October 2, 2020 – The following is a letter that was sent from Superintendent Paul Enderle to the District 123 community regarding Fall Family Conferences and updated calendar information.
School District 123 Families:
As we conclude the month of September and celebrate thirty (30) successful days of school, I want to take this opportunity to thank our entire school community for your overall dedication to our reopening efforts. Although we have just begun this journey, we are proud to have navigated the new school year amid the pandemic in a safe and effective manner. I appreciate the hard work and sacrifices everyone has made in order to provide our students an excellent education whether in-person or remotely. The work we have accomplished in this short time has been amazing and I greatly look forward to seeing this work through as we move forward together.
As we move further into the school year, I wanted to share some exciting changes that we plan to make to the October calendar. These changes will help provide us more time for our Family Conference process and allow additional professional learning support for our staff towards the end of the month.
Under the Governor’s pandemic disaster proclamation, Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) are provided up to five (5) Remote Planning Days (RPDs). RPD’s will not count against student attendance days on the annual calendar. In an effort to provide additional time for the “Virtual” Family Conferences, as well as teacher planning time as we begin transitioning from Trimester 1 to Trimester 2, we will be recommending the following calendar amendments to October 15th and October 29th
- [NEW] October 15th – NO SCHOOL- Family Conferences – 1:00-8:00PM (3 additional hours of conferences)
- October 16th – NO SCHOOL- Family Conferences – 11:30AM-6:30PM
- [NEW] October 29th – EARLY DISMISSAL at 11:30AM (Additional planning & professional development)
- October 30th – EARLY DISMISSAL at 11:30AM
In total, these changes would only require us to take one (1) additional Remote Planning Day (RPD) during Trimester 1. This additional day will not need to be added on to the end of the school year.
Due to the current public health safety requirements, family conferences will be done remotely this fall using the Google Meet video conferencing platform or by telephone if families elect. Each ”Virtual” Family Conference will be scheduled for 15 minutes. District 123 has traditionally followed a student-led conference structure, we hope you will elect to include your students in their conference. However, please understand our teachers may not fully be able to implement the traditional student-led process from a distance. The timeline to sign-up for family conferences in Skyward will be as follows:
- October 5, 2020 – Virtual Family Conference Sign-up Window OPENS in Skyward Family Access at 10:00AM
- October 12, 2020 – Virtual Family Conference Sign-up Window CLOSES in Skyward Family Access at 11:59PM
In the following days after you have scheduled your Family Conference in Skyward, you will receive an invitation to participate in your “Virtual” Family Conference from your child’s teacher. Please make sure your information and email address in Skyward Family Access is up-to-date. More information and directions on how to schedule your “Virtual” Family Conference in Skyward can be found by going to: d123.org/schedule-fall-conferences.
Please reach out to your building principal or teacher with any questions regarding these calendar changes or the upcoming “Virtual” Family Conferences. Thank you for your continued partnership with School District 123.
Paul J. Enderle
Superintendent