North Cook News

The Norridge School District 80 board heard from its building leadership team on improvement plans for the coming year during the board's meeting on April 18.

The board was visited by the building team from John Leigh Elementary School, which includes Principal Sean Rabiola, assistant principal Allison Carnehl, Kindergarten teacher Wendy High, speech pathologist Marlee Fratto, first-grade teacher Valerie McAuley, fourth-grade teacher Felix Saji, second-grade teacher Lindsey Percival, PE teacher Patrick Woodward, and third-grade teacher Trish Schultheis. The team, which created the improvement plan for the building, shared its new mission and vision statements, which focus on inspiring education in a nurturing environment that focuses on classrooms centered around student needs.

"One of the strengths of Leigh school is that we have a really supportive environment," Woodward told the board, adding that the "five essentials survey" was filled out by about 99% of the student population, and it shows "very strong performance for peer support for academic work. Another very strong performance for academic personalism and a continuous strong student-teacher trust really shows evidence that students feel like they have a safe learning environment. They feel like they can trust their peers and that they feel respected by the institute as well. (13:19)

The team shared some of its strengths, including the ongoing partnership with the Park District to offer their student enrichment activities after-school like arts, athletics, and fun special classes and events. They also ensure their students receive specials in school, like gym, music, and art. The team is focused on increasing its social and emotional support, as well as its behavioral instructions, encouraging students to have a sense of ownership in the building to create a more positive community. They have the Tiger Pride program, which instructs students to be safe, kind, and respectful. Some of the challenges the school is facing are in their physical infrastructure: an outdated and inefficient HVAC system and some plumbing and stormwater drainage difficulties, Woodward said.

After examining their academic assessment data, the team determined that the school could have 70% of their students reach benchmark goals next year in math, and 70% in ELA, which has historically been just a little bit under their math growth levels. Their other improvement for next year is to ensure that 100% of students who are identified at the start of the year as needing additional social-emotional intervention receive those supports and have an individualized plan to address their needs. Much of their other efforts include increased communication with the community and families to better monitor and help students, improve their math and ELA instructional periods, and encourage students to track their own progress and learning.