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Dear District 6 Families:

As we get ready to begin a fantastic new school year for our students and staff, I wanted to take the opportunity to update you on a few very important initiatives this year in District 6.

Last year was our first formal year with Response to Intervention (RtI) at each of our schools. RtI is a process of implementing high quality teaching to students, monitoring student progress, and adjusting instruction and providing interventions as needed based on student success. Last year we focused on Reading, and as a result our staff worked very hard with our students in each of the buildings to make sure our students have the literacy skills they will need and use for life.

One of the most important parts of our process of monitoring student growth in Reading (and Math) is our use of NWEA scores and growth targets for our 3^rd through 8^th graders. We know that each student is uniquely different and possessed individual strengths and areas of necessary improvement. As a result, to expect every student to be at exactly the same place is neither a real nor desired outcome. Rather, we use NWEA-MAP scores and targets to allow each student to be able to set realistic and personal goals for their academic journey. Please engage in discussions with your child about his or her personal goals for the year, and please contact your child’s teacher if you have questions about their scores and what they mean for their work in the upcoming year.

We are also very excited to be formally implementing Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS) to support behavior interventions as part of our overall plan. Each building had PBIS kick-offs and orientation activities last year. These activities were intended to help us build learning communities that emphasize being Respectful, Responsible, Safe and Kind! The more we, as a community, can consistently reinforce positive decisions, and consistently redirect poor behaviors, the greater likelihood that our young people will learn the behaviors associated with positive values. We look forward to partnering with you this year on this exciting new endeavor.

We have a new format, much more content and many more pages to our district website at www.zion6.org. We have made this change in an effort to provide you with the information you need to help your child make this year the best year ever! Enclosed in this newsletter is valuable information regarding our school registration dates and requirements to ensure our students are properly registered at their respective school. Thanks again for your support of District 6 and our children!

Sincerely

Dr. John Ahlgrim
Superintendent of Schools