The February 12, 2025 Board of Education meeting video is now available.
Meeting Video Includes:
Open Session Meeting
Visitors to be Heard
Superintendent & Committee Reports
February 2025 Highlights:
Approval of new Superintendent, Dr. Damien Aherne
Approval of 2025-2026 School Calendar
Administrator Reports
Mrs. Kim Maher:
Members of Fremont School District 79 school board, administration, and middle school staff visited Manhattan Junior High School on January 24th. With a new building in their near future, they took a detailed tour of the building and asked questions of the MJHS admin and Pepper construction teams. It was a great opportunity to reflect on how far we have come since our referendum in 2022.
Utilizing the building’s storm shelter, MJHS ran its first disaster drill on January 28th. The main objective for this drill was to get a feel for how about 700 students and staff would fit into the space. We are confident in the capacity of 1,000 and intend to run the drill when students are scattered more freely throughout the school in the future.
Returning student registration will be open through April 15th. Families of students entering 1st to 8th grade will be encouraged to complete the registration process and benefit from the early registration fee discount during this time. New family and Kindergarten student registration will begin on March 3rd.
Mrs. Cheryl Donovan:
Our second round of benchmark assessments and data days took place this past month. Hats off to our MTSS and specialist team for all they do to prepare and guide this process.
22 teachers and 494 students piloted (and still piloting) Eureka Squared Mathematics. Over the next several weeks this same group will transition to piloting enVisions. We look forward to sharing the results of the staff, student and parent surveys we will share during this process.
Thank you to our technology department for assisting in preparing us for our spring assessments. Our 38 English Language Learners (EL/MultiLingual) are currently completing their ACCESS testing. IAR and ISA assessments will begin in March. As we get closer to testing, thank you to our entire staff for ensuring students are familiar with the testing platform(s).
Mrs. Julie Hantson:
Social Worker and School Counselors met with Will County's 590 Crisis Care Program. This program helps link individuals to social services that will address their needs while reducing the number of unneeded hospitalizations.
MIS is sending Valentine's Day cards to children who are currently at LaRabida Children's Hospital in partnership with a local Chicago Radio Station 100.3.
Our Student Services Community Night is April 23rd from 5:30-7:30pm at Wilson Creek.
Ms. Cari Rohe:
Good News is we survived the plague that hit Wilson Creek! We had a lot of staff out for many days in a row and everyone stepped up and worked as a team to help their colleagues!
We have begun the registration process for the incoming Kindergarten class! Kindergarten Information Sessions for parents have been rescheduled for February 19th. We are excited to be planning for the upcoming school year!
Wilson Creek celebrated the Tennyson family at last month's Pride Assembly! All of the students came together and Mrs. Miller Amato had the students showcase some of the songs about kindness and coming together that they have been learning in music class!
Wilson Creek Collab Lab has been busy this past month! Since returning from winter break, teachers have had opportunities to dive into their winter benchmarking data through Aimsweb and STAR. We have refined our small groups and explored different resources available to us to use with our students. Aside from diving into data, teachers have been participating in “collaboration collab” where we discuss how things are going in our classrooms. For instance, teachers were given the topic of “Ways To Improve Daily 5” and each teacher had valuable input on how they run their Daily 5 centers. Teachers were able to get ideas and instructional strategies from their colleagues which could help them improve their instructional practices. Teachers are also eager to observe each other after hearing all the wonderful things going on in their colleagues' rooms!
EC had a special visit from a cool truck that goes along with their truck unit! The preschool classrooms completed a study of Exercise and Healthy Habits last week, culminating in a month-long exploration that incorporated literacy, math, science, and social studies concepts into daily lessons and activities. We kicked off a new unit of study this week, Roads, that will allow for many STEM exploration opportunities. Both of these studies are part of our Creative Curriculum, a comprehensive, research-based curriculum that features hands-on, project-based investigations as a pathway to learning. The Creative Curriculum includes the most up-to-date early childhood development research and offers embedded support and guidance to effectively bring a content-rich, developmentally appropriate curriculum to life using four-week in-depth studies.
We conducted another successful preschool screening on Wednesday, January 29, and are beginning to fill our rosters for the 2025-2026 school year! Our screenings are one component that help to fulfill our Child Find obligations. The goal of the Child Find Project is to educate the public about the importance of early intervention and early childhood special education services for eligible children as early as possible in their development.
Mrs. Elise Kirk:
Pack Council- Our Pack Council is hosting an Open Gym for Charity. Students donate $5 to support charity and stay after school for a fun hour of activities. Thank you to Pack Council Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Mancke for organizing this event. Special thanks to Ms. Benson and Mr. Erickson for volunteering and helping out at these events too!
Benchmark testing/ data meetings- Our winter benchmarking was a success. Students completed both STAR and AIMSweb assessments. Angie Newman and Kristi Bolbat analyzed all of our building data and led individual and team data meetings. Thank you to all of our teachers for the time and energy and most importantly for advocating for your students.
Special Days- The month of February has some very special themed days at Anna McDonald. Super Bowl Day, 100 Days of School and Candy Land are among the most magical. Our staff pours in so much time and energy into making these days special. These are truly the days to remember!
Pack Pride Day- Later this month, we will host a Pack Pride Day where we will celebrate our Persevering Penguins, Grateful Grizzlies, and Honest Otters. We are so proud of all of our students for demonstrating these character traits that they have been learning about throughout each month.
Mr. Ryan McWilliams:
Winter benchmarking & data days executed. Many thanks to the team for sifting through the data and making any necessary adjustments to programming for the betterment of the kids & staff
Thank you to Mrs. Barr, Ms. Lamont, & Mrs. Ramsey for providing ELA professional development during the January ER Day.
