Kane County Reporter

At the Sept. 27 District 300 Board of Education meeting, the board heard from Superintendent Susan Harkin whose report consisted of several upcoming events, district policies and reminders of communication policies.

“Just as a reminder, we do have a chain of command policy that I'm required to provide as part of our board policy," Harkin said. "I developed an organizational chart which is on the district website indicating the channels of authority and reporting relationship. And we really encourage everyone to follow the process as we move up the chain, because it's firmly our belief that when we address problems closest to the problem, that there's a really good chance of that problem being fixed systemically in our system."

Sheila Crotty-Kagan, the director of fine arts, spoke about an upcoming event. The district will be celebrating the 50th annual D300 Choral Festival, which includes all 8th grade choir students from all five middle schools, along with chamber choirs from all three high schools. In honor of the 50th anniversary, the district has commissioned two new grant-funded pieces of music to be debuted at the event. The event will be on Oct. 17 at at 7 p.m.

Shelley Nacke, the chief of family education services, discussed the importance of family engagement in a student’s academic career alongside the school system. She stressed the importance of getting parents involved in building booster clubs, like athletics or fine arts booster clubs. In terms of district-level engagement, she discussed the Family and Community Network which supports and educates parents on how to support their students. She gave an overview of  other parent engagement opportunities throughout the district.