Some area school districts have or are considering moving to a standardized student dress code.  The Troy Board of Education is also exploring the implementation of a standardized dress code for grades five through eight and would like your input.  You can learn more by attending one of the three community forums where we will present some very tentative ideas and accept comments.  You can also see an overview of what is being considered by clicking here.

These community forums will be held on:

The Troy School District is partnering with the Office of the Will County State's Attorney to bring two unique parents-only learning opportunities to the Troy School District.  The first event, "Memo to Mom and Dad: 30 Points of Parenting," will take place on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. in the Troy Middle School Auditorium (5800 W. Theodore, Plainfield).  This session will focus on how parents can best work with your child to positively impact child behavior.  Parents of children at all ages can benefit from this session and will leave with "tools for the toolbox" that will help you increase your child's cooperation.

The second event will occur on Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. in the Troy Middle School Auditorium.  "Kids & Safety: Internet, Technology, & Gangs" will provide timely and extremely valuable information for parents that are interested in learning strategies to prevent their kids from becoming involved in activities that could negatively affect their success in school, their physical safety, and/or their future career choices.

It is time for the nation to do another census.  As provided by the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Census occurs every ten years and must include a count of every resident in the United States.  While we may think that this is just a governmental necessity, there are many reasons why we all need to make sure we are counted as part of the census.  Did you know that some of our school district and local municipality funding are determined by the census count?  If we don't get counted, that means that we don't get "our share" of tax dollars.  According to a recent article that I read, every person uncounted will cost the governmental units of Illinois more than $1,100 every year!

The end of each year creates an opportunity for us to reflect on what happened over the past year and to address issues that can make the next year even better. I have been reflecting on what happened in 2009 to determine what went well and what might be improved to make the Troy School District an even better place for our students. The positive outcomes from this year are too many to list but a few that come to my mind are improved student achievement, the adoption of a new strategic plan, the continued growth of our band program, the success of many of our athletic teams, and the great accomplishments of so many of our students and employees.

Additional information about what to do if your child needs to miss school can be found in the Parent-Student Handbook.  You can view a copy of this handbook by visiting the district's website at http://troy30c.org. (Click on the Parent Handbook link under the school information menu at the top of the page.)

A group of parents, teachers, administrators, and Board of Education members developed a parent survey that was distributed to Troy 30-C parents in October 2009.  Over 1,140 families submitted responses to the survey!  The data from this survey is being considered by the Parents as Partners Team.  The complete results of the survey can be downloaded by clicking here.  Thank you to everyone that took the time to share your thoughts via this survey!  Please know that your time and ideas will make a positive difference as we work to improve our partnerships with all parents!

I recently provided the Troy 30-C Board of Education a complete analysis of the 2009 TerraNova and InView assessment results.  The entire 107 page analysis can be downloaded by clicking here.  I also gave the Board of Education a summary report during the November 18, 2009 Board meeting.  This PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded by clicking here.

Overall, the results of this assessment cycle show a positive trend with the greatest majority of the results increasing.  However, as part of our continuous improvement strategic plan goal, we continue to seek opportunities to improve student achievement.

I am writing to address the topic of student safety in hopes that you will have a conversation with your child after reviewing this information.  As all adults know, society's tolerance for certain types of behaviors has changed over time.  For example, it used to be just a bad joke or at least non-threatening if someone made a statement about a bomb being present in an airport.  It is clear that society's tolerance for that type of statement changed.  It also used to be a tolerated behavior when students brought pocket knives to school as the use of the pocket knife as a tool was much more accepted previous to this time.  Our awareness and sensitivity to issues of personal safety have been heightened and school personnel are advised from many sources to purposefully create a safe school environment.  Thus, there is a real safety concern when a student brings any type of instrument that has any type of blade or other part that could cause harm to another person.  We want to be pro-active on this issue.