District 200 celebrates school year's accomplishments

Over the past few weeks, I have enjoyed attending many celebrations in our schools. At each of these events, I see future leaders of our community setting the foundation for the next generation.

While we tend to celebrate a lot at the end of a school year, we have several celebrations from the 2014-15 school year that I'm proud to highlight:

• We graduated 1,059 seniors from our two high schools. Approximately 95 percent are going on to attend a two- or four-year institution to further their education.

• Our ACT composite score increased to 23.7, up from 23.5 in the prior year.

• We had 20 percent, or 244, of our English Learners attain English proficiency and exit the EL program, which is well above the state-suggested 12 percent.

• Districtwide, 72.5 percent of students are proficient in math and 73.5 percent are proficient in reading on state tests.

• Through the hard work of our teachers and administration, we fully implemented the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards in our curriculum.

• Two of our elementary schools were nominated for prestigious Blue Ribbon Awards.

• We expanded our early childhood services in the community by opening additional classrooms for 60 students in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years with the support of state grants and the work of the Wheaton-Warrenville Early Childhood Collaborative.

• All elementary schools in our district offer an all-day kindergarten option.

• We lowered our student-to-device ratio from 3.4 at the beginning of the year to 2.8 by the end of the year. Increasing access to devices allows staff to creatively integrate technology in instruction.

• Due to the collective and collaborative efforts with the WWEA, CEA, board of education and district administration, we settled two collective bargaining agreements.

• We developed a strategic plan, Vision 2018, based on feedback from Engage 200 and ongoing community, staff and board engagement that outlines our goals and priorities for the next several years.

• We developed a Vision 2018 Dashboard to track and communicate our progress in key areas.

In my first year as superintendent, I have been incredibly impressed. We have all of the right attributes of a high-quality school district in place - talented teachers, motivated and capable students, supportive and involved families and strong leadership. Those qualities are evident in my visits with each of our school communities.

Our districtwide accomplishments would not be possible without our community's support and dedication to the education of our children. Although our last day of school was Monday, June 8, we already are working hard on key initiatives for next year and I look forward to continuing to build on our strong foundation. Until then, I wish all families and staff a safe and relaxing summer vacation.

• Jeff Schuler is superintendent of Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200. His column runs monthly in Neighbor during the school year.