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Chicago Tribune
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Indian Prairie District 204 board OKs applications to state board of education for funding waivers for three schools
Following school board approval on Monday, Indian Prairie School District 204 is applying to the Illinois State Board of Education to have three of its schools — Brookdale, Gombert and McCarty elementary schools — designated as Title I schoolwide, a designation for schools with high percentages of low-income students, next school year. Title I funding helps schools pay for resources meant to improve students' education and help ensure they meet state academic standards, according to the state board. Brookdale, Gombert and McCarty all have percentages of low-income students between 20% and 39%, per a memo from the district's Deputy Superintendent Louis Lee that was part of Monday's meeting agenda, so the district is going through a waiver process with the state to allow the schools to obtain schoolwide status, which allows them to use the funding they receive for all students in the building, regardless of income level. Schools with low-income student populations above 40% qualify for the schoolwide designation automatically. But schools with at least 20% but less than 40% low-income students can also operate as schoolwide Title I programs if they apply for and receive a waiver from their state educational agency, in this case the Illinois State Board of Education, according to the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Two other elementary schools in the district, Georgetown and Longwood, have had the schoolwide designation, meaning their low-income student population was at or above 40%, since the 2018-19 school year, a district spokesperson said, and are being designated as such for the 2025-26 school year as well. Title I, Part A is part of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. It provides additional financial assistance to school districts for children coming from low-income families, with the goal of closing 'educational achievement gaps by allocating federal funds for education programs and services.' Title I allocations are based primarily on local education agencies' poverty estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, and then are allocated within each local agency to schools based on their poverty rates, commonly measured by the number of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Title I funding is provided by the federal government to the state, which then disburses it to the schools, Lee said. But which schools qualify for Title I funding can change from year to year based on enrollment. Gombert and McCarty have received Title I funding since the 2018-19 school year, according to a district spokesperson. McCarty's percentage of low-income students used to be over 40%, but has recently decreased, Lee said. And the district is applying for a waiver for Brookdale for the first time this year. In their applications, school districts need to provide rationale for why a school needs a schoolwide waiver. For Brookdale, for example, the district noted that the school now qualifies for Title I funding because it is seeing rising numbers of low-income students. Gombert was previously supported by targeted funds, but has had schoolwide status for several years, and the district said in its application that, since receiving Title funding, 'the growth of students has been significant due to the added layers of intervention across the school and support provided to families.' McCarty previously had a schoolwide designation, and the district wrote that continued schoolwide status is still needed to improve academic achievement and support social-emotional learning. Lee said there are a number of reasons low-income student populations in schools vary from year to year and are part of overall changes in the student body, like slight declines in district enrollment and increasing ethnic diversity. But he sees supporting a diverse student body as part of the district's strength. According to ISBE, last year Indian Prairie received just over $2.2 million districtwide in Title I, Part A funding and funding for neglected and delinquent children, which goes toward schools with high percentages of children from low-income families and to educational programs for children in state-operated institutions or community day programs, respectively. The Title I funding is reimbursement-based, and the district files expense reports quarterly, according to a district spokesperson. Title I funding provides the schools that receive it with additional funding on top of what they'd receive already, which can go toward things like arts and social-emotional learning programs or to pay for additional staff in a school to work with students in smaller groups, Lee said. And they have flexibility in how they spend it, he said. A school's leadership can determine how they use the Title I funding, though Lee said at Indian Prairie all the Title I schools meet regularly to share ideas about what kind of programming is and isn't working. Now, after obtaining board approval on Monday, the applications for the three schools' waivers will be submitted to the Illinois State Board of Education. The United States Department of Education released Title I, Part A funding on May 14, according to a state board spokesperson, and the state agency is in the process of releasing its allocations.
