Dr. Glickman and instructional staff updated the board July 16 on progress against the district's strategic plan and described work planned for the 2025 26 school year, including curriculum updates, schedule changes for grades 5 3, math adoption professional learning, and planning for expanded multilingual supports and dual-language programming.

Accomplishments cited: The superintendent reviewed 2021-era mission, vision and values and said the current school year closed many action steps under the existing goals. Staff reported implementation of intervention periods in every grade, culturally responsive teaching and leading professional-development time (PDT) aligned to Illinois standards, expanded social-emotional learning (class meetings and advisories), a math Planning and Design Team that led to curriculum adoption, and updates to K 4 report cards to add standards-based clarity.

Schedule and instructional changes: The board heard that fifth grade had experimented with a 106-minute ELA block and a 53-minute block for math/science/social studies in the past year. Based on staff feedback and the time needs of the new math resource, the district will move fifth grade to a 70-minute math block (matching grades 6 8), restore time for science and social studies on the AB cycle, and move choir at GMS to a before-school slot. Band instruction will be delivered within grade-level encore periods and Wind Ensemble practices with combined seventh- and eighth-grade students will occur before school on select days.

Multilingual and dual-language planning: A multilingual PDT made recommendations the board received for implementation in 2026 27 focused on differentiated services for multilingual learners and planning for a two-way, 50/50 dual-language model. Amber Bogren, introduced earlier in the meeting as the new director of ML Services, is named as a lead on that effort. Staff signaled they will run professional development in 2025 26 to prepare for the 2026 27 implementation.

Math adoption training and timeline: Teachers have participated in spring and summer trainings for the adopted K 8 math resources. The district scheduled trainer-led sessions again on Aug. 12 as part of opening-day activities.

Why it matters: The changes affect how instructional time is distributed across literacy, math and other content areas for upper-elementary and middle-school students, and the multilingual/dual-language plans define services for English learners.

Next steps: Staff will provide professional learning on culturally responsive instructional standards, finalize tweaks to the 5 3 schedule, continue multilingual professional development and create a PDT for expanding standards-based report cards in grade 5.

No formal board votes were recorded on these planning items at the July 16 meeting; they were presented as updates and next-step plans.