District 88 celebrates the beginning of the 2019-20 school year

Welcome to the 2019-20 school year! We’ve had an amazing first few days, and we look forward to another tremendous year.

Addison Trail Principal Michael Bolden, Willowbrook Principal Dr. Daniel Krause and I celebrated the first day of school on Aug. 14 by riding a bus with students. It was a great way to meet our new students and continue to connect with our returning students. I also visited with students and staff in our District 88 Transition Program, which helps individuals ages 18 to 21 who have disabilities learn life skills, obtain job training in a community setting and transition to life after District 88.

As we move into the 2019-20 school year, below are three areas of focus.

Safety and security: The safety and well-being of our students and staff is our No. 1 priority and will remain at the forefront of our work. In 2018-19, we worked with the Addison Police Department and Addison School District 4 and received a grant from the Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) for the School Violence Prevention Program. With the funding from this grant, we bought and recently installed a rapid emergency response system in all school facilities through BluePoint Alert Solutions. This system includes pull stations similar to fire alarms, strobe lights and mobile panic buttons that are placed throughout the schools and outside the buildings. We will continue to communicate and work with all of our stakeholders to help ensure a safe and welcoming learning environment.
Strategic Plan: We updated our Strategic Plan in 2018-19, which was approved by the District 88 Board of Education in February 2019 after the recommendation of the administration. We updated our Strategic Plan to retool and enhance the existing 2010 plan and to ensure the focus remains on accomplishing our mission. The 2019 plan reflects a focus on the whole student, with an emphasis on cultural competency and culturally responsive classrooms, to ensure students are college, career and world ready. The Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, was implemented on the Illinois Report Card for the first time in 2018-19 and uses multiple indicators to evaluate schools. Each individual school (rather than the district) is rated on those indicators and then placed into one of four designations. We are proud Addison Trail and Willowbrook were rated as “Commendable Schools” (the second-highest level) in 2018-19, and we look forward to improving. When looking at our Strategic Plan from 2010 and the current updated version, it’s clear our Board of Education, administration and stakeholders understand the value of including multiple measures to ensure student growth and achievement. As a result, our vision and goals are very much aligned with the ESSA. Read more – and see our updated Goals and Indicators – at www.dupage88.net/StrategicPlan2018.
Technology: We implemented a new delivery model for instructional technology in 2018-19, and we’re excited all students now have a Chromebook this school year as an added tool to enhance the learning environment. Read more at www.dupage88.net/Chromebooks2019.

First day of school highlights (Aug. 14)

Addison Trail

94-percent attendance rate on the first day of school, and Band students greeted everyone as they entered the building.
Staff members displayed the 2019-20 Blazer Pride T-shirt, with the message of “Choose Kindness. Be Relentless. Chase Greatness.”
The Buildings and Grounds staff had the rooms cleaned and the floors waxed before the start of school.
The fall athletic season has begun. This year’s first football game will take place on Aug. 30 at home against Conant (varsity will begin at 7:30 p.m.). All other fall sports are practicing for their season.

Willowbrook

95-percent attendance rate on the first day of school, and the Drum Line greeted students and staff by performing in the hallways.
Staff members displayed the 2019-20 Warrior Pride T-shirt, which celebrates the school’s 60th anniversary this year.
The Buildings and Grounds staff had the rooms cleaned and the floors waxed before the start of school.
The fall athletic season has begun. This year’s first football game will take place on Aug. 30 (varsity will begin at 7:30 p.m. at home versus Providence Catholic). All other fall sports are practicing for their season.

District 88 Transition Program (this program helps individuals ages 18 to 21 who have disabilities learn life skills, obtain job training in a community setting and transition to life after District 88)

The Transition Program welcomes 53 students this year.
The Transition Program plans to open its Perks & Possibilities Café after Labor Day, which will offer a variety of new menu items. Students in the Transition Program help set up the café, and several of them stay for job training. The café is entering its 10th year and will be open from 9 to 11 a.m. Monday through Thursday in the Addison Public Library. The café is successful because of generous donations from the community.
This year, Transition Program students will experience community-based learning opportunities such as joining recreational leagues and going to museums, theatre performances and other venues to develop life skills. They also will have guest speakers to learn about services available in the community and to increase independent living skills.
Students in the Transition Program receive job training at more than 55 vocational sites. The program is always looking for new job-training sites. If you’re interested, contact Transition Program Department Head Jack Andrews at 630-458-4512 or jandrews@dupage88.net.

Getting ready for the school year
To prepare for the 2019-20 school year, we hosted the following events. Read more about these events at https://www.dupage88.net/site/public/files/?item=4574.

On Aug. 1, 5, 6 and 7, our district and school leaders came together for District Leadership Team and Joint Leadership Team workshops.
On Aug. 8 and 9, new staff members participated in New Teacher Orientation, where they were welcomed to the District 88 family and received information/training to acclimate them to the district.
During the New Teacher Orientation on Aug. 8, we hosted our seventh annual Community Breakfast, which is an opportunity for our community leaders and local service organizations to meet our new staff members and learn more about District 88.
On Aug. 12, all staff members attended an Institute Day to begin the school year.

We thank all of our stakeholders for their continued support of District 88. We know our students succeed inside the classroom and beyond because of a knowledgeable Board of Education, dedicated and passionate staff, engaged students and involved parents/guardians and community members. It truly takes a team to build futures for the students of District 88, and it’s through these partnerships we’re able to accomplish our mission of working for the continuous improvement of student achievement.

Scott J. Helton, Ed.D.
District 88 Superintendent