Diamond Award RECIPIENTS
Congratulations to Julie Marchese, Guillermina Ramirez, Brandon Pedersen and Peter Cunningham who where recently nominated and presented with the Diamond Award at our February and March Board of Education meetings.
Teaching and Learning
As March comes to a close and our students enter April there are two state mandated assessments that will take place. First, our 5th and 8th Grade students will be taking the Illinois Science Assessment the week of April 4th. Second, our students in grades 3rd through 8th will be taking the Illinois Assessment of Readiness(IAR) April 11th through the 22nd. The IAR is designed to measure student growth and attainment in both reading and math. The complete Assessment calendar is available here.
Finance
D76 Food Service Program
Over the course of the last 2 years Diamond Lake has had to switch around its food service model to incorporate pre-sealed meals due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, we are happy to announce that the district is moving back to its original meal program which features scratch-made food that offers more choices, seasonal and regionally-available ingredients, local and global food concepts, as well as a variety of vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options.
Diamond Lake is also proud of its commitment to use responsibly sourced food such as milk that is local and free of added growth hormones, and food that uses trans-fat free oils and non-GMO soy oil and USDA-certified proteins. If you have any questions about the D76 food service program please visit https://www.dist76.org/mealsprogram.aspx
Instructional Technology & Communications
As part of our Digital Literacy and Safety curriculum, Common Sense Media provides a variety of digital citizenship lessons, resources and activities within and outside of the classroom. With the vast amount of entertainment media available instantly on phones and other devices we wanted to share five family tips for a well balanced media life. View more parent resources from Common Sense Media.
Create Screen-Free Times and Zones
Help kids take breaks from tech by limiting screen time in bedrooms, during study time, or at the dinner table.
Try Parent Controls
Set content limits that make sense for your family. Alongside conversations about healthy media habits, use features such as content filtering, privacy settings, and time limits offered by the apps and platforms your family uses to help manage access and exposure to media.
Establish Clear Family Rules
Decide together what kind of media and tech is OK -- and when it's OK to use it. A family media plan can help get everyone on the same page.
Watch and Play Together
Choose quality, age-appropriate media to enjoy with your kids. Visit commonsensemedia.org to find shows, games, and more.
Help Kids Identify Healthy Behaviors
Practice talking about feelings both physical and emotional during screen and non-screen activities.
STUDENT SERVICES
The Student Services department is continuing to focus on Social Emotional Learning for our students by completing the 2nd survey window of the pilot of the DESSA Social Emotional Universal screener. We have one teacher per grade level trialing the program. Each teacher completed an online survey for each student in their class. The district used the results of the survey to meet the differing social emotional needs of our students.
As summer approaches, we are starting to plan for the Extended School Year (ESY). Extended school year (ESY) services are special education and related services that are provided to a student with an IEP. The IEP team will meet annually to discuss the need and to determine if the student does or does not qualify for ESY. For students that do qualify for ESY, the DLS, WOIS, and WOMS special education case managers will be reaching out to the families to start the registration process. The ESY dates are June 6th-June 30th and August 1st- August 12th, Monday through Thursdays from 8:00 am to 11:30 am.
UPCOMING EVENTS
- Friday, April 1- 2022/23 Registration Opens
- Monday, April 4 - Late Start for Students - 90 minutes
- Tuesday, April 5 - Board of Education Meeting - 7 p.m.
- Friday, April 15 - Non-Attendance Day, Good Friday
- Tuesday, April 19 - PTO Meeting - 6 p.m.
- Tuesday, April 19 - Board of Education Meeting - 7 p.m.