Latest news with #SchoolDistrict129
Chicago Tribune
26-05-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
West Aurora School District renews food service contract with OrganicLife
The West Aurora School District 129 board recently voted unanimously to renew the district's food service contract with Chicago-based OrganicLife for the 2025-26 school year. OrganicLife has been the district's food service provider for the past six years. The new contract with OrganicLife has an increase in cost of 3.6% based on the Consumer Price Index, West Aurora School District Associate Superintendent Angie Smith said. West Aurora students do receive free breakfast and lunch. However, they do pay for a la cart items in the cafeteria. Those prices are not going up, Smith said. 'All students in our district receive a free breakfast and lunch daily as we are covered by the Community Eligibility Provision of the National School Lunch Program. Students only pay for a la carte items or second meals and we are not increasing those prices,' Smith said. The district overall is pleased with its food service provider, she said. 'OrganicLife is an amazing partner who continues to look for ways to better support our students. As an example, this year we met with student groups and got some feedback on increasing awareness and availability of plant-based options. At the elementary level, we have tested offering hot breakfast items as part of our menu and will roll that out to all buildings next year,' Smith said. 'We welcome feedback and OrganicLife has always been responsive and provided options and solutions for our students,' she said.
Chicago Tribune
23-05-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Three West Aurora School District educators appointed to new roles
West Aurora School District 129 has appointed three educators to new roles for the 2025-26 school year. The appointments are Crystal Dvorak as principal of McCleery Elementary School, Peter Linden as assistant principal of Fearn Elementary School and Lindsey Pilmer as assistant principal at Goodwin Elementary School. Dvorak currently serves as assistant principal of Schneider Elementary School, district officials said. She previously was an assistant principal of Hill Elementary School and principal of Freeman Elementary School in District 129. Dvorak has held administrative roles for more than a decade, including serving as principal of Marseilles Elementary School in Marseilles, Illinois, and assistant principal of Grand Reserve Elementary School in Yorkville. Linden currently serves as dean of students at Jewel Middle School, district officials said. He previously was a fifth-grade teacher in a sheltered/blended classroom at Greenman Elementary School in the district, where he supported English learners from a wide range of language and cultural backgrounds, district officials said. Pilmer currently is a reading specialist at Freeman Elementary School. She served as Freeman's acting assistant principal earlier this school year, district officials said. She brings more than a decade of classroom and instructional leadership experience, including serving as a reading specialist in West Aurora and Plainfield School District 202, according to the district.
Chicago Tribune
18-03-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
West Aurora School District support staff to get raises as part of new five-year contract
West Aurora School District 129's union office support staff will receive raises under a new five-year contract recently approved by the district's board. The West Aurora school board recently approved the collective bargaining agreement with the West Aurora Office Professionals Union that represents approximately 100 workers in the district. The agreement for clerical workers is effective July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2030. Under terms of the contract, support staff will receive a $2 hourly wage increase plus a stipend based on the years of service to the district in the first year of the contract in 2025-26, West Aurora Director of Finance Ryan Abrahamson said in a summary of the terms. In each of the next two years, office staff will receive 6% hourly wage increases. Then, in the final two years of the contract – 2028-29 and 2029-30 – office workers will receive 2.5% hourly wage increases plus a hike set at half of the Consumer Price Index inflation rate. 'This is a culmination of some hard work and more importantly collaboration,' West Aurora Associate Superintendent of Operations Angie Smith told the board. West Aurora Office Professional Association President Stacy Krisch recognized members of the union's negotiating team. 'Through countless hours of preparation, we were able to present concrete ideas to the district negotiation team in what I believe to be the fastest negotiation process in history – a whopping three meetings,' Kirsch said. 'We collaborated, compromised together and came up with new ideas and ways to strengthen and improve our bargaining unit.' The union leader recognized the district's negotiating team and the school board for its leadership. 'We thank the district negotiation team and the West Aurora School Board for your support of the West Aurora Office Professional Association and your dedication to ensuring we have the highest standards of working conditions in the area,' Kirsch said. 'West Aurora has become the leader for office professionals across the area with this new contract,' Kirsch said. 'We are thrilled with the overall positive reaction from our membership as well.' Only three days of negotiations 'doesn't happen without organization,' Smith said, in recognizing the union negotiating team. 'A huge kudos to you and your team for having worked through all those things ahead of time so we make really productive use of our time. We did come up with some creative things that will help with some other unions as we negotiate down the road,' Smith said. 'This does position us well,' she said. 'We realize that often-times our office professionals are the first people that our students see and the first people parents deal with. It's really important to us that we honor them as the valuable members of our team that they are but also that we put some things in place to ensure the training that they need, the mentorship that they need are all there to make sure we can keep our team solid.' Smith recognized the district's negotiating team as well. 'This really was a very collaborative process. We are excited to be done this far ahead. It is March and we already have an agreement for July 1,' Smith said.
