The District 58 Board of Education held a Curriculum Workshop and Special Meeting on Monday, Feb. 24 at Whittier School. View the agenda. View the meeting video.
Board Member Appointment
The Board of Education appointed Nicole Bernard to fill the District 58 Board of Education member vacancy, effective Feb. 24, 2025 through April 2025. Learn more. Welcome, Ms. Bernard, to the District 58 Board of Education!
Curriculum Workshop
District 58’s curriculum team led a multi-faceted and hands-on curriculum presentation.
ELA Curriculum Implementation
In fall 2024, the District implemented several new English-language arts (ELA) resources:
- UFLI Foundations, a phonics and foundational skills program for grades K-2
- Benchmark Advance, a full ELA curriculum resource for grades K-5
- CommonLit 360, a full ELA curriculum resource for grades 6-8
- Benchmark Hello, an 8-10 week program for students who are new to the United States; it is designed to accelerate English development while helping students acclimate.
- Benchmark Express, a supplementary ELA curriculum for English learner students that incorporates English language development and is aligned to the core curriculum in Benchmark Advance.
District 58’s curriculum and instructional coaching team provided rigorous professional development and training to prepare all educators to effectively use the new resources. Since implementation, District 58’s ELA assessment scores have increased. Notably, District 58 kindergarten and first grade students doubled their growth when comparing winter 2025 scores to winter 2024 scores.
Curriculum Rotations
Several District 58 teachers led the Board and audience in four 15-minute rotations to provide more in-depth information on the new ELA resources mentioned above. The teachers demonstrated examples of instructional strategies and tools that they use in their classrooms, as well as the different topics or themes that they cover. During the rotations, guests could directly ask teachers about their experiences with the new materials, as well as view student work and the curriculum materials. The teachers all reported having a very positive experience with the new resources.
Curriculum Committee Updates
District 58’s curriculum team provided the Board with updates on its Gifted Committee, Grade 6-8 Math Committee and MTSS Subcommittee. The District’s Gifted Committee is refining its elementary Gifted Program. Historically, this program took place at one centralized school, and students were bused to the school. This year, the fourth grade Gifted Program shifted to offer gifted instruction at the students’ home schools by teacher librarians. At the same time, the Gifted Committee created a new fourth-grade gifted curriculum, which was implemented by the teacher librarians. The Gifted Program curriculum focuses on inquiry-based learning that emphasizes communication and collaboration. The Gifted Committee surveyed students on their experiences in the program, and received very positive feedback. Next up, the Gifted Committee will finish creating its fifth grade gifted curriculum and will prepare to shift the fifth grade Gifted Program to student home schools next school year. The committee will also begin a review of middle school gifted programming, as the District prepares to move sixth grade to the middle school.
The Grade 6-8 Math Committee is conducting a curriculum review process to determine if the current middle school math resources and supports are meeting student needs. This work is in process, and the team hopes to make a recommendation by the year-end. The MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports) Subcommittee is developing an intervention guidance document to provide a more consistent approach to interventions districtwide.
Data Preview
During the Board’s Feb. 10 business meeting, the District presented its winter assessment data. The Board requested additional charts to illustrate trends in student growth and achievement over time. The District is working on this request, but previewed a few initial charts and a graph that showed students’ assessment data over time.
Review the full presentation here.
Financial Workshop Update
District 58’s January Financial Workshop discussed budgetary concerns due to an expected decrease in revenues and an increase in expenditures. The District 58 administration projected the need to cut approximately $2.2 million from its 2025-26 budget, and presented recommended cuts that the team believed would have the least impact on students and staff. At that time, the Board asked the team to analyze budget assumptions to ensure that they are reflective of current trends. The Board also asked the team to examine alternative cuts.
Assistant Superintendent for Business Todd Drafall presented a more detailed look at expected revenues and expenditures for the upcoming year, which remain unchanged from last month’s presentation. For example, District 58 is allowed to increase its property tax revenues by the consumer price index (CPI) or 5%, whichever is less. This year, the CPI is 2.5%. Meanwhile, many expenses are increasing at a much higher rate, such as transportation (6.5%) and health insurance costs (6%), to name two examples.
The District 58 administrative team also presented the budget cuts they recommended last month. At the Board’s request, the team reviewed other non-classroom positions for potential cuts, specifically the District’s four instructional coach and one behavioral coach positions.
The District’s administrative team continues to not recommend any cuts to its instructional coaching team. While these positions are not new to District 58, the District did revamp their role in 2021. Instructional and behavioral coaches offer job-embedded professional learning through coaching cycles. The work they do is research-based, structured and strategic. During a coaching cycle, the coaches directly work with teachers; they plan alongside a teacher, model instruction, co-teach, and provide individualized feedback.
“The ultimate goal is to improve instruction through improving teacher practice,” said Assistant Superintendent for Technology & Learning Dr. James Eichmiller.
In the past three years, the coaches have completed 174 coaching cycles with District 58 teachers. Staff survey feedback on the coaching program has been overwhelmingly positive. In addition, coaches also provide staff professional development on Monday afternoons, and they support new curriculum implementation. District 58 has one behavioral coach who provides direct support to both classroom teachers and related service teams during times when there is elevated behavior in a classroom or school; this position works in all 13 schools and provides support and instructional strategies where the needs are highest.
Board President Darren Hughes acknowledged how challenging this situation has been and thanked the District administration for considering the impact that budget cuts would have on students and buildings. He requested that the team have a follow-up conversation in one year to review how the financial assumptions panned out, as well as the impacts of all budget cuts. Review the full presentation here.
Upcoming Events
- Wednesday, March 5 at 3:45 p.m.: Legislative Committee Meeting at the Downers Grove Civic Center
- Friday, March 7 at 7 a.m.: Financial Advisory Committee Meeting at the Downers Grove Civic Center
- Monday, March 10 at 7 p.m.: Regular Board Meeting at the Downers Grove Civic Center
District 58 Board of Education members are: Darren Hughes, president; Kirat Doshi, vice president; Nicole Bernard, Melissa Ellis, Emily Hanus, Steven Olczyk and Tracy Weiner, with Dr. Kevin Russell, superintendent; and Melissa Jerves, board secretary.