Country Meadows Principal's Message - Friday, March 21, 2025

Posted March 21, 2025

Good Afternoon Country Meadows Families,

We kicked off the week with student performances at the Variety Show. Thank you Ms. Grossman and Mrs. Lockhart for showcasing the talents of Country Meadows. We always love events that bring families to our school. Our next event will be in April. We’re still looking for families to showcase who they are on Who We Are Night! Please see below for more information.

Thank you to all the families who participated in our Spring Conferences the last two days. Your partnership is valued and appreciated. A special thank you to our PTO for providing dinner and snacks for our staff members during conferences.

I wish you a wonderful spring break and I hope you are able to spend quality time with family. We resume school on Monday, March 31. A quick reminder that there is no school on Tuesday April 1 and IAR testing begins on Wednesday, April 2.

Have a wonderful break!

Aska Lempke

Principal

Upcoming Dates

Monday, March 24-28 - NO SCHOOL | Spring Break
Monday, March 31 - School resumes
Tuesday, April 1 - NO SCHOOL | Institute/Election Day
Wednesday, April 2 - Tuesday, April 8 - IAR Testing
Thursday, April 17 - Half Day for Students
Friday, April 18 - NO SCHOOL | District Holiday
Tuesday, April 22 - Early Release
Wednesday, April 30 - Thursday, May 1 - MAP Testing

NEW 5Essentials for Parents

It's a race against the clock and Kildeer is our first school to hit our GOAL of 20%! Each school must have 20% of its parent population take the short 5Essentials Survey by March 28th-- in order to receive their results. These results are crucial as all KCSD96 schools use this data for planning for the coming school years. Parents and guardians, please take 5 minutes of your time to complete this survey. Parent identity and survey responses will be kept completely confidential and will never be connected to you or your child.

Please visit https://survey.5-essentials.org/Illinois/ and select the appropriate survey to begin. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact UChicago Impact Survey Support at 1-866-440-1874 or [email protected].

The overall parent response rate is 13% for the 2025 Illinois Supplemental Parent Survey. As a reminder, schools need 20% of their parents to respond in order to receive a report. Also note a school must have a minimum of 8 responding parents in order to receive a report.

Here are the parent response rates for schools in Kildeer Countryside CCSD 96:

Country Meadows Elem School: 13%

Ivy Hall Elem School: 11%

Kildeer Countryside Elem School: 27%

Prairie Elem School-Buffalo Grove: 11%

Twin Groves Middle School: 2%

Willow Grove Early Learning Center: 26%

Woodlawn Middle School: 5%

NEW Parent Input for Class Placement Survey

Creating balanced class lists that meet the needs of all students is a tremendously difficult job that takes many hours of thoughtful dialogue between classroom teachers, administrators, and specialists. We take this process very seriously. The process for class list creation is as follows:

Teachers think about the social and academic needs of each of their current students while recording pertinent information to assist in the decision-making process.

Grade-level teachers, principals, specials area teachers, and specialists meet together to form class lists that are balanced in terms of academic, social, and emotional needs as well as considering friendships. This is no easy task and often takes several meetings. This team of educators considers each child’s personality, academic needs, friendship patterns, etc. as they make a match for each individual child.

This team of educators creates a draft set of class lists taking into consideration parent input.

Class lists are then revised in August with summer changes for students who move in or out of the district.

Class rosters are never final until they are released to families in August.

This process happens for grades 2-5. Willow Grove creates the class lists for our incoming 1st graders. Our 5th-grade team actively works with Woodlawn to provide data and input related to placement decisions at the middle school level.

We strongly believe that this detailed and collaborative process creates learning environments that benefit all students. It is a delicate balancing act that takes much consideration and thought by professionals who know and care about your children. Our goal is to create balanced class lists that promote the success of each child. Please know that your child is placed in a classroom for very specific reasons. The process benefits all students. Because of the input and thought given by teachers, specialists, parents, and the principal, we are very reluctant to make changes once this process occurs, as removing or moving one child can disrupt the balance of an entire class, impacting all students.

I welcome any insight you wish to share about your child’s strengths, needs, and learning style. I will take into consideration pertinent information received on or before Wednesday, April 30th. Please remember, while we welcome your input, specific teacher or friend placement requests will not be honored.

I cannot express enough how important it is that your thoughts are provided through the Parent Survey that is linked HERE. As you can imagine, we receive a lot of parent input, and verbal information is impossible to track. The information you provide in the survey will remain confidential between you, me, and Mrs. Fix.

Class Placement Survey

NEW *Transition to Middle School for Parents and Guardians*

On Thursday, April 3rd at 7pm, parents and guardians of 5th Graders are invited to attend the “Transition to Middle School,” where they will get answers to questions they may have about their student entering sixth-grade at a District middle school.

This will take place in the Large Gym at Twin Groves Middle School.

This is an informational night for parents/guardians only.

Questions? Contact KCSD 96 Community Parent Liaison Lubna Andrabi, at 847.459.4260, ext. 8136, or at [email protected].

REPEAT: Country Meadows Family Night- Who We Are!

Country Meadows is hosting a Who We Are Night on Thursday, April 24 from 6-7:30pm. The purpose of this event is to cultivate a sense of belonging with our staff, students, and community members. We are excited to learn from and about our Country Meadows families! This night includes everything that makes us special.

We will need your family’s help! How? Does your family have:

A special recipe?
Talent?
Language?
Customs?
Traditional attire?
Tradition?
Activities you do as a family?
Art?
Music?
Ability?
Anything else that makes your family special?

Families are invited to create a booth to showcase what makes them special! You don't have to be an expert to run a booth. We want to learn about your experience!

For those interested, please fill out this Google Form to provide us with some details related to your family’s booth presentation. We encourage everyone to share in a way that feels comfortable to them. Families may choose to bring in a trifold with information, share photos, play music, lead an activity, or think of another creative avenue. In addition, if you would like to work with other families who share similar interests or experiences, please feel free to indicate that in the linked form. Forms are due by Tuesday, April 1st.

If you would prefer to not share anything, we would still love to see you at this event to learn! All students and families are welcome! Students must be accompanied by their adult (this is not a drop-off event).

We are excited to have many different representations from families and learn Who We Are! See you there!

REPEAT *IAR Testing*

As required by the State of Illinois, students in grades 3 - 8 take the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) each spring. This year the district will be administering the IAR to students within a window between April 2nd to April 8th. The Illinois State Board of Education does not offer an opt-out. Instead, it is considered a refusal as this is a required test by the state. Parents and guardians, please note that this test is highly important and is on par with assessments like the ACT and SAT. Additionally, this is an opportunity to build your child's test taking skills prior to attending high school. Please encourage your child to get a good amount of sleep during the window, and continue to eat nutritious and nourishing breakfasts.

*2025 Variety Show*