2024!!! That's a Wrap!!!

 As we approach the end of the 2024 calendar year, we want to take a moment to express our profound gratitude and appreciation for the love, care, and support our community continues to abundantly provide to our school.  Your efforts have considerably contributed to the ongoing growth, improvement, and success of our East Prairie community.

We are grateful to our students, teachers, support staff, families, Board, and community members.  Over the past year we have accomplished so much together.  Some highlights from 2024 include:

- Further expanding our comprehensive, collaborative, and collective framework (RULER, plus other tools) to support the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of students;

- Creating a culture of care and support - over 98% of our staff are satisfied and engaged;

- Reaching all time high levels of learning for our students.  EPS IAR scores place it at the 92nd percentile for reading and 80th percentile for math compared to all Illinois schools. 

- Year two of the EPS/NN Mentoring Program, involving 40 of our middle school students.  The mission of the program is to enhance the academic, social, and emotional growth of the students in our community through meaningful connections with one another;

- Creation of a Positive Behavior Team to develop tools like Pawsomes, minors, and majors to support the behavioral success of ALL students across ALL settings and parts of the school day;

- Creation of a schoolwide check-in/check-out (CICO) intervention to provide additional care, support, and attention to our students needing more support with behavior and attendance;

- Our K-5 STEAM special has been expanded with new projects and interdisciplinary learning opportunities.  For middle school students, we have introduced three new electives: Makerspace, Creative Design, and Design Studio.  These initiatives foster creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking, empowering our students to become innovative thinkers and lifelong learners.

- Continuing development of systems, structures, and supports that ensure every child is met where they are at and has a collaborative team working to ensure their growth towards high expectations; 

- Enhanced co-teaching and collaboration practices to support our growing multilingual population - these efforts led to a doubling, and sustaining, of our exit rate on the ACCESS test for our multilingual students;

- Extension and deepening of our writing practices, kindergarten through 8th grade;

- Robust and regular communications with families and community partners - weekly newsletters, Principal’s blog, new parent video page, The Gazette, social media messaging, updated website, and teacher communications;

- Expanding family events throughout the school year to provide more opportunities for our community to gather, connect, and learn together;

- Increased partnership with community organizations (University of Chicago, Niles Township Government, behavioral health centers, etc.) to connect resources, ideas, and opportunities to our students and families.

For this work, and all that came before it, East Prairie has been recognized this year as:

- A Model PLC District.  We are 1 of 4 districts in Illinois to receive this honor.

- A top school as rated by U.S. News and World Report - we are part of fewer than 2% of schools nationwide by giving our elementary and middle school top school status.

- Niche.com has again recognized East Prairie as a top performing school - rating both our elementary and middle school in the top 4% in Cook County.  We are number 20 of 614 middle schools and number 36 of 859 elementary schools. 

We take tremendous pride in serving our students, families, and community to the fullest extent possible and are committed to becoming the “premier school district in the nation” because we know in that pursuit of excellence lies incredible outcomes for kids and all of us.

We look forward to further building upon this important and impactful work together in the year ahead!

Voilá!

 

 The EPS School Store featuring merchandise created for our students by our students in makerspace will open next week.  The store runs on a Pawsome based economy :)

Singing Loud & Proud!

East Prairie Choir made it onto the jumbotron at last Sunday’s Chicago Wolves game.

Our choir students had the opportunity to perform at Allstate Arena and the Niles North Choral Festival this past week.

Thank you to Mr. Oliveira and our choir for sharing their beautiful voices with so many!

Care & Collaboration

 At East Prairie an intense focus on collaboration is at the heart of EVERYTHING we do!  We know that when adults learn more, kids learn more!  We greatly value and appreciate the opportunity that Institute Day provides for us to learn from, with, and alongside one another.

While of course, also having LOTS of fun!!!

Letter for Students

 

Here is a link to a message that will be shared with students.

