It's November, Greyhounds!

With every passing month, I try to reflect on what has been discovered, understood, and achieved. A true educator at heart, I believe true reflection remains one of the most beneficial tools I have in moving forward. Over the past four months, I have learned that doing the right thing is not always the easiest thing; change is difficult and downright overwhelming; relationships and connections build a foundation for true success; laughter fills the soul and encourages even the most defeated to come back the next day and try again.

In every situation, a person can choose to focus on the defeat, the challenge, the struggle, OR a person can choose to focus on the victories, celebrations, the wins no matter how great or small. I choose to celebrate the tremendous relationships I have been able to build with the people in and surrounding LCUSD 9. I choose to take pride in being a Greyhound yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I choose to remain utterly grateful for all of the Greyhounds that stand next to me and choose to be on this journey with me. Simply put, I am beyond appreciative to be leading in an amazing community and school district.

Happy November, Greyhounds!

Sincerely,

Dr. Ganey

On Thursday, October 26th, I attended the October Chamber of Commerce meeting. The most exciting part of the meeting was being able to watch two individuals have ribbon cutting ceremonies for their new businesses in town! I look forward to stopping by Paisley Place and feel fortunate that an accountant is in town to assist with bookkeeping needs. Additionally, I was able to touch base with Dr. Fero in regards to his passion for bicycling and bicycling safety for children. We will be working to partner together to help support bringing bicycle safety to LCUSD 9! Safety first!

I look forward to attending the next meeting on Thursday, November 16th, and I will be at the Rotary Meeting this Thursday, November 2nd to share current news and happenings with LCUSD 9!

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend three sessions celebrating women in leadership hosted and led by the ROE 50! The theme to ROE 50s Women in Leadership-At the Table centered around breaking barriers to lead and create lasting change. Dr. Kelly West asked if some of our art seniors would create a painting to celebrate women in leadership to be a gift at our last session in November. Hannah Krumsieg and Thaily Gager did a phenomenal job representing women and barriers broken!

It is Illinois School Report Card time! Our current year Summative School Designations are found below.

Summative designations help families and communities understand how well schools are serving all students. Illinois has four summative designations within the statewide school accountability system: Exemplary, Commendable, Targeted, Comprehensive & Intensive.

We are proud to announce that both LES and LJHS/LHS have been designated as Commendable. The designation Commendable means that a school has no underperforming student groups, a graduation rate greater than 67 percent, and whose performance is not in the top 10 percent of schools statewide.

It is important to note that in 2019-LJHS/LHSwas designated as Targeted and is now designated as Commendable.

We attribute our success to the School Improvement Grant awarded to LJHS/LHS in 2019 to provide funding to support learning and success for all students, our weekly early dismissal PLC times on Wednesdays allowing true peer collaboration to improve practices and create consistent change for all learners, and the truly talented educators present every day in our district!

Keep up the GREAT work Greyhounds!!!

On October 27th, I had the opportunity to go and speak with Mr. Keith Senior, Superintendent in Okawville, to educators in ROE 21 about the impact of student leadership in relation to student success. Our conversations were rich with dialogue on how educators can provide opportunities in their classrooms to create student leaders. We discussed how ALL students have the capacity to be some type of leader because leading aligns with daily decisions and interactions, and how it is imperative that, we, as educators find opportunities in both activities and discussions to support the leadership capacity for all of our learners. In our discussions, educators shared the challenges and difficulties of finding those opportunities in their classrooms on a daily basis. At the end, we left our session with the wonders of current classroom educators on how to continue student leadership in their classrooms, and we plan on using those wonders to continue our efforts to facilitate student leadership opportunities in the classroom for all students and all educators.

"Leadership comes down to taking care of the people in your organization and making them the best they can be, not giving up on them and never failing to be there for them." -Pete Carroll (The Power of Positive Leadership-Jon Gordon)

Our PLC process continues to pivot and shift minds for full focus on student learning for all. The process will alter procedures to support learning for all students. I shared recently at a meeting that it is important to remember, that although benchmarks are important, true progress and growth is shown for all students by improvement whether the benchmark is always met or not. Benchmarks are goals for us to work towards and not lose sight of, but when we are determining learning and growth for all students, we have to look at student advanccements, where the students are, and how we intend to get them where they are going.

On Friday, October 6th, I had the opportunity to lead a PLC Basics session, and the opportunity allowed me to see my educators collaborating and supporting each other's learning. THAT is what the PLC MAGIC is all about...supporting learning for all...no matter what the age!

This is our continous process...our work in progress!! LCUSD 9 is beyond proud of the work our educators are putting into each of our early dismissal Wednesdays. Our math PLC is continuing to dig into their standards, peer observe, and collaborate on a regular basis to meet the needs for all of our students. The safety PLC is collaborating and prioritzing safety needs and concerns for our district to present at our district safety committee meetings.

The LCUSD 9 District Committees (Finance, Building and Grounds, and Safety and Security) continue to meet on a regular basis.

Our Finance Committee met in October and discussed the future estimated taxy levy that will be presented at the November Board Meeting. Additionally, the committee continues to work on a financial projection for the district with the assistance from ISBE and our committee members. Our next meeting will be on November 7th.

Our Building and Grounds Committee met in October and discussed the progession of the Greenhouse and HVAC projects. The Greenhouse project has started and is underway. LCUSD is working with the ROE and city to get the project complete. We are currently looking into having the assistance from a performance contracting company to help us navigate our visionary facility plan for the district. Our next meeting is Monday, November 13th.

Our Safety Committee met in October and focused on prioritizing our safety needs as a district and creating our threat assessment procedures and team. We are working with Mascoutah School District to continue our collaborative efforts to improve and make our security and safety procedures better. Our next meeting is on December 14th.