It's Paraprofessional Appreciation Day! Thank you to our INCREDIBLE paraprofessionals that guide, support, and nuture our students each and every day!
🏐 🩷 Save the date for "Volley for the Cure" on April 8th! Come out to watch Mokena 159 Staff take on the Mokena Fire Fighters and Police Officers! It is always a good time! 🩷🏐
Spring break mode begins now! ☀️⛱️
This goal area aims to find ways to improve family and staff communication from the District Office through a variety of communication modes. Accomplishments in this goal include:
-Increased use of social media to communicate events, happenings, news, and celebrations
-Launch of a district newsletter that shares district and school news as well as celebrations and achievements
-Weekly Student Services Newsletter sent to staff with timely department information
-News articles published on website and in local media outlets
-Quarterly Student Services Family Newsletter sent to families regarding department happenings and local events
-Published Staff Committee Recaps sent to all staff following committee meetings to keep all staff informed of committee goals and progress
-Use of a new communications platform, Apptegy, that has allowed administrators easier and more efficient access to communicate within multiple platforms at the same time
-Increased public presentations at Board of Education meetings regarding work within the district and posted in BoardBook for public viewing
-Mokena School Report Card Publications created and sent to all staff and families
🏐 🩷 Save the date for "Volley for the Cure" on April 8th! Come out to watch Mokena 159 Staff take on the Mokena Fire Fighters and Police Officers! It is always a good time! 🩷🏐
This goal encompassess yearly school improvement planning, trimesterly benchmark data reviews, and unit assessment analysis. Accomplishments within this goal include:
-Data analysis at the district and school level to develop yearly School Improvement Plans at each of our three schools (This process has been presented at multiple state and national conferences by our very own Mokena staff members this year!)
-Updated district wide processes and systems for the review of Tier 1, 2, and 3 data sets through the work of the district’s MTSS Committee
-Grade Level Data Analysis meetings held each trimester in which benchmark data is reviewed to identify students as risk for not meeting standards and to plan for interventions needed
-Common summative unit assessments in core content classes that are analyzed by classroom teachers to identify strengths and areas for growth and instruction adjusted accordingly
The Early Start and Early Childhood "Pajama Jam" was so much fun last night at MES! Scribble Monster had our students jamming in their pjs all night! 🎸⭐
Come out to the Frankfort Culvers tonight to support the MES Student Council. MES teachers and staff will be serving you!
This goal focuses on how funds are budgeted based on student, school, and district needs as well as a focus on financial stewardship. Ongoing activities and accomplishment within this goal include:
-District continues to receive a “Financial Recognition" profile score from the Illinois State Board of Education for sound, responsible fiscal stewardship (the highest score one can receive)
-Annual budget development with district department leaders and school administrators focused on allocations of funds related to school and district improvement goals and needs
-5 year financial projections within Board of Education approved parameters of between 33% and 65% of fund balance to expenses
-Cash flow is monitored and projected to enable the district invest and accrue the
maximum amount of interest income
-Published financial highlights on a monthly basis in BoardBook
-District financial reports posted on the district website’s Transparency Page
Our March Kinderbuddies event included a writing project craft! It is so fun to watch the buddies' bonds grow each month!
Please take a few minutes to complete the 5Essentials Parent Survey before it closes on Friday. Visit: https://survey.5-essentials.org/Illinois/ .
We are currently at a 9% parent response rate and need at least 20% to receive a parent report. Thank you in advance for your feedback!
❤️ Our community is AMAZING! MES and MIS students raised a grant total of $60,844 for the American Heart Association's Kids Heart Challenge! Thank you to our "Heart Heroes" for their generosity in this record breaking year! ❤️
Today was an exciting day in Kindergarten as students had a special visit from the Morton Arboretum! Each class experienced a hands on program to extend their ELA learning about trees. Students learned new facts about trees and looked closely at different leaves, seeds, roots, and tree cookies (sliced tree trunks)!
Thank you to the PTA for sponsoring this curricular event for our students!
Seven OUTSTANDING Kindergarten students presented their "Tree Research Projects" at our Board of Education meeting last night! We are so proud of their hard work, new learning, and public presentation skills. Let's give a big cheer to Rory, Layla, Maverick, Chloe, Cruz, Mack, and Josie as well as our Kindergarten teachers for a job well done!
Thank you for keeping our Stars safe, Mrs. Minh!
Save the Date! Informational Meetings will take place on April 29th to share updates to our programming for Advanced Learners for the 2025-2026 school year.
This goal area aims to provide students with more opportunities to extend learning through exploratories curriculum areas. Accomplishments include:
-Addition of an Orchestra program at MIS and MJHS that started in 2022 with 28 students and now has 86 students!
-Project Lead the Way program adopted within the STEM exploratory at the junior high that includes the following classes: Design and Modeling, App Creators, Green Architecture, and Computer Science
☘️ Issue 2 of "Mokena Moments" has been published! You can view the new issue in your email inbox or by visiting our website at: https://www.mokena159.org/page/district-newsletter . ☘️
On Friday, our Administrative Assistant for Payroll, Diana Lopez-Cosme, our Transportation Coordinator, Ervin Walker and our Chief School Business Official, Dr. Teri Shaw presented at the state Bookkeepers Conference on "Payroll: Start to Finish for Transportation
'.
They were part of a roundtable discussion with four different school districts discussing their procedures for processing payroll for the transportation department.
We are very proud to have representation from Mokena 159 at the Illinois Association of School Business Officials Annual Bookkeepers Conference to share their collective wisdom!
6th grade scientists had an exciting week as they viewed microorganisms from their ponds under microscopes and added frogs to their pond ecosystems!
