Welcome to the 17 -18 School Year
Dear CCSD59 Parents and Families,
This week we welcome back all families on our traditional calendar. I hope everyone had a great summer break, and I look forward to continuing the excellent partnerships we have between our families, our staff, and our district.
As I shared in the summer mailing, during the 2017 – 2018 year, we will continue to build on the foundational work we have been accomplishing over the past several years. Our focus includes:
- An ongoing emphasis on social-emotional learning and the impact it has on students’ learning and development. Over the past three years, CCSD59 embedded social-emotional learning opportunities throughout the daily schedule to specifically work on building community, strengthening self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship skills, and developing responsible decision making capacities.
- Continuing to develop a modern curriculum and teaching strategies. We will continue building our new learning maps based on district outcomes, applied content outcomes, and subject area understandings to create powerful learning experiences for all students. This work is supported through our weekly staff and leadership training.
- A deep dive into literacy and math (reading and writing) with the goal of developing passionate readers, writers, and mathematicians. By incorporating powerful strategies like the reading, writing, and math workshops, staff will continue to develop and model the skills and dispositions needed to be literate in the modern world.
- This year, we will increase early intervention strategies and services for students and families, providing increased support for them prior to to entering CCSD59 schools. In the fall, CCSD59 will launch our birth to age 8 plans for early interventions for literacy, math, and social-emotional learning, as we believe that intervening at an earlier age will increase readiness of students for entry into our schools.
Collectively, the district is called upon to create an effective educational experience designed to meet the needs of all learners – preparing each for the 21st century. School and parent partnerships play a vital role in this preparation. Your encouragement and support of your child’s educational journey is paramount to achieving student success.
On behalf of the CCSD59 Board of Education, administration, and staff, I would like to welcome you to a new and exciting year, and best wishes for a successful school year.
Dr. Fessler
