Recently in School District 203 Category

Recently, President Barack Obama said American students need to spend more time in school to stay competitive. According to the president, students in other countries spend 25 or 30 percent more time in school than American students.

District 203 and 204 don't have any plans to lengthen the school day or school term, and District 203 is bound to its current school year by its terms with the teachers union. Also, factors like bus scheduling have to be taken into account.

Despite the objections, do you think Naperville students should spend more time in school, either with additional days in the school year or more time per day spent in the classroom?

President Barack Obama will be addressing school children across the nation on Tuesday. According to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, "The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals and take responsibility for their learning. He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible, so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens."

A recent email from District 203 indicated that parents could contact the school if they wish their students to be exempted from the broadcast. Reportedly, Jefferson Junior High will not be showing the broadcast. Do you find it unusual that parents are being offered the chance to opt out from a broadcast by the president? Is this something every student should see, or is there a reason you wouldn't want your child to view the speech?

The Sun recently published profiles of the candidates for school board. What do you think? Here is the place to discuss them.

Here is a link to the story:
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/election/1492379,6_1_NA24_SCHOOLS_S3.article

During its Monday meeting, District 203's board approved the dismissal of 218 education support personnel and 77 certified staff, 62 of whom are classroom teachers.

Each year, by March 15, school districts must notify all employees whose contracts will not be renewed for the coming school year. This year, "because of enrollment declines and economic concerns," that list is longer than it has been in the past, said Superintendent Alan Leis.

Districts do this every year with certain employees and many of them are hired back, but Leis said he doesn't think many of the dismissed teachers will be hired back unless something happens demographically.

What are your thoughts on these cuts?

State Rep. Darlene Senger says she plans to introduce a bill that would allow school boards to remove from school any student charged with a felony and awaiting legal proceeding, and place them in an alternative school program until the matter is resolved.

The proposal comes in response to an incident at Gregory Middle School where two students are charged with sexually assaulting a classmate. Because the students have not been convicted of any crime, the accused and the alleged victim still attend the same school. The parents of the alleged victim and other community members have asked the district to move the accused to a different school.

Board President Mark Metzger said there is nothing the school could do under current law, but many district residents believe the district already has all the authority it needs to make a change.

Do you approve of this proposed law? Is it necessary? How do you feel about the district's handling of the situation?

Naperville School District 203 on Monday named Mark Mitrovich to replace the retiring Alan Leis as superintendent.

Mitrovich, who agreed to a three-year contract at $203,000 per year, is the co-founder of EdGate, a company that provides K-12 solutions to improve student performance via the Internet. He has served as the company's chief education officer for the past 10 years. He has also worked as a consultant to Microsoft, Apple and other technology firms, and is the developer of Total Reader, a Web-based reading assessment program for K-20 for both the education and business worlds.

Prior to embarking on his business career, Mitrovich logged 30 years as an educator, serving as a high school principal, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction and, eventually, superintendent of Peninsula School District, a 15-school district in Gig Harbor, Wash., that is touted as one of the state's most innovative systems. He left that position in 1999.

What do you think of this choice of Mitrovich?

Update: On Thursday, the Park District offered a new proposal as a compromise option. The newest proposal would relocate 115 of the 216 plots at the southern portion of the West Street location to the northern part. The remaining 101 plots would be relocated to DuPage River Park or Southwest Community Park, where additional plots would also be created to accommodate interest in the program that has been expressed by potential gardeners who live in south Naperville. Two athletic fields would be built in the southern portion of the garden plots.

Is this really a solution everyone can live with, or do you still object to the revised proposal?

Below is the original blog entry:

Today's Sun features the latest on the ongoing saga regarding the garden plots in central Naperville, and how officials from the Park District and Naperville School District 203 are kicking around the idea of kicking out the gardeners and using the land for athletic fields instead.

The area now accommodates 590 garden plots, all of which were rented this past summer - 55 percent to residents who lived north of 75th Street, 37 percent to residents who lived south of 75th Street, and 8 percent to nonresidents.

After the creation of three "soccer-sized fields" there, the area would still provide 364 plots. And, with the creation of 322 new plots in either DuPage River Park or Southwest Community Park, the program would actually grow in size by nearly 100 plots.

Meanwhile, the plan, which is estimated to cost District 203 $500,000 and the Park District $250,000, also would meet the growing demand for athletic fields in the area. District 203 and the Naperville Park District cataloged those demands, which will be even more difficult to meet once the lease on Naperville Cemetery land now used for practice fields expires in 2009. They will present that lengthy list of uses, as well as options to continue accommodating them in the Knoch Park area, in a report that will be presented over the next few weeks during community engagement meetings to be held on this issue.

Let's hear from you. Do you agree that geographically, it makes sense to create additional garden plots at other locations? Or does that detract from the sense of community that gardeners experience working together? What do you think of this latest proposal?

The results are in showing how well students in Illinois fared on standardized tests. When you compare actual scores, as opposed to the percentage of students meeting or exceeding state requirements, Naperville School District 203's Kennedy Junior High in Lisle had the state's highest-ranking middle school outside of Chicago. (No. 7 overall.)

Madison Junior High also cracked the top 50, according to the Sun-Times criteria. Among elementary schools, Highlands in 203 was No. 13 and Clow in Indian Prairie School District 204 was No. 41.

Three Naperville High Schools made the top 50: Central at No. 12, North at No. 18 and Neuqua Valley at No. 24.

Naperville takes pride in all its schools. Did the number of schools ranked in the top 50 meet your expectations? Do you wish more schools were ranked, and ranked higher? Or do these rankings validate the excellence of Naperville schools? Do rankings like this matter much at all, anyway?

Naperville School District 203 and the community got its first look this week at architectural renderings showing how the exterior of Naperville Central High School will appear when an $87 million renovation project is completed in December 2011.

Susan Crotty, school board vice president, said she's concerned that the modern look that's heavy on steel and glass will clash with existing architecture predominent in downtown Naperville, namely, some of the older historic structures that lend Naperville its charm.

The Sun Wednesday printed a color illustration showing the new look, and a gallery of additional images can be viewed at napersun.com. (Some images show the district's planned Early Childhood Center.)

What do you think of the new look? What do you think of Crotty's concerns that the modern look will clash with historic features downtown? Now that these renderings are out there, how excited are you about the Central renovation project, which voters made possible when they approved a tax-increase referendum?

Sunday's Sun features the results of a Sun study about Naperville's highest-paid public servants. We used the Freedom of Information Act to ask the city, school districts and park districts for lists of their highest-paid workers, then combined the findings into one list.

In a moment, you'll be able to share your observations. First, here's a couple of thoughts from us:

Why are administrators in Indian Prairie School District 204 paid so much more than their counterparts in Naperville School District 203?

The highest-paid public servants work in schools, not the city. Why is that?

The park district's highest salaries don't even register in the top 20 citywide.

The findings reported in The Sun are simply base salaries. You gotta figure another, what, 20 percent in costs borne by taxpayers for health insurance and other benefits, then add whatever retirement contribution taxpayers are making, not to mention auto allowances, etc.

Now, your turn. What do you think of the salaries paid to public servants in Naperville? What would you change, if you could?