Dr. Fagan was  pleased to announce that some $23,000.00 
for the United Way Campaign, had been collected from 
the workers at District 97. 

A questionnaire was distributed to some fifty households
in the Irving school district.  Eight topics were put on the 
list given to the parents.  Below is a list of the greatest 
concerns, as expressed by the households.  In order, 

they are:

1) Effective discipline strategies                  54%
2) Making math and science fun for kids   48%
3) Managing homework                             46%
4) Getting children to love reading             42%
5) Managing work and family stress           40%
6) Surviving financial stress                        18% 
7) Managing as a single parent                   14%
8) Coping with substance abuse                  10%
9) Sibling rivalry and peer pressure              6%

Power Hour is to help students after school get caught 
up or increase their learning skills in and out of the 
classroom.  Family Power Hour is similar, but more
encompassing.  Family Power Hour gets the family 
involved with the students and helps make education 
a family event.  If children are not doing their
homework or spending too much distracted from their 
learning parents can go a long way into getting their 
children back on road.  Family Power Hour helps the
parent(s) get a hold on the latest help from organizations
like the “Family Study Institute”.  The Family Study
Institute has programs to assist parents in helping their
own children get and stay focused on their education.

We hope to be hearing more from them soon.

Family Study Institute
121 North Kickapoo Street
Lincoln, Illinois  62656
1-800-759-1495

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School Board Member Richard White spoke about the need 
to get more data on all of our children and to be able to
measure these bits and bytes to gain a better understanding 
of how well we are meeting our objectives of teaching what 
must be taught.  The Stanford 9 tests can give a lot more 
data for the district than the IGAPs.

The reason the Stanford 9 exams are held in higher esteem 
is that they are nation wide exams, and do not have the 
controversy associated with them that the IGAP’s have 
had through the years.  There is also considerably more
data available to persons wishing to exam information 
derived from these battery of tests.

Editorial Note: from Edward Vincent

I have examined many of the local school districts in and out of
the Cook County Area.  If our schools are to be judged on how
well they are doing in the State of Illinois, we must put all of
our data on a level playing field.  This means that for some school
districts like Naperville where the word poverty is hardly even used
in their data, this must be taken into account when stacking their
results up against ours.  We should be asking how well a middle
classed given child in our school system would do compared to
a middle classed child from a town like Naperville.  This is 
comparing apples to apples.  This will let our teachers and
administrators know how well they are doing on a level playing
field.  For those of our children at or near the poverty level we
may require additional efforts to help both them and their families
achieve success.  Programs are out there and we should look to invest
more money in some of them.  We will have a review soon of
some of these alternatives.  Family Power Hour is a large step
in the right direction.
 

*******
 

District 97 Recommends Good Books for Children to Read

Credit is given to Mary Berg, Kay Hickey, Georgiann Schulte, 
Kathy Schroer, Mary Sue Voth, and Jan Weerts for their 
tremendous effort in reviewing, gathering, and putting
together these books for all the elementary grades to use. 
This list was put together for several reasons, helping 
students meet district standards, increase the enjoyment 
of reading, and give suggestions for other books to read.

The books of lists were given for use to the Oak Park Library, 
River Forest Library, and the Forest Park Library.  They were
designed to be used by kids, parents, and teachers.

“We tried to select books that did not pertain to any 
specific religion, because then we would have to go back
and try to find a book from each religion-so we did this 
to avoid any trouble.”  said Mary Berg.  She and Kay Hickey 
both presented the lists of books that were compiled for the 
District 97 School system.

These lists are meant to help the children attain, or surpass
what is expected of them in their reading skills.  These lists 
will also help parents and teachers, when assisting young 
readers on what books to choose for their grade level a
nd interests.

There is a desire to now extend this list to the Kindergarten 
and Preschool levels of children.

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Elementary School News:

Susan Gibson (principal of Beye), let be known to one and all that her 
school, Beye Elementary was the prettiest one in the district.

The elementary school budget has grown, as the Middle School Plans had
increased.  The projections show that more funds for the plans may
be warranted.  The bids are not in yet and so only estimates
can be offered.  According to the plans the design team has cut back
on many expenses in the rehab work, and figures that these reductions
will equal the planned financial increases.  We will have to wait and
see the bids before more can be done.

On January14th,  10am at the administration building, the bids due, and
on January 26th their will be a motion asking for Board approval on
the bids.

    $1,500,000.00 will be required to bring air conditioning into all 
eight elementary schools.  This will allow the schools to be more
productive during hot days and make summer school classes possible
for the children that require additional learning or choose some classes
for their furtherance of education and enjoyment.

The construction schedule follows:
Beye. and Holmes exterior construction will begin on March 1, 2000, 
renovation of all four elementary schools will start as school ends on June 5
“and will continue until the night before school starts.” (Construction
company humor to indicate they want all the time that they can have.)

The playground areas at the schools will be kept open throughout
the construction process for the neighborhood children. 

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