D75 Superintendent’s Message
August 2023
Welcome to School District 75 and the start of our 2023-24 school year. Whether your student is in their last year at Carl Sandburg, or you are new to our schools, we’re very excited to have your family be a part of our district family.
If you’re just joining our district, you’re not alone. This year we have more than a dozen new staff members as well as a new principal (Katie O’Brien at Lincoln) and a new Assistant Principal (Sunny Morley at Washington). If your family has returning students to District 75, you’ll see plenty of familiar and friendly faces.
You may also notice a familiar emphasis on literacy, specifically reading and writing. Last year we focused on the phrase, “Ask Me What I’m Reading,” to encourage the sharing of our favorite books. This year we’re promoting the theme, “Books Bring Us Together.”
The idea is that by reading, we’re better able to communicate with others and feel more connected to the world - so books allow us to have something in common with each other. In District 75, we use similar strategies for teaching literacy at all of our schools. Of course how we teach those lessons are different based on grade level, but we’re using the same terminology when discussing books.
The idea that reading books is our common starting point bodes well for all areas of study, from language to math. Reading is the foundation of all content areas and our continued focus on literature is paying off for our students throughout the district.
Positive data from student scores during the 2022-23 school year validates our work over the past couple of years.
In our student STAR Growth percentile goals, we met 8 of our 9 goals during the last school year. The only goal that wasn’t met was Spanish literacy at Washington School. But even while we missed that goal by 1 percent, the proficiency in Spanish literacy at Washington still improved by 11 percent.
We will continue moving forward with our current curriculum plan and keep our focus on literacy with high expectations that student performance will continue to improve.
So as we begin another school year, let’s allow books to bring us together with one common goal: to help our students - your children - to reach their fullest potential.
Sincerely,
Dr. Kevin Myers
Superintendent, District 75