U-46 seeks adults to mentor students

Game Changers is looking for volunteers to mentor at all Elgin Area School District U-46 middle and high schools.

Mentors must commit to working one hour per week with a student. Potential mentors who are not U-46 employees will undergo a background check and receive training on mentorship, and the district's policies and procedures. Students will be paired with adults of the same gender.

The goal is to connect students with adults working in fields they are interested in pursuing or an adult that will help them with goal setting toward their career interest.

For more information, contact carolmammoser@u-46.org.

U-46 seeks parent volunteers for enrollment and facilities committee:

Elgin Area School District U-46 is seeking parent representatives from each school to serve on the district's Enrollment and Facilities Committee that will make recommendations on boundary and facility changes.

U-46 is working with a private demographer to study enrollment and capacities of all its elementary, middle and high schools.

The Enrollment and Facilities Committee of the Citizen's Advisory Council will soon receive a report from the demographer containing various scenarios to alleviate current and projected overcrowding at all schools, and potentially closing one or more schools to eliminate underutilized schools. The committee will use guidelines approved by the school board to study the demographer's report and develop recommendations for boundary and facility changes. The committee's report must be submitted to the school board by January 2016 so changes can be implemented in the 2016-2017 school year.

Representatives must live within their school boundaries, be appointed by the principal to represent their school, and commit to being an active member through January 2016. Each school's representative will ensure their school's ideas and concerns are heard before any final decisions are made. The representative also will have an opportunity to cast a vote on the final report submitted by the committee to CAC and the school board.

For questions, contact committee co-chairs Sue Kerr at skerr2006@comcast.net or Roger Wallace at roger.wallace@gmail.com, or Jeff King, U-46 chief operations officer and district liaison to the committee.

Applications sought for teacher award: The National Center for Families Learning is accepting nominations for the 2015 Toyota Family Teacher of the Year Award.

The partnership between NCFL and Toyota began 18 years ago aimed at recognizing school and community-based teachers who are exceptional at engaging families in the educational process.

Nominations may be submitted online. Programs may nominate up to two family educators using separate nomination forms. Self-nominations are not allowed. Incomplete nominations or late submissions will not be accepted. The deadline to submit nominations is 11:59 p.m. EST on Dec. 31.

For more information, contact Joshua Cramer at jcramer@familieslearning.org.