Thank you for partnering with us to help your child learn and grow. Your relationship with your child’s teacher(s) is an essential component in your child’s success. As you encounter questions or concerns throughout the school year, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher(s). If you don’t already have email contact information for your child’s teacher(s), you can always find it by using the Staff Directory linked on your child’s school website and at www.ccsd93.com/directory or by calling the school. 

Here are a few photos from Meet the Teacher and the first days of the school year. For even more photos, visit our Facebook and Instagram pages and give us a like or a follow while you're there!

School Safety: CCSD93's Primary Concern

Student safety is always CCSD93’s primary priority and concern. At the onset of this school year, it’s important that our community is aware of the strong, consistent and systematic processes the district has in place for reviewing, improving and implementing its safety practices. It’s also important that families understand what to expect regarding communication from their child’s school or the district when safety concerns and events arise. If you’re new to Enews, this article is longer than most you’ll find here, but it’s critical information for our families to understand.

An Overview of Safety Plans & Protocols

CCSD93 has a thorough crisis plan deployed throughout the organization that is designed to address a wide range of potential safety concerns. The crisis plan is reviewed and updated annually on a district level with local first responders. Our staff and students rehearse the crisis plan’s drills on a regular basis to be best prepared in the event of an emergency.

Each school maintains a Crisis Committee that meets regularly to discuss and plan specifics for its implementation at the individual school. A members of each school’s Crisis Committee meets quarterly with those from all other CCSD93 schools to continually share, discuss and improve upon the plan and provide the safest possible learning environment.

Our buildings themselves have been reshaped throughout the past decade to restrict access to visitors, while our visitor management system cross references the IDs of those we have elected to allow into our building with sex offender databases before granting entry. School and classroom doors remained closed and locked throughout the school day. Surveillance cameras further assist in providing a safe environment.

When our school administrators are made aware of a threat of any kind having been made, a threat assessment is conducted. A threat assessment is a research-based, problem-solving approach to prevent violence, rather than react to it. It involves assessment and intervention with individuals who have threatened violence in some way. The vast majority of the time, it is determined that a student spoke out of frustration, was intending the statement as a joke, or was quoting media like a video game, movie or something they saw online. These instances are most often considered to be “low risk”. Still, every instance bears investigating to best ensure the safety of all. In all cases, appropriate interventions and consequences are provided. To learn more about threat assessments in CCSD93, you are invited to listen to this episode of the Talk D93 podcast.

We teach our students to report the presence of any suspicious activities, threats, weapons, lookalike weapons, or disturbing information to a trusted adult immediately. Outside of school, if students ever feel there is a threat or that they are unsafe, they can always call 9-1-1. Additionally, students are always invited to use the Safe School Helpline to anonymously share any concern with our administrators, if they prefer. While anonymity is always an option when using the helpline, we ask that students share as much information as possible so that we may thoroughly and appropriately investigate the situation. Links to the Safe School Helpline can always be found on each school’s website. 

We ask that parents partner with the district to help keep students safe by taking the time to review the information in the paragraph above with their children, as the perspective of their parents is most meaningful to them.

Safety Communications

CCSD93’s philosophy regarding safety communications has always been to keep the appropriate audience accurately informed at the appropriate time without intending to incite panic or undue concern. We want our parents to know what’s going on in their child’s classroom and school. As an elementary and middle school district, we know that some students might not have the skills to adequately articulate or understand an event they have observed, so we seek to provide accurate and clear messages to families with as much detail as we are able to share while respecting student privacy laws.

As an organization devoted to continuous improvement, we consistently seek to refine our processes. Using parent feedback, established best practices, and organizational experience, during the summer we developed official CCSD93 School Safety Communication Decision Trees, which are depicted below. They serve to guide our administrators in their safety communication efforts and help our families know when and through what methods to expect communications after safety events occur. While they may appear complicated, the light blue decision points and dark blue resulting communications reflect that not every safety situation is the same. These will always be posted to our website at www.ccsd93.com/transparency and linked to our CCSD93 Parent Handbook. 

