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!
Utilizing additional avenues for communication with our families and community is an ongoing goal. Our work thus far includes:
-Increased social media postings to highlight events, happenings, celebrations, and student learning throughout the district
-Creation of district app that allows families to have a mobile version of the website
-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 development of news stories that are published on the website and/or other news outlets
The MES cafeteria was full of 1st graders and their special someones as they made bird houses together as an extension to their reading and writing module about birds! We can't wait to see birds in their new homes around town! Thank you to the PTA for providing the bird house kits for this wonderful event! 🐦
Third grade students in Mrs. Lacny's class have been thoroughly enraptured with reading the novel Peter Pan! You can hear a pin drop in the classroom when they read each chapter. The students beg to read more each day!
As we approach warmer temperatures, The Matthew Kocher Foundation wanted to educate our students on water safety. Our students will learn or learned preventable measures to take near the water by learning the meaning of the flags at the beach, how to keep little siblings safe at home, and survival techniques if caught in a rip current. Ask your child to explain FLIP, FLOAT, and FOLLOW and be sure to share this information with family and friends.
A big thank you to Dave Benjamin from The Great Lakes Surf and Rescue Project for dedicating his life to educate others, as he himself is a survivor of drowning.
MIS and MJHS had their presentations last week. MES will have their presentation April 18th.
The nominations form for the Galaxy Award opens today! Check your email for more information.
Congratulations to first grade students Mikaela Mathis and Evan Loulousis, runners up in the Mokena Fire Department coloring contest! Both students received certificates and gift cards, and their coloring pages are displayed at the Mokena Public Library. Here they pose with Fire Chief Cirelli.
