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4 | September 21, 2017 | The frankfort station news
frankfortstation.com
Summit Hill District 161 Board of Education
D161 reviews student assessment data
Megann Horstead
Freelance Reporter
The Summit Hill District
161 Board of Education examined
preliminary reports
on Partnership for Assessment
of Readiness for College
and Careers exams made
available to them in July at its
Sept. 13 regular meeting.
The assessment, known
as PARCC, is administered
in English language arts and
mathematics to students in
grades 3-8.
Superintendent Barb Rains
said it is important to compare
the data based on the
Common Core State Standards
“from the 2015-2016
and 2016-2017 school years,
which it looks like we’re
holding steady for [English
language arts] and for math,
because we always like to
take a look at where we are in
comparison to the State.”
The preliminary results in
English language arts show
that 44 percent of D161
students meet or exceed
Common Core State Standards,
which is 7 percent
higher than the state average,
whereas 36 percent meet
or exceed those standards in
mathematics, which is five
percent higher than the state
Round it up
A brief recap of action and discussion from the Sept. 13
regular meeting of the Summit Hill District 161 Board of
Education:
District 161 tentatively set the time and date for a special
meeting for board planning for the 2018-2019 academic year.
That session will take place at 8:30 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 27.
The school board awarded a one-year contract to Eternally
Green Lawn Care for snow removal services occurring during
the 2017-2018 winter season. According to the agreement,
the district is to pay $1,295 per event. Officials will review
the decision to pay for snow removal services in the event
the amount exceeds $50,030. At that point, additional board
approval will be necessary.
Officials amended a board policy setting a minimum of
notification of 24 hours for special meetings. The district
decided to make the amendment after reviewing a 2011 legal
opinion. The board action corrects a mismatch in board policy.
Broker - Management Team
“10”
average. That data remained
steady for D161 and the state
moving from the 2015-2016
academic year to 2016-2017.
The district uses composite
scores generated based on
each of the levels against the
State preliminary numbers.
“We use this data in terms
of our school improvement
planning because the PARCC
is an indicator of student success,”
Rains said. “We also
use our STAR Benchmark
Assessments to address immediate
academic needs and
monitor student progress in
real time.”
PARCC exams were administered
to students in
March. The information
comparing D161 students
to others in local area feeder
schools is not yet publicly
available.
“This is our frustration as
administrators what we’re
hearing from the board table,
in terms of how do you utilize
this test, and [make sure]
that it holds water, [and] that
it’s going to be part of your
data points to do whatever
you need to do to help support
a child,” Rains said.
In mathematics, student
scores were lower in grades
5-8 than in grades K-4.
Board Secretary David Faber
questioned why the data
levels in mathematics fell for
students in their middle and
junior high school years.
“[Is there] any preliminary
indication of why that might
be, or is that something that
might need to be looked
into?” he asked.
Director of Curriculum
John Snipes said he is looking
into curricular consistency to
ensure that all students have
access to the same resources.
The curriculum department
intends to finish the
topic checklists it started developing
recently to help the
district understand the levels
at which students start and
end the year.
Board Vice President Stacey
Borgens asked if the
problem could be intersected
with the introduction of Go
Math! as the district’s new
mathematics program.
Snipes said that is a theory,
but it hasn’t been backed up.
“Other than back up three
years ago when we started
Go Math!, it was so challenging
for all of our students —
particularly our third-graders
— but now those students
are entering Hilda Walker,
and even that [is] much more
complicated by those Common
Core State Standards,”
he said.
During the 2013-2014 academic
year, District 161 adopted
a new Common Core
State Standards-aligned math
resource. Consequently, students
in grades K-4 only
know Common Core State
Standards, while those in
grades 5-8 have transitioned
from the previous standards.
“Students in grades 5-8
may not have had as much
exposure to Common Core
State Standards as students in
grades K-4,” Rains said.
Individual student scores
will go home with students
on Friday, Sept. 22.
Moving forward, District
161 intends to utilize
STAR assessments instead of
PARCC.
Board Member George
Leonard wanted to know
if Snipes intends to use the
district’s PARCC scores to
determine if the results correlate
to STAR.
Snipes refuted the idea.
“I don’t know if you’ve
seen our PARCC scores recently,
but they do not match
PARCC,” he said. “Our
STAR scores are very high.
Our students are very high
achieving on STAR. This
Please see d161, 8
Former D210 superintendent
indicted on fraud charges
James Sanchez
Contributing Editor
Former Lincoln-Way
Community
High School
District 210
superintendent
Lawrence
Wyllie,
who served
from 1989- Wyllie
2013, has
been indicted on fraud
charges, according to a
press release issued Thursday,
Sept. 14, by the U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the
Northern District of Illinois.
The federal indictment
states Wyllie misappropriated
school funds for his
own benefit and falsely represented
the true financial
deficit the district was facing.
Wyllie participated in
multiple schemes to obtain
money, including using
$50,000 of school funds to
create Superdog — a dogtraining
school — which
had no benefit to the school,
according to the press release.
The indictment also
stated Wyllie allegedly misappropriated
a combined
$30,500 of school funds
by falsely representing the
money as compensation
for unused vacation days
as well as paying himself a
retirement stipend that was
not in his contract.
The indictment stated
Wyllie put the district in $7
million of additional debt
by alleged fraudulent issuance
of bond funds used
toward the district’s operating
expenses and payroll for
district employees when it
was supposed to be used for
the construction and renovation
of the Lincoln-Way
high schools.
In 2009, when Wyllie
From sept. 14
was challenged about the
district’s financial health,
he allegedly misled the
public by falsely stating
the State of Illinois was
behind $5 million in payments,
according to the
indictment.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office
has been investigating
District 210’s financial status
since 2016 and turned
its attention toward Wyllie
when it issued a subpoena
seeking all records of salary
and compensation dating
back to the time he was
hired.
An arraignment in U.S.
District Court has not yet
been scheduled.
An emailed statement
from D210 sent Thursday
afternoon said district officials
have cooperated with
federal authorities’ requests
throughout the investigation.
“Parents and taxpayers
should be assured that
the Board of Education
is committed to protecting
taxpayer dollars,” the
statement reads. “In July
of 2016, the district hired
a new director of finance.
The director oversees dayto-day
accounting operations
and transactions. In
June of 2017, the board
approved the hiring of an
experienced business manager
to oversee all financial
operations and budgeting
services.”
In the statement, D210
Board of Education President
Joseph Kirkeeng added
the board is “committed to
continued oversight and assessment
of district policies
and procedures.”
“The board will continue
to work with the administration
to move this district
forward,” he said.