Superintendent’s Message

Dear District 13 Community,

Welcome to another wonderful school year! As we finish our first full week of school, I am filled with excitement and anticipation for all of the amazing things that District 13 has in store for this year. Across District 13 our educational philosophy is centered on the needs of students and creating welcoming and affirming spaces, where students have access to rigorous learning opportunities. Schools across District 13 offer a variety of specialized programs including project based learning, International Baccalaureate, and Magnet Schools to ensure that all students have access to rich and challenging learning environments. As we enter into a new school year, I want to share some of the initiatives that you can expect to see across District 13. We know that our district is diverse and vibrant. As Superintendent, I work with principals, parent leaders, and the district team to set a district wide vision. The work of our principals and school leadership teams is to bring this vision to
life in their buildings, centering the needs of their individual school communities.

Below, please find a brief synopsis of the District 13 foci for this school year. I encourage you to talk to your child’s principal and to attend your School Leadership Team’s monthly meetings to learn more about how our school leaders are tailoring this work to the unique needs and resources of their individual school communities.

• Strategic Instructional Periods. Across District 13 we are sharpening our abilities to use DATA to ensure that we are meeting the needs of all our students. DATA is not a typo. As a district we are talking about capital letters DATA - ANY and ALL information on students is data. Some data can be presented in graphs and charts to track student learning aligned to standards and other forms of data come from relationships and conversations with students and families where teachers get to know their students’ needs. Across the district this year, school leaders will be planning and organizing opportunities for teachers and school staff to look at student reading data and organize strategic instructional groups, a least 3 times a week, based on student needs.
  

• Restorative Justice Practices. Last year, we used our monthly Town Hall to develop a district wide commitment to Restorative Justice Practices. We met in person in June for the community to sign and pledge their support for this work. If you haven’t had a chance to see this district wide pledge, check out this link or the QR code at the bottom. All schools in District 13 have a plan for implementing restorative justice practices, aligned to long term goals and the District vision for creating welcoming and affirming environments for all students.

• District 13 Assessment in Mathematics (AIM). This year, District 13 is rolling out a district wide math assessment. This will be a phased in assessment starting with a small number of target schools in the fall and growing to include all schools by the spring. As part of this work, the District is focusing on using student learning data in math to provide targeted professional development to teachers, so that teachers have the knowledge needed to better support student learning.