District 58 Hires Firm to Assess Educational Adequacy

District 58 board of education members met for their last regular meeting before school starts, discussing planned changes and hinting at others yet to come.

In response to parental and community input from last year's Strategic Plan surveys and focus groups, the district hired Wight & Company to assess the educational adequacy and physical state of each school in District 58. The cost of Wight & Company's services has a price tag of $53,000, plus reimbursable expenses for direct costs not to exceed $2,000. Wright & Company representatives said they expect the work to be completed sometime in the first quarter of 2012, with both educational and building assessments taking place concurrently.

Also related to the Strategic Goal Action Plan, Assistant Superintendent for Special Services Terry Martin announced that all schools are now Response to Intervention ready. RTI is a method of academic intervention used in the United States designed to provide early, effective assistance to children who are having difficulty learning. RTI functions as one part of a data-based process of identifying learning disabilities. Martin said that RTI is "referenced in Federal law, and required by state law" when identifying special needs.

Martin also presented a change that impacts El Sierra's English as a Second Language program, with other district schools possibly on track for changes later. This year El Sierra now has more than 28 students who speak Spanish as their primary language. That means the school will offer what is known as an LEP (or ELL) program. Unlike an ESL, where students receive instruction primarily in English, an ELL program provides instruction in Spanish as needed. El Sierra's increase in children who speak a language other than English is consistent with the overall district, which saw a 30 percent increase district-wide. Spanish is far from the only language spoken by the children; Urdu and Lithuanian are also well-represented.

While no concrete changes or decisions regarding technology were made at last night's meeting, board members did discuss the creation of a new technology committee with representatives from each school and each grade level. Cathie Pezanoski, assistant superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, said this new group would examine how technology is used in the district, using what she called a "paradigm shift": Instead of thinking of how to fit technology into a lesson, teachers should decide what they want their students to master and how best to reach each student, then see if technology could be used to that effect. In addition to District 58 representatives, the technology committee invited Education Foundation members to attend.

Increasing bandwidth and connectivity is another goal of the technology committee.