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Kingsley Elementary students, PTA present programs; school shifts SIP focus to math and staff culture
Summary
Students from Kingsley Elementary presented recent service projects and school activities; PTA president outlined outreach and fundraising efforts; school leaders described a new school-improvement focus on fact fluency in math and programs to strengthen staff and student engagement.
Kingsley Elementary students, staff and the PTA highlighted student service projects, recent schoolwide events and a sharpened instructional focus during the Downers Grove GSD 58 board meeting on Jan. 13.
Student council president Brandon Zimmerman, joined by vice president Landon Miller, secretary Joshua Pedretti and treasurer Makayla Cox, described a fall food drive for the local pantry FISH, a giving-tree program for Kingsley families, spirit week activities and a Project Night Night drive to donate pillows, stuffed animals and books to homeless children.
"We did a food drive for our local food pantry, FISH," student council president Brandon Zimmerman told the board. "We collected small pom poms from each class for our whole school reward system."
Kate Bogus, PTA president at Kingsley, told the board the PTA has about 30 family memberships and more than 40 faculty memberships and is focusing on communication and financial sponsorships to support students in need. Bogus said the PTA has moved to a monthly newsletter sent both by email and as a take-home copy for every student and highlighted events such as pancake breakfasts, assemblies and after-school enrichment offerings.
Principal Brewster and assistant principal Lehi Yajewski described the school's current improvement plan shift from literacy to math, prompted by fall-to-spring data that showed declines in some grades. Brewster said the school will emphasize fact fluency so upper-grade students can spend less time on basic computation and more time on problem solving.
"We wanted to pivot and focus on math," Brewster said, adding the school will emphasize classroom & programmatic strategies including Number Corner, workplace games and online platforms such as DreamBox and 99math to build fact fluency.
Yajewski described efforts to strengthen school culture and staff morale through positive office referrals, a compliments journal and themed activities tied to the school's "level up" theme. She credited colleague James Ike Miller for sharing examples used with staff and said those approaches help align classrooms toward the school improvement plan.
The Kingsley presentation also listed ongoing events overseen or supported by the PTA, including spirit week, a holiday store, trunk-or-treat, fundraisers such as a poker night and a pancake breakfast that raised funds for teacher grants. Bogus noted a recent McTeacher night at McDonald's raised $800.
Ending: Board members thanked students, staff and PTA leaders for the presentation. District leadership said the districtwide winter benchmarking window is underway and data will be used to monitor progress on the math focus through the rest of the school year.