Election Information & Resources for Families

Dear East Prairie families,

As we head into tomorrow’s election and the uncertainty of the weeks ahead, we wanted to again share and speak to our collective values as a school community.  We want to be explicit about what we believe and stand for, highlighting our core value of “we are better together!”  We must, regardless of the differences we hold, continue to find common ground to discuss, consider, and act upon matters both collectively and as individuals.  

At East Prairie, our aim is to cultivate informed young people towards active participation in our shared democracy.  We seek to partner with families to develop in children a well rounded and critical perspective of any issue, alongside the qualities of empathy, care, and compassion.  Above all, we strive to create a learning environment where ALL kids and adults are valued, respected, and cared for.  We approach this work each day with humility and an enormous sense of responsibility.

Here are two articles to help support families in discussing the election:

Talking to Children About the Election - American Psychological Association

Talking to Children and Teens About the Election - Psychology Today

At a time when rhetoric is heated and tensions are escalated, we are grateful for the example set by our staff, families, and community members.  We are thankful for the care, respect, and dignity afforded every member of our school community.  Thank you for the ongoing efforts to collectively foster a compassionate and inclusive learning environment for all.  Despite the uncertainty and challenge, we have the incredible opportunity and responsibility each day to shape minds, provide comfort, care, and security for some whom this may not be a given, and forge future trajectories beyond anything imaginable.  Though daunting and often difficult, this work truly matters.  Thank you for partnering with us in fulfilling this responsibility one day at a time with care, kindness, and unrelenting purpose!  

Here is a link to a message that will be shared with students.

Each of us continues to have an important role to play in making sure our school, community, and broader shared world are safe, just, and equitable.  This work is not easy, but remains fiercely important.  It is through our conversations, considerations, and most importantly actions, that we shape a brighter future for not just our children and selves, but for future generations to come.  Together we will collectively meet this, and any, moment by sustaining and strengthening the relationships between our homes, school, and community.

In partnership,

The East Prairie team

EPS Recognized as a Model Professional Learning Community (PLC) at Work

Dear East Prairie families,

We are pleased to share that East Prairie has been designated as an international Model PLC School District.  This recognition is something that every member of our school community should take immense pride in, and is a credit to the commitment and care of our students, educators, families, Board of Education, and entire school community.

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are schools and districts in which educators recognize the key to improved learning for students is on-going, job-embedded learning for the adults who serve those students. The three big ideas of a PLC call upon educators to: 

1. Focus on learning. 

2. Build a collaborative culture. 

3. Create a results orientation.

Schools are recognized based upon strict criteria, including demonstration of a commitment to PLC concepts, implementation of these concepts for at least three years, and clear evidence of improved student learning over that period.  Once measurable results can be seen, the school must explain its practices, structures, and culture and submit its application for consideration by the PLC Review Committee. 

Our journey towards this accomplishment is one of collective creation and shared transformation.  With the tumult and hardship of the pandemic, also came incredible opportunity - our community seized this moment to truly transform itself.  It was during this time that we began the work of mapping out a five year strategic plan that would form the foundation of our continuous improvement efforts.  Our mission to “value the uniqueness of all and ensure the highest levels of learning” became the fundamental purpose of our school community, sharpening our focus, clarifying our priorities, and driving action.

This accolade marks significant progress towards living our mission while striving towards our vision: "to become the premier school district in the nation by focusing on community, innovation, and growth, so that all learners will be successful."  It is in this pursuit of excellence that we reach our fullest potential as a school community, by supporting children to realize theirs.  Our shared work develops confident, competent, and caring young people who are ready to build a better and brighter future.  Our collective commitment is truly life-changing.

During a period of time where the range of needs within our community has continued to grow, we have pulled together to achieve levels of learning for our students that are higher than at any point in our school’s history.  All of this has been accomplished within a culture of care, collaboration, and with an unwavering commitment to excellence.  And yet we know, and love, that this work is ongoing.  We know that true success comes from ensuring that all learners have the skills, mindsets, and dispositions to become the fullest and best version of themselves.  We are committed to learning, growing, and improving upon this work every day.   

Thank you for your care, support, and partnership!