Chicago Tribune
06-05-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Indian Prairie District 204 school board OKs $2.3 million LED lighting project
On Monday, Indian Prairie School District 204's school board approved a $2.3 million LED lighting upgrade project at three district schools. Crone Middle School, Scullen Middle School and Brookdale Elementary School, all in Naperville, will be getting their fluorescent fixtures replaced with LED ones, per Monday's meeting agenda. The lighting work at Crone, Scullen and Brookdale is set to begin in the fall, the district's chief school business official Matthew Shipley told The Beacon-News on Tuesday. It will be completed on second shift after school hours and won't affect school operations. In a memo to the board and district Superintendent Adrian Talley, District 204 Director of Building Operations John Robinson said that the new fixtures will lower the district's energy bills and qualify for a minimum of $60,000 in utility rebates. In March, the district approved LED fixture replacements at Metea Valley High School and Fischer, Granger and Still middle schools that are set to be completed over the summer, according to past reporting. On Monday, the board also approved building permits for summer HVAC work, per the meeting agenda, the hiring of two construction management firms for major renovations going on at Waubonsie Valley High School and Neuqua Valley High School and an updated contract with architect Wight & Co. for the Waubonsie and Neuqua projects. These renovation updates add to the growing list of the district's upcoming capital projects — like a $7.6 million auditorium renovation at Waubonsie in Aurora, secure entryways at 11 district elementary schools and flooring replacements and paving work at schools across the district. Indian Prairie is undergoing major capital work as a result of the passage of a referendum question in November, in which voters approved the district's proposal to sell $420 million in bonds for facility upgrades, according to past reporting. The bonds will be issued through 2029 for projects through 2032, Shipley previously said. But after those funds are used up, the district will need to find a way to generate funding for capital projects while they're paying off the bond issuances, Shipley reiterated in a presentation on Monday about the district's budget for next year. Also at Monday's meeting, the district swore in its returning board members, who were reelected by voters on April 1. Current board President Laurie Donahue, who was reelected in April, was again selected by the school board as president. Current board Secretary Supna Jain was chosen to be vice president by the board, and board member Allison Fosdick was selected as the board secretary.
Chicago Tribune
11-04-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
District 204 Superintendent Adrian Talley announces he's stepping down after next school year
Indian Prairie School District 204 Superintendent Adrian Talley is stepping down after next school year, the district leader announced Wednesday in a message posted to the district's website. Talley told the Indian Prairie school board in an executive session in March that he would not be renewing his contract, according to an email statement from Talley to The Beacon-News on Friday morning. Per Talley's announcement on the district website, the board had offered to renew his contract beyond the 2025-26 school year. Talley highlighted the district's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and its efforts to support mental health as key achievements during his tenure in Wednesday's message. He also credited the passage of the district's $420 bond sale referendum question that is paying for capital improvements in the school district as having 'laid the groundwork to make District 204 safer and stronger for years to come.' Talley told The Beacon-News he plans to 'continue to work through the next school year until the very end.' He also plans next school year to catalogue monthly what work needs to be done by the new superintendent going forward. He said in his announcement on the district website that the timeline for his stepping down was to give the school board 'ample time to conduct a thorough search for the next superintendent, who will begin on July 1, 2026.' This is similar to the process previous District 204 Superintendent Karen Sullivan followed when she retired, Talley told The Beacon-News. Talley said he doesn't know what his next steps will be after leaving the superintendent's role at the end of next school year. On Thursday, Indian Prairie school board President Laurie Donahue released an announcement via the district's website about beginning the process of searching for a new superintendent. The school board has authorized sending a request for proposals to search firms that will help select a new superintendent, according to Donahue's message. Those will be due April 25 and then evaluated by the board, with semi-finalists selected by May 5. The board will then meet with the semi-finalists and approve a firm on June 9.
Chicago Tribune
09-04-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
District 204 school board OKs nearly $1 million renovation of Foods Lab at Neuqua Valley High School
At its meeting Monday, the Indian Prairie School District 204 board OK'd another summer renovation project, this one at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville. The project is a renovation of Neuqua's Foods Lab, per Monday's meeting agenda. The district's architect, STR Partners, bid the project and received five bids from contractors, the agenda said. The district decided on the lowest responsible bidder: Construction, Inc., from Lombard. The project is estimated to cost $944,000, per Monday's meeting agenda. The Foods Lab at Neuqua is used for a Career Technical Education course that teaches culinary arts, baking and knife skills, career development and the experience of running a restaurant, the district's director of building operations John Robinson told The Beacon-News in an email on Wednesday. The renovations will include building six teaching stations in the lab's two classrooms, along with new cooking equipment, sinks and disposals, lighting, ventilation and exhaust and other room renovations, officials said. The Foods Lab renovation adds to the growing number of summer projects set to be completed over the summer to update the district's facilities. In early February, the board approved $3 million in flooring replacements, about $2.1 million in paving work, just under $1.5 million in roofing and gutter repairs and about $600,000 to install four new playgrounds at various schools in the district, according to past reporting. In March, the board OK'd another $15.5 million in capital projects, which include constructing secure entryways at 11 elementary schools, replacing lighting systems with LED fixtures at several schools to improve energy efficiency and installing remote access at 22 schools that would allow school personnel to check the status of the schools' HVAC systems remotely. Later in March, the board also gave the green light to a $7.6 million renovation project for Waubonsie Valley High School's auditorium – a project that will include new seats, house lights, theater lights, sound systems, flooring and other renovations, district officials have previously said. It will also include aesthetics upgrades and Americans with Disabilities Act upgrades that will bring the building up to code, officials have previously said. The district is pursuing significant facilities upgrades as a result of the successful passage of a $420 million bond sale referendum by voters last November. The funds generated by the district's bond sales can only go toward capital projects, not day-to-day operating expenses, according to past reporting. For the projects taking place over the summer and into next fall, the district intends to spend around $40 million across this fiscal year and the next, the district's chief school business official Matthew Shipley has previously said. The $420 million in bonds are set to be issued through 2029 to fund projects through 2032, according to past reporting, and bond payments are expected to continue for 12 to 15 years after all the projects are completed.
