Smith and Julie Woods. Rock Island High School Math Teacher and Data Team Leader Michelle Lillis said the number of math failures peaked at 21.04% in 2006. Last semester (09-10) the number went down to 11.34%. The number of students enrolled in Algebra II has increased (440) which is up from 176 in 07-08. Overall, there are more students taking higher level math courses with fewer failures.

Raising the rigor of the math program has been successful due to many supports in place for students to get help: providing assistance before and after school; setting up Lights on for Learning for math; making required and timely parent contacts; offering all students opportunities for test retakes; K-12 math articulation meetings to smooth transition for students; interactive white boards in math rooms and Math Computer Lab; extra help through intersession and summer school math offerings; and co-teaching in some Algebra I classes to provide additional instructional support. “Students who are struggling get the attention they need.”

The Math Data Team accomplished many of the tasks set last fall: investigated math options for career education students; introduced Applied Mathematics; purchased PLATO skill-building software in Math Computer lab and purchase of classroom sets of TI-84 graphing calculators for all Algebra II students; expanded LOFL Intersession extra help; implemented mandatory 9th grade Algebra I and Math Lab for all students who need the support. The team is still in the process of creating a summer math readiness program for incoming 9th grade students who need support. The curriculum is being written at the moment.

English Language Learners (ELL) Report
Over the last couple of years, the dominant foreign language in the Rock Island-Milan School District was Spanish, however the language diversity has increased to over 22 languages for over 300 students in our school district. Currently there are nine teachers in the district who work with ELL students. The Intermediate Academy has grown in over 16 languages in the last year. At the high school, the program had 17 students in 2003-04. Spanish was the dominant language at the time. This year there are 61 students at Rocky who speak 12 languages such as Karen, Nepali, Swahili and Kirundi. Just in the last year there was an increase of 19 students. With the help of school district translator coordinator Annette Moreno, outside translators are used often to help with parent communications. Trained interpreters help in relaying cultural information and issues to the teachers. The ELL teachers help make connections with social services as well, based on the need of the student and/or family. The Access test, a test to measure proficiency, is given annually to assess students level of knowledge of the English language. This has been a helpful tool given two years ago the State of Illinois determined that elementary students should take the ISAT regardless of English proficiency level.

Articulation and Alignment Report
In the past year, a collaborative committee in the Rock Island-Milan School District has been working on grade-wide building-wide effort to articulate and align the district curriculum. Four areas have been covered through articulation thus far: Social Studies, PE/Family Life/Heath Education, Math and Language Arts. Science articulation and alignment group will start this spring. Ken Jaeke, Director of Instruction and Assessment, gave a brief overview of the alignment strategies, practices and materials that are being used in the district to increase access to the core curriculum across the district. An aligned curriculum for grades 7 & 8 has been rewritten and revised, and administration is working on 9-12 aligned curriculum. A K-12 vocabulary curriculum will soon follow. Connie Snell and Terri Sheddan have provided tremendous professional development support for teachers who in turn are supporting the material for students.

Head Start/SKIP Reports & Location
Mike Russell, Principal of SKIP, is looking forward to the relocation of the program to the Horace Mann building and anticipates being moved in to the facility in early July. The SKIP program will have 6 rooms, EDR will use 2 rooms and Head Start will use 4 rooms and also house support services. Long term planning involves creating Horace Mann into a comprehensive Early Childhood Center program will provide an opportunity for an articulated curriculum, provide an academic and social foundation for students, develop relationships with families and collaborate and assist in transition of students to appropriate kindergarten programs.

Nicole Schlotfeldt, Director of the Head Start program in the Rock Island-Milan School District, reviewed the Head Start Annual Report from 2008-09, highlighting increased levels of competency and development in key areas of language development, literacy, math, science, approaches to learning, social/emotional development, creative arts and physical health.

Currently, Pre-K services 120 students and Head Start services over 300 students. The last year has been a year of growth for the program and educational outcomes has demonstrated significant progress through testing at the Kindergarten level. Head Start attendance has increased to 88% over the last three years.

An important part of the Head Start program is the coordination of health services, and Head Start staff work with the family to establish a medical and dental home for the health of children. Social service staff are able to work one-on-one with families to get people the right assistance. Rock Island Head Start is also involved with the national “I am Learning I am Moving” assessment – a curriculum for preventing childhood obesity. Rock Island is the only program in the nation that is being assessed and documenting the results for the national Head Start association.

The proposed budget for 2010-11 is $2,266,959 (used for program operations) and then $30,357 (for training tech assistance). The funds are provided at the federal level.