April is cool -- not cruel -- in District 203
April is the "coolest month."
With apologies to T. S. Eliot, I say that for several reasons.
First, it is a cool month for the taxpayers who support us. As part of our facilities initiative, we began selling the bonds that our community was kind enough to endorse in last February's referendum.
Working with our financial adviser, Ehlers & Associates, District 203 solicited bids on a bank-qualified loan for the first $10 million of the $43 million we will need to borrow in the next several years.
As part of that process, we are proud to have secured a Triple A (AAA) rating from Standard and Poor's and an "AA1" from Moody's.
That, and a favorable financial market for highly qualified borrowers, resulted in a savings of more than $250,000 to taxpayers in interest costs and bond insurance, based solely on those excellent ratings.
And the savings to District 203 is even greater than $1 million if our sale is compared to recent bids on non-bank qualified loans received by other government entities.
Please know that we are working hard to "stretch" the dollars you have given us for the benefit of our students.
The second reason I find April to be such a "cool month" is the excellent performance of our seniors at both high schools in the college admissions process. This year's senior class is particularly outstanding academically, and the letters of college admissions they received are a testament to their drive, determination and excellence.
Prestigious universities outside of Illinois to which our students were accepted this year include Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Wellesley, MIT, Duke, Dartmouth, Princeton, Rice, Georgetown, University of Pennsylvania, Washington University and Vanderbilt to name only a few.
Hundreds more of our graduates will be attending fine colleges here in Illinois or in neighboring states such as the University of Illinois, the University of Michigan, Northwestern, University of Chicago and Notre Dame.
One of the questions parents sometimes ask is whether their children will be prepared to attend a highly selective college after graduating from either of our high schools. I am proud to report that the answer is a definitive "yes."
The third reason I find April to be a great month -- especially this year -- is largely because of our friends at Anderson's Bookshop. They have always brought us wonderful authors to help our students make connections between the written word and the people who give those words meaning.
To that end, our second-graders soon will have the honor to hear Laura and Jenna Bush (a librarian and teacher) discuss their book about a student who hates to read, but through mysterious adventures experiences a change of heart.
Earlier this week it was a special honor for me to talk with our nation's Children's Poet Laureate Jack Prelutsky, who helped me excite my elementary students about poetry more than 20 years ago.
While in Naperville, Prelutsky delighted our fifth-grade students with wonderful poems and music that tickled their imagination. He also was kind enough to have lunch with our fifth-grade teachers and talk to them about his life and how he goes about the writing process.
If you haven't shared the joy of reading a Jack Prelutsky book at bedtime with your children or grandchildren, I urge you to stop by Anderson's and reward yourself.
Finally, speaking of literature, consider joining the Naperville Education Foundation for breakfast May 8 where our focus will be literacy and how our schools support and encourage children to both read and write effectively. Included will be a special tribute to Dr. Seuss.
Despite the coolness and the cruelty of this year's April weather, there is one final reason for teachers and students to think of April as special: there is just one more month until summer vacation!