Chicago Tribune
08-04-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
District 204 board OKs revisions and new textbooks for several high school classes, new electives for next year
At its meeting Monday, the Indian Prairie School District 204 board approved course updates and new instructional materials for several existing high school classes and two that will be new next year. The courses included in the changes are French 2, Advanced Placement (commonly referred to as AP) Biology, AP Environmental Science, AP United States History, Criminal Law and World History through Media, according to the meeting agenda. Following the board's approval on Monday, the district will be purchasing new textbooks and their accompanying digital resources for all of the courses except World History through Media, amounting to just over $400,000 in total, according to Monday's meeting agenda. The board also approved curriculum revisions to the five courses at Monday's meeting. The courses were updated via collaboration with teachers from the district's three high schools in line with state standards, College Board course and exam descriptions for applicable courses, the district's strategic plan, 'culturally responsive instructional practices' and the district's 'Portrait of a Graduate' goals, according to the meeting agenda. District 204's director of high school core curriculum and instruction Michael Purcell gave a presentation on the proposed curriculum updates for next school year at the district's board meeting on March 24. At the March meeting, Purcell's presentation noted that the proposed revisions would be open for comment until the April board meeting, when they would then be voted on. At Monday's meeting, the district confirmed that there had been no public comment on the changes. The French course and three AP courses are all existing classes at Indian Prairie high schools, Purcell explained in March, but Criminal Law and World History through Media will be new next year. For the French course revision, Purcell noted in his March presentation that the new units for the course align closely with the AP French curriculum that students can take later on in high school, per the district's course catalog. The three AP courses that will be updated for next year are AP Biology, AP Environmental Science and AP U.S. History. The AP Environmental Science course in particular tends to provide students who do not take many other AP classes during their time at Indian Prairie a chance to take an AP course, Purcell noted. 'We really look for those opportunities to, to talk about AP classes that are more accessible than others,' Purcell said at the March 24 meeting. 'It's not easy by any means, but unlike an AP calculus class or an AP physics class, it doesn't require as much background knowledge to access. It requires an interest and a work ethic.' The updated AP U.S. History curriculum focuses on themes including national identity, geography and the environment, migration and settlement, politics and power and American regional culture, Purcell previously said. Asked by board member Susan Demming in March about culturally-responsive instruction, Purcell noted that the new French resource represents French-speaking cultures that are not France, and said that the AP Environmental Science resource showcases more diverse portrayals of scientists. In January, the board also approved changes to the middle school English Language Arts curriculum, which will now use a digital curriculum resource. They also OK'd the district to modify some of the books it teaches: all sixth-graders will read 'The Giver' by Lois Lowry, while seventh-graders will read 'Brown Girl Dreaming' by Jacqueline Woodson and eighth-graders will read 'Twelve Angry Men' by Reginald Rose. The changes approved Monday will also extend to two new course offerings for next year: Criminal Law and World History through Media. The two new courses were brought to the board in October, according to past reporting. They were approved in the fall so that students could enroll in the courses in time for the 2025-26 school year, Purcell explained at the March meeting. The two courses are not AP classes, Purcell said, but rather one-semester social studies electives available to students in grades 10-12. The idea for these courses is to prepare students for the transition between the district's freshman year geography class requirement and the U.S. history course requirement. 'Some of our students leave our freshman social studies class not quite ready to take on U.S. history,' Purcell said at the March meeting. 'So (we) really wrote these classes with that in mind – to really look at, what are those social science skills that students need to bridge that gap.' As for the criminal law class, Purcell noted in March that it was born out of surveys of students and staff on what types of courses they'd like to see, and based on survey data from students of what they want to study in the future or pursue as a career path. The district already offers a business law class for students to take, and Purcell noted that the district wants students to have the option to take both as companion classes. The World History through Media course will include units on topics like historical accuracy, 'What happens when cultures collide?' and 'Does change always mean progress?,' according to Purcell's presentation in March. Students will learn about films as well as podcasts, television, infographics and other forms of media.