Chicago Tribune
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
From paintings to music, festival in Aurora puts spotlight on student art
Students' artistic efforts were on full display Saturday at West Aurora High School as School District 129 offered its 17th annual Fine Arts Festival. The free event that was open to the public benefits West Aurora High School's Patrons of the Performing Arts, a nonprofit group which supports music and theater programs at the school. The program was again overseen and organized by West Aurora School District K-12 Fine Arts Curriculum Coordinator Jonathan McLear, who said he has been involved with the program the past 14 years. 'This is our 17th year and it brings student musicians and artists from all of our buildings including elementary, middle school and high school,' he said. 'Everybody gets to see their artwork and take a look at what other levels at other schools are doing.' A large number of students throughout the district were set to participate, 'either singing or playing in a band or have their artwork up,' McLear said a few days before the event. 'Just in our elementary schools alone, we're probably looking at 1,500 elementary kids who have artwork on display or are in a music choir or recorder ensemble,' he said. McLear said there are plenty of works entered for the event. 'Sometimes, it's the teachers selecting the work. Other times, students may ask that their work be entered,' McLear said. 'Every teacher does it a little bit differently, but our art teachers try to show as many as possible.' Regarding performing artists, McLear said that every elementary school 'has one music group that performs, while our middle schools have choirs and bands that are preforming as well as high school jazz bands and concert ensembles performing.' 'I think that one of the neat things we do is our seventh grade bands play alongside our top high school bands, so they are all together in the gym, and the seventh-graders get to experience what it's like sitting alongside kids who have played for seven or eight years,' he said. McLear said that 'one of the best experiences for our younger students is to see the opportunities and continue working on their art.' 'They get to see the progression from middle school and high school. And it's also a great opportunity – a lot of our high school students love this day because they get to relive their past with either old art and music teachers and look at where they came from,' McLear said. 'As far as art classes and supporting the arts, this showcases the level of support District 129 provides to the fine arts and we want to keep it going strong.' Billy and Hannah Vanduzor of North Aurora were among the crowds packing the hallways Saturday at the festival and enjoying the work of their daughter and other students. 'My daughter Nora has art and is performing in her choir,' Hannah Vanduzor said. 'My daughter did a splatter painting using watercolor. We came the past two years and it's a pretty neat event and each year her work is in a frame and hung up in our loft. I just think it's very important to show the various levels of art – you have paintings, ceramics, music. It's really important.' Billy Vanduzor said he 'was pretty creative as a kid and was involved in music.' 'I was a student here at West High so this is a do-over for me,' he said. 'I think this is amazing that they bring kids from every school from the whole district and it's fun to see how inclusive the whole thing is.' Mike Leverence, an art educator at Freeman Elementary School, said the festival is 'an amazing event.' 'We're all excited to show what our students can do – their creative talents – and it's great to meet family and have everybody come in and celebrate what their children are able to do,' he said. 'We can go and listen to students sing and hear the band and see their artistic skills as well. Arts are important and it's the thing that gets kids to come to school some days. It shouldn't be an afterthought.' Leah Lichy of North Aurora, along with her husband Paul and son Kooper, 7, said this was their first year at the festival and that their fourth-grade daughter Ireland 'was playing the recorder' at the event. 'It's kind of cool to see everything in the same place and be around all the kids,' Leah Lichy said.
