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6 | November 29, 2018 | The glencoe anchor news
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District 203 Board of Education
New Trier to ‘complete our
ACT cycle,’ transition to SAT
Ben Thompson
Freelance Reporter
The New Trier Township
District 203 Board of Education
discussed its shift
from ACT to SAT testing,
approved its 2018 tax levy
and examined its Illinois
Report Card results at the
Nov. 19 meeting.
Peter Tragos, assistant
superintendent for curriculum
and instruction,
presented the board with a
standardized testing report
for the class of 2018, highlighting
New Trier student
success on the ACT.
Overall, more than 74
percent of New Trier students
met college readiness
benchmarks for the ACT
across the math, reading,
science and English tests
compared with a national
average of only 27 percent.
More than 12 percent
of New Trier students
achieved composite scores
ranking in the top 1 percent
in the nation, up from 10.7
percent last year.
Additionally, more than
half of New Trier students
who took the preparatory
PLAN exam outperformed
their projected score for
the ACT, an improvement
board member Marc
Glucksman called “remarkable”
considering the
gradual decline in New
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ROUND IT UP
A brief recap of board action Nov. 19
• Further details on the New Trier 2030 strategic plan
will be shared at the December school board meeting.
• Following discussion of late start Wednesdays at last
month’s board meeting and after holding community
focus groups on the topic, the district decided against
implementing the concept for the 2019-2020 school
year.
• An additional late start and early dismissal day was
added to the calendar for next school year, and first
semester final exams are scheduled to begin two weeks
after winter break in 2020.
Trier’s average number of
ACT tests taken.
Even with New Trier’s
traditional ACT success,
Tragos said he now believes
in pivoting toward
using the College Board’s
SAT testing suite for its future
classes in accordance
with state trends. He recommended
that the district
adopt the PSAT-9, PSAT-
10, and SAT as its funded,
school-day standardized
exams after Illinois entered
into a six-year contract this
past summer to administer
the SAT sequence across
state high schools. New
Trier would still be a host
site for ACT testing, but
the district would not fund
the exam or hold it during
school hours.
Instead, Tragos proposed
the SAT shift begin with
the class of 2022 this spring
while students currently on
the ACT track continue
through graduation.
“I think this is the right
place to make the switch in
this way,” he said. “We’re
going to complete our ACT
cycle here with the current
sophomore class and
transition to SAT.”
Tragos said the district
will continue to review
his proposal and plan for
its implementation ahead
of this spring’s testing.
Levy approval
Funding for the 2019-
2020 school year will be
provided by the district’s
annual tax levy, unanimously
approved by the
School Board and totaling
an estimated $105.11 million.
It will provide primary
funding for district costs
related to education, transportation,
operations and
maintenance, in addition
to district retirement and
Social Security expenses.
The projected 2018 levy
total will represent an annual
increase of around
1.62 percent or less on New
Trier taxes for the average
district homeowner, according
to Chris Johnson,
assistant superintendent for
finance and operations.
Following the levy vote,
board members also approved
the district’s recurring
practice of abating a
portion of its bond and interest
taxes. The board then
authorized a series of transfers
related to its 2019 fiscal
year budget, resulting in
around $3.2 million being
moved from the district’s
education fund to its operations
and maintenance fund
for use on capital projects
and debt service payments.