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District 94 outlines three‑year rollout for PLCs, PACE and YouScience career tool
Summary
District staff presented a multi-year plan to expand professional learning communities, implement the state-required PACE framework and introduce YouScience for sophomores, plus a new faculty orientation for 19 hires.
Mary, a district staff member presenting the Teaching, Learning and Professional Development report, told the board the district will focus over coming years on three efforts: strengthening Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), implementing the PACE framework for career/postsecondary exploration, and adopting YouScience at the sophomore level. "Professional learning communities are really going to be kind of taking shape...there are three main components," Mary said, describing faculty work on "learning for all," collaborative culture and personal pathways. Mary described PACE as a state-required framework intended to ensure all students have career-exploration experiences and postsecondary-path planning at each grade level. She said the district will weave financial-literacy instruction into the PACE rollout and coordinate transition work with middle schools to support eighth-to-ninth-grade alignment. The district plans to use YouScience, a commercial aptitude-and-interest platform, initially with sophomores so results can inform junior- and senior-year advising. Mary said the tool combines aptitude and interest data and that teacher leaders such as Charles Vokes have advocated for the pilot. Student voices included a brief on-screen testimony: one senior, May, said she currently works in fast food and is "not really sure yet" what she wants after high school; other students in the presentation said YouScience helped them see more career options. Mary also reported 19 new faculty hires this year (noted as concentrated in special education and mathematics), a Rotary-sponsored lunch during orientation, and a community bus tour to familiarize new staff with district neighborhoods. Board members praised the focus on financial literacy, PLCs and career exposure. Several trustees urged patience with the multi-year PLC rollout and commended Mary and external consultant Balderman Consulting for summer work with administrators. No formal board vote was taken; the presentation served as information to guide implementation and institute-day training scheduled the following week.
