Back-to-school brings new priorities in District 204
As Indian Prairie Unit District 204 students started classes Tuesday, Superintendent Karen Sullivan made her rounds to many of the district's 33 schools to welcome them back.
The topics on her mind give a glimpse into the priorities of the district of roughly 28,500 students in parts of Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook and Plainfield.
It's sure to be a busy year, Sullivan said, as the district focuses on supporting underrepresented high school students in honors and advanced placement courses, ensuring the smooth deployment of roughly 7,000 Chromebooks to middle school students and installing air conditioning in more classrooms at 19 elementary schools.
Here's a closer look at Sullivan's goals for the new year.
Equal Opportunity
District 204 is one of a handful in Illinois participating in the second year of a project with Equal Opportunity Schools, a Seattle nonprofit that seeks to close the enrollment gap and boost the number of minority and low-income students taking AP classes.
The partnership means the district will identify students in "underrepresented groups" who are able to handle accelerated coursework, recruit them to join the tougher classes and give them extra support to help them succeed, Sullivan said.
"These are kids who have the capacity to do it, but just have not enrolled," she said. "We're going to figure out why and give them that little push and support because being in that more rigorous coursework in high school has benefits in college."
Chromebooks for all
All 7,000 students at seven middle schools are set to receive Chromebooks this year, with much of the distribution taking place Thursday.
Now Sullivan said 1,300 high school students are testing a variety of Chromebooks and laptops so the district can decide which technology to buy them in upcoming years.
Keeping cool
Partial air conditioning was ready to go last August at 19 elementary schools built without full A/C systems. But since then, the district has worked to create more cool rooms at each building.
Now one-third of classrooms at each previously uncooled school have air conditioning, Sullivan said. Instead of installing it everywhere, one school at a time, the district is conducting the work evenly at each building.
"We need to just keep plugging away at it as best we can so we can get all of them air-conditioned," Sullivan said about elementary classrooms.
State money
No matter the district's other top priorities, Sullivan always has this one in mind: Keeping a close watch on changes to state school funding. A new commission has been asked to recommend a new formula by Feb. 1.
"We'll be very active in seeing what comes out of that," Sullivan said.