Superintendent News
Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95
A Message from Dr. Kelley Gallt
January 29, 2021
Dear District 95 Families,
January has proven to be a busy month, and as such this newsletter contains a great deal of important information. I am highlighting a few items here, but please be sure to read all the articles below.
At the Board of Education meeting last night, the recommendation of the Boundary Advisory Committee for revised school boundaries was approved by the Board, effective at the start of the 2021-22 school year and coinciding with the opening of the new May Whitney Elementary School in August. More specifics are included in the “New School Boundaries” article to support families affected by these changes.
Also presented at the meeting last night were updates on our current levels of in-person learning and our plans going forward to increase the ability for more student access to in-person learning, and the latest information available to us about vaccine availability for interested staff members. Read more in the article below: “Progress Toward More In-Person Learning”.
Lastly, the 2021-22 calendar was also approved last night with some notable differences for the coming school year. Most notably, the approved calendar has high school finals and the end of the first semester BEFORE winter break. This has long been a goal of the high school in order to allow students to experience more of a true break without worrying about studying for finals. The snapshot calendar linked below under “Calendar Updates” also reflects the finalized dates for the 2022 Spring Break.
Sincerely,
Dr. Kelley Gallt
Clarification About Family Surveys
Recently, you should have received a survey from your building principal about learning preferences for the fall. Our survey was designed to understand whether families will continue to want flexibility in the next school year. Please be assured that we are committed to doing the best we can to get as many students in person as possible while abiding by health department mitigations. The survey was simply intended to help us understand whether our families wished to continue with flexible learning options (such as remote, partially remote, etc.) to best support our planning efforts.
New School Boundaries Effective Next School Year
After months of meetings, community feedback, and work with national boundary consultants RSP & Associates, the Boundary Advisory Committee sent two plans to the Board of Education in early January.
At the Jan. 28th, 2021 meeting, the Board of Education adopted the committee’s preferred revised boundary plans (effective beginning NEXT school year) along with grandfathering options:
- Elementary Map 1A Revised Hybrid (Families impacted by the boundary changes will be directly contacted by the district.)
- Revised Middle School Attendance Boundary (Families impacted by the boundary changes will be directly contacted by the district.)
- Current year 4th graders (next year’s 5th grade) may remain at their current school for the final year of elementary school. Transportation will be provided by the district. PLEASE NOTE: SIBLINGS IN OTHER GRADE LEVELS ARE NOT GRANDFATHERED.
- Current year 6th and 7th graders (next year’s 7th and 8th grade) may remain at their current school for the remainder of middle school. Transportation will be provided by the district.
- Families with students who have the option to exercise grandfathering options will be contacted directly by the schools to determine whether they wish to exercise these grandfathering options.
For more information about the process leading to the new boundary adoption, click here to visit the “Redistricting School Boundaries” webpage on the district website.
Progress Toward More In-Person Learning
Each week I meet with other superintendents and the Lake County Health Department and continue to advocate for greater flexibility in mitigation strategies to allow more students access to in-person learning options. Please know that District 95 is already at the forefront of providing secondary students with in-person learning experiences in Lake County. We continue to look for ways to add students in-person, particularly based on our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS).
Moving forward, one area of potential difficulty for the district is having enough substitute teachers available to meet our demand. This is especially true as vaccinations for educators become available, since some people may have short term side effects causing them to miss work, or if vaccine appointments are not available outside of the workday hours. To protect against potential staff shortages, the district has hired more individuals who can serve in a supervisory role in the event teachers are absent. Even with these extra supervisory staff members, it is important for parents to understand that there may be times when our staffing levels require us to make adjustments (for example, shifting to an asynchronous learning day). We are doing our best to avoid any such disruptions in the classrooms.
Calendar Updates
The District 95 Calendar Committee reviewed possible 2021-22 school year calendars over the course of several meetings. At the Board of Education meeting last night, the 2021-22 calendar was approved (click here to see the calendar on our website).
Details of the calendar include:
- The first day of school for all students will be Tuesday, August 17, 2021.
- First semester will end before Winter Break, on Wednesday, December 22, 2021, with a staff Institute Day planned for December 23, 2021. High school finals will be before winter break.
- Spring Break will be March 28 – April 1, 2022. District 95 follows guidance from the Regional Office of Education for this break to ensure we are aligned with the Tech Campus.
- The last day of school will be Friday, May 27, 2022; with emergency days included, the last day is June 6, 2022.
Join Us for the District 95 VIRTUAL Film Festival!
District 95 students from all levels have been hard at work creating their films for the 9th annual Film Festival, sponsored by the District 95 Educational Foundation. Students created documentaries, animations, comedies/dramas, or public service announcements and an outside panel of judges have selected winners from each level (elementary, middle, and high school). In addition, a traveling trophy is earned by the school with the most submissions.
JOIN US virtually on Tuesday, February 9th at 7:00 p.m., (click here for the Livestream link) as we watch a selection of entries and announce the winners!!
Kindergarten Registration
Have an incoming Kindergartener? Mark your calendar for the VIRTUAL Kindergarten Information & Registration Night on Thursday, Feb. 18th at 6:30 p.m.
The Zoom link for the meeting is on the district website and is also available here:
Zoom link:
https://lz95.zoom.us/j/83607185092
Meeting ID: 836 0718 5092
No password
Additional information about registration materials will be available on the district and school websites next week.