Functionally, the majority of the safety communications will continue to be sent through the same methods and to the same audiences as in the past. However, the following are changes in practice this year, which are reflected in the decision trees:

• If a class relocates to another learning space in the school, like the Innovation Center, so administrators can address the specific needs of a student, no mass communication will be sent to the parents of the classroom’s students if the transition between spaces was able to occur seamlessly and peers did not witness upsetting behaviors.
• If a threat made is deemed to be low risk by the threat assessment, or does not describe or imply the use of a weapon, no mass communication will be sent to the parents of the classroom’s or school’s students.
• If a firearm were found to be brought to school and not used, the school’s families would be notified as soon as possible via text message, in addition to the traditional email and website post, as soon as possible following police approval (if applicable).

It is extremely important to note the following:

• Many of the hypothetical decisions and communications depicted in these trees have never needed to be used at CCSD93, and we firmly believe that through our safety plans and protocols, we are providing the safest possible learning environments for students. Still, the reason to have safety plans as well as communications decision trees is to be best prepared for any and all possible scenarios.
• In all instances, administrators will contact the families of all students directly involved, whether or not a mass communication is sent to the parents of an individual classroom or school.
• Any safety communications that are emailed to the entire school community are also posted to the School News section of a school’s website. CCSD93 generally will not send information about individual safety concerns at another school to families who do not attend that school. However, interested parties can always view the information posted to another school’s website.

Much of this information is shared in the Student Safety section of each CCSD93 school’s handbook, as well as in greater detail in the Crisis Management section of the CCSD93 Parent Handbook. These handbooks were linked as part of the district’s welcome email at the start of the school year and can always be found in the Our School tab of each school’s website and by clicking the Parent tab of CCSD93’s website, respectively, if you ever wish to review them.

By working together, we can continue to create the safest possible learning environments.

Attend Your Child's School Curriculum Night

Every CCSD93 school holds a Curriculum Night to help parents become more acquainted with their child's education and this school year. Mark your calendar for the following and be sure to attend with your child!

• Middle Schools - Wednesday, August 28, 6:30-8 p.m.
• Elementary Schools - Wednesday September 4, 6:30-7:30 p.m.
• Early Childhood Center - Wednesday, September 11, 6:00-7 p.m.

Watch for more information from your child’s school as you may be asked to attend during a specific portion of the Curriculum Night based on your child’s grade level, team or last name.

CCSD93 Fax Machines to be Restored Next Week

Throughout the past few weeks, our fax machines have not been functioning properly. We believe a solution will be in place by the end of next week. In the meantime if your child’s doctor’s office wishes to fax information to your child’s school, please work with them to arrange another method. On behalf of the district, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

Please review the following for more important information from CCSD93 and our partners, and have a terrific weekend!

Sincerely,

Dr. David H. Hill

Superintendent of Schools

CCSD93

Stay Connected With CCSD93's Essential Apps

We know that parents are busy and there is a lot coming your way. There are a handful of essential CCSD93 apps that all serve different important purposes to help you stay connected to your child's education. See the graphic above for more information.

You'll receive login instructions for the CCSD93 App via email next week, and you can find FirstView login instructions now at www.ccsd93.com/firstview.

Keep an Eye Out for PTA Events!

A number of our schools have PTA school year kickoff events this week and next. We love having vibrant and connected school communities, so please consider attending! Keep an eye out for more from your child’s school or visit www.ccsd93.com/calendar to review upcoming events!

Need Before- or After-Care in 2024-25?

CCSD93's partners at the Carol Stream Park District host ActivKids Before- and After-Care programs for kindergarten through 5th grade students at CCSD93's elementary schools throughout the school year. Participants enjoy games, crafts, sports, free play and time outside, as weather allows, along with optional homework time. Flexible options are available! For details and to register, visit www.csparks.org/activkids.

8/22/24 Board of Education Meeting Recap

CCSD93’s most recent Board of Education meeting was held on Thursday, August 22. The following occurred at the meeting. 

• CCSD93 Assistant Superintendent for Student Services Dr. Crysta Morrissey gave an update on Inclusive Intramural Sports in CCSD93.
• Dr. Hill provided a staffing and enrollment update.
• The Board approved the personnel report.
• Dr. Hill updated the Board on the start of the school year.
• The Board approved the following changes to their meeting schedule for this school year: the meeting originally scheduled for March 6 has been rescheduled for February 27, and the meeting originally scheduled for March 20 has been rescheduled to March 13.

CCSD93 strives to maximize the academic, social & emotional potential of each student.

Click to find out more about CCSD93's 2023-2028 Strategic Plan, its guiding document designed to maximize student outcomes!

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