A shout out & thank you to Mrs. Ciurej for continuing to support and reinforce with staff & kids the Character Strong initiative.
Building & Grounds News:
We are continuing to get quotes for capital projects and find ways to improve our mechanical infrastructure
Mr. Vince Perillo:
Winter Data Days: Under the lead of Mrs. Meghan Petschinsky, Mrs. Amy Goberville, and Mrs. Joyce Watson (with assistance by Mrs. Nicole Klaric and Mrs. Natalie Worth), MJHS staff members went through both Individual Data Days and Big Team Data Days. During Data Days, staff members looked at the results from the Winter STAR Screener, the Winter DESSA Screener, 2024 IAR Tests, and local assessments to identify students that could benefit from extra support as well as to plan how to have all students experience growth on this year’s IAR Tests in March.
From here, along with the help of our Building Leadership Team, MJHS has already begun planning for the weeks leading into the State Testing to ensure our students perform their best on the assessments.
School Counselor Week: During February, MJHS celebrated National School Counselor Week. Throughout the week, our school counselor, Mrs. Nicole Klaric, planned for different activities and challenges for both students and staff members. The week ended with Mrs. Klaric collecting donations for the Manhattan Food Pantry.
Blue Crew / Athletic Boosters Events: On Tuesday, February 4th, the Blue Crew hosted an Hawaiian-themed event for a home wrestling meet at MIS. It was great seeing students and staff show up in themed outfits to cheer on our wrestlers as they competed against Channahon.
The following day, Wednesday, February 5th, MJHS held its Second Winter Olympics. Teams and individuals signed up to compete in Minute-to-Win-It Style games for a prize. An award was also given to the team with the best spirit. Thanks to all the staff who volunteered their time for the event, especially Mrs. Betsy Dobczyk, Mrs. Jeanelle Carpenter, and Mrs. Sarah Johnston, for all their hard work in planning the event.
On Wednesday, February 26th, Blue Crew will sponsor an event for the last home girls’ volleyball game. The theme for the game, which starts at 4:30, is Groovy (wear “groovy” attire).
Winter Off-Campus Rewards Trip: At the end of the month, MJHS students will be taken off-campus on a Rewards Trip to celebrate the students who continuously meet (and exceed) the expectations at school. All students start the rewards period qualifying for the trip; the only was students become ineligible is if they receive two detentions or any kind of suspension in the rewards period.
This trip, 6th and 8th-grade students will be attending Main Event in Warrenville, and 7th-graders will go to Family Fun Zone in Joliet. Thanks to our staff members who helped plan for, communicate, and chaperone the trip.
NJHS: With the end of Trimester 2 coming at the end of the month, Candidate Packets will be made available in the coming days for any 7th or 8th-grade student interested in being selected for National Junior Honor Society. Students need a cumulative GPA of 3.80 over the last five trimesters to be even considered as a candidate for the national organization. Those individuals have the information they submit ran through a matrix to determine whether or not they will be selected to join NJHS and attend the Induction Ceremony in April. Thanks to Mrs. Sarah Johnston and Mr. Vince Russ, our two NJHS faculty sponsors.
Fishing Club: Fishing Club has started to meet once a month. Mr. Hannig is leading the group of approximately 40 students in learning more about fishing and sharing stories. He continues to have big plans for the future of our new Fishing Club!
8th Grade Information: At the end of January, 8th grade students had the opportunity to take Graduation Pictures. Any student who was unable to attend or who did not like their proofs can schedule an appointment for Graduation Picture Retakes on Wednesday, February 26th.
On Wednesday, February 5th, Lincoln-Way West came over to speak with our 8th-grade students. The faculty and students from West shared information about their Open House on Wednesday, February 12th, and they also shared details about the high school. All 8th-graders received a packet of information later in the day to bring home, which also included the student’s PSAT scores and tentative placement of classes for high school.
Graduation will be on Tuesday, June 3rd, at 5:30 PM at MJHS. The 8th grade students' last day of attendance will be Monday, June 2nd, until 10 AM.
Athletics: Boys’ Basketball and Cheerleading wrapped up their seasons in late January, with the 7th grade basketball team advancing to the second round of regionals. 6th grade Boys’ Basketball played hard at the DPVC tournament, but were eliminated in the second round. Girls’ Volleyball season is off to a good start and will be participating in the DPVC tournament next weekend. Wrestling season continues on with approximately 85 wrestlers this year! Scholastic Bowl has begun practicing and won their first matches against Morris. MJHS Athletic Expectations Night was held Monday, January 27th for Bowling athletes and their season began on Wednesday, February 12th. After that, Track and Field season begins at the beginning of March. We will be hosting Track & Field Sectionals here at MJHS on Saturday, May 17th for the first time ever!
Music:
On Saturday, February 8th, select band, choir, and orchestra students performed at the IGSMA Solo and Ensemble Contest in Mokena. The students who performed all worked and practiced very hard on their pieces! The 4th grade Beginning Orchestra and 5th grade Jr. Demon Orchestra have their winter concert on Thursday, February 20th in the MJHS Gym. Our young musicians are excited to perform many new and challenging songs! The Demon Choir and Madrigal Singers will travel on Tuesday, February 25th to Lincoln-Way West for their annual Choral Step-Up Concert. Both groups will chat with the high school students, have pizza, and perform their contest selections that evening. This concert begins at 6:30pm in the LWW Auditorium. On February 27th, the Symphonic Band will be performing at LWWHS along with Liberty Junior High and the LWW Bands. On March 5th, we will host our IGSMA Pep Rally Concert at MJHS at 6:30 p.m. Finally, on March 8th, the IGSMA Band Contest will be held here at Manhattan Junior High.