📣 Thank you for celebrating National Public Schools Week with us! Our schools shape the future! With your continued support, we will prepare our students for success! Drop a 💚to show your support for Mokena SD 159! #PSW25
MES students are loving the sunshine and the playground at recess! Recess is an important time of the day for not only physical activity, but the benefits also extend to growing skills such as relationship builiding, creativity, leadership, cooperation, negotiation, and conflict resolution.
Kindergarten enrollment is open now! If your child will be 5 years old on or before September 1, 2025, they are eligible for Kindergarten enrollment for the 2025-2026 school year. For more information, go to the Mokena School District 159 Kindergarten Enrollment page of our website: http://bit.ly/4hXYESc
🌍 Public schools are more than classrooms! From family events to partnerships with local organizations, public schools bring people together. Share a story of how your school has made a difference in the community! #PSW25#PSW25
Mokena School District 159 has made substantial efforts to improve the appearance and cleanliness of all three schools. We are proud to share a few highlights of this work:
-Ongoing painting projects in each building to modernize the look of the schools’ interiors using a dedicated color palette
-Exterior soffit and lintel work at each school
-Painting and repair work to the exterior doors and windows of each school
-Annual landscaping and exterior maintenance beautification projects
-Cleanliness report cards completed by building principals to provide feedback on school custodial services and cleaning
-Improved flooring at all three schools including repair and replacement of broken tile, replacement of carpet, and updated flooring
👩🏫 Teachers, counselors, administrators, and support staff—public school educators shape our future. Today, let’s recognize their dedication. Share a thank-you note to a Mokena educator who made an impact on your life! #PSW25 #ThankAPublicSchoolTeacher
🌟 Our schools nurture the next generation of leaders, innovators, and changemakers. Today, we’re celebrating student success! Whether it’s excelling in the classroom, on the field, or in the arts, share a story or picture of a student or students who inspire you! ✨#PSW25
The district has worked hard to provide our teachers with high-quality professional development, learning opportunities, and collaboration time that is aligned with school and district improvement goals. Below are several highlights of development and learning that have taken place within Strategic Plan Goal 2B:
-Two year Keys to Literacy training for teachers in Grades K-5 that focused on “The Science of Reading”, evidenced-based instructional practices and routines for teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, word work, comprehension, and writing
-Year-long professional development plans utilizing Early Release Days focused on school improvement goals including responsive teaching, implementation of new instructional materials, and writing across the content areas
-Relaunch of the district’s instructional coach program in which all teachers have access to coaches that enhance student learning through a student centered coaching model as well as provide professional development aligned to district and school goals and job-embedded curriculum implementation support
-Yearly staff surveys regarding professional development topics of need to shape our Teacher Institute Day into a conference-like day in which teachers and staff choose sessions to best meet their individual growth goals
-Program specific professional development opportunities for teachers of English Language Learners, students receiving Special Education services, and Advanced Learners
-Multiple school based book studies aligned to school improvement goals including the topics of phonics, the middle school model, and metacognition
🏫 Public Schools Week starts today! From Feb. 24-28, we’re celebrating the incredible impact of Mokena's public schools. Let’s lift up the stories, people, and programs that make our schools shine. Join us by sharing what makes you #mokenaproud! #PSW25
Mokena School District is proud to be participating in the Special Olympics of Illinois' Respect Week to celebrate inclusion and to highlight themes of disability awareness. MIS and MJHS will participate the week of March 3-7 and MES will participate the week of May 5-9. This year's theme is "In My Respect Era."
You can join in the commitment to inclusion and kindness by purchasing shirts at https://willpromo.com/soill_respect/shop/home !
#ChooseToInclude
⭐ Please consider helping the MES Student Council as they work towards their "Sharing Makes Us Shine" mission by sending in cleaning items for the Frankfort Township Food Panty! Collection is the week of February 24th. ⭐
Thank you to everyone who came out to meet and greet our newly appointed Superintendent, Mr. Gurney! It was a great way for him to get to know some of our families, students, and staff before starting in July.
We are Mokena proud of our 3rd graders who shared their "Freaky Frog" writing at our Board of Education meeting last night! These students have become frog experts and their public speaking abilities were "toadally" amazing! Great job to Noah, Owen, Graham, Paisley, and Olivia!
Congratulations to the 6 Mokena staff members that have received the Illinois State Board of Education's "Those Who Excel Award"! Your hard work and support for students, colleagues, and the community have made a lasting impact and we are incredibly proud of your achievements!
You can read more about the award and the recipients at: https://www.mokena159.org/article/2038730 .
The Illinois 5Essentials Survey for parents is open. Visit https://survey.5-essentials.org/Illinois/ and select the appropriate survey to begin. For more information, please see the district email sent today.
Technology is an important part of the educational environment. With nearly 3,000 connected devices in our district, here are a few of our accomplishments within Strategic Goal 3C:
-Outdated networking equipment including wireless access points and switches were replaced with new multi-gig switches that allow for faster access for student and staff devices
-Internet bandwidth was upgraded from 1Gb and 2Gb at each respective school to 4Gb at all schools.
-Network management solution was introduced to streamline the management of new equipment
-Upgrades to equipment to allow for the latest security standards to be applied, keeping students and staff safer while utilizing the district network
-Replaced copy machines with newer and faster versions allowing for more efficient use for printing and copying for our staff members
🐧❄️🐧S A V E T H E D A T E 🐧❄️🐧
Join us for MES Family Night on March 5th from 5:30 to 7:30 PM! Enjoy an evening of family fun with activities like reading to therapy dogs, hands-on exploration stations, and more. Don't miss this opportunity to connect, learn, and have fun together. We look forward to seeing you there!
Friendly reminder: no school on Monday!
We are proud of our accomplishments towards Strategic Plan Goal 1A! Through multiple committees in which a collaborative and thorough review process took place, we are pleased to have high quality and highly rated ELA materials for our students and teachers throughout the district.
Highlights over the past two and a half years include:
- Adoption and implementation of 95% Group Core Phonics Program in Grades K-3
- Adoption and implementation of Open Up Resources EL Education in Grades K-5
- Adoption and implementation of StudySync in Grades 6-8
- Updated and aligned reading intervention materials in grades K-8
- Full alignment of practices to the Illinois State Board of Education's Statewide Literacy Plan
- Professional learning on ELA learning standards, best practices in literacy instruction, and programming implementation
Have you wondered how our district's e-Learning plan was created?
The district formed an e-Learning Committee that included teachers and administrators from each school, representing various grade levels, content areas, and student services to review our previous plan and state requirements.
The district sought feedback from all parents through a survey. 308 parents responded. The survey data was analyzed by both our Parent Advisory Committee and our e-Learning Committee to look for patterns in the data that informed what should stay the same and what should change or be added to our previous plan. The Parent Advisory Committee also gave feedback within one of its meetings.
The district also sought feedback from all teachers and staff through a survey that was analyzed by our e-Learning Staff Committee to look for patterns in the data that informed what should stay the same and what should change or be added to our previous plan. 65 responses were collected. Committee members also gathered feedback from discussions in their schools.
The e-Learning Committee then made modifications to our previous plan based on the above feedback and their experiences. The updated plan recommendations were presented to the Board of Education. The Board of Education then held a public hearing regarding the plan.
The e-Learning plan was approved by our Board of Education and then renewed through the Regional Office of Education for use for the next 3 school years.
And that is how today's plan came to be!
We appreciate everyone's contributions to its development and your support today as we use it! It is a true team effort to make the day the best it can be for our students!
