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The District 220 Board of Education will conduct two meets this evening at the District Administration Center, 515 W. Main Street beginning at 6 PM.

Regular Board of Education Meeting

Items on their agenda include:

A copy of the agenda can be viewed here. The meeting will be live-streamed on the district YouTube channel.

Organizational Board of Education Meeting

Items on this meeting include:

  • Oath of Office
  • Consideration to Approve Appointing Temporary Chairperson
  • Consideration to Approve Electing President
  • Consideration to Approve Electing Vice President
  • Consideration to Approve Electing Secretary
  • Consideration to Approve Electing Treasurer
  • Committee Assignments, and
  • School Improvement Update

A copy of the agenda can be viewed here.

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The District 220 Board of Education meets this evening at 6:00 PM at the District Administration Center, 515 W. Main Street. Items on their agenda include:

  • FOIA Report
  • REVISED Personnel Report
  • Approve the Consolidated District Plan
  • Consideration to Approve a Resolution Authorizing the Honorable Dismissal Due to Reduction in Force of Part Time or Full Time Educational Support Staff
  • Consideration of Resolution Approving Change in School Student Assignment Areas for New Development Located on Main Street in Barrington, west of the district admin center, south of Barrington High School and east of Pederson Nature Preserve
  • Calendar Survey Update
  • BHS Graduation Update
  • Teaching and Learning/Extended and Equity Update

A copy of the agenda can be viewed here. The meeting will be live-streamed on the district YouTube channel.

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Please take 3 minutes to hear some perspectives from a Barrington resident regarding CUSD 220 schools by clicking here. It reflects some of what we share early this morning in our post, “Literacy epidemic hits Illinois as fewer than 1 in 3 students read well.”

Thank you.

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Illinoisans over 90,000 times said they opposed a bill regulating homeschools and private schools, but an Illinois House committee passed it anyway. Now the full Illinois House must face constitutional issues and fierce opposition to the bill.

By Dylan Sharkey | Illinois Policy Institute

measure regulating homeschool and private schools in Illinois saw a record 90,000-plus public declarations of opposition, but an Illinois House committee ignored them March 19 and advanced the bill for a full House floor vote.

The Illinois House of Representatives’ Education Policy Committee voted 8-4 in favor of House Bill 2827, with one voting “present.” The vote was along party lines.

HB 2827, the “Homeschool Act,” requires all elementary and secondary private schools to register annually with the state and report sensitive information on all enrolled students. It also requires homeschooled children’s information be registered annually and that a curriculum portfolio of their school work be produced on demand.

Illinois Policy staff attorney and director of labor policy Mailee Smith testified before the committee, urging members to vote “no.”

“Nothing in HB 2827 is about what’s best for kids or somehow improves education for those students who are struggling. Instead, it’s about tracking and regulating every single family and school that is not a government public school,” Smith stated in written testimony.

By making private schools disclose the names, addresses and other information about their students, the state government is essentially requiring families’ religions to be disclosed.

HB 2827 would empower the state to ask for an annual “homeschool declaration form” and an “educational portfolio” any time for any reason among other requirements. The portfolio must include a log of curricular materials used and samples of writing, worksheets or other materials written by the child. Public schools are not required to share that same information with the families of enrolled students.

Read more here.

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The District 220 Board of Education meets this evening at 6:00 PM at the District Administration Center, 515 W. Main Street. Items on their agenda include:

  • FOIA Reports
  • Revised Personnel Report
  • Consideration to Approve Resolution Accepting Municipal Ordinances Exempting Barrington Community Unit School District 220 From the Cook County Paid Leave Ordinance
  • Consideration to Approve Second Reading of Board Policy
  • Consideration to Approve Resolution Authorizing Intervention In Proceedings Before the State of Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board (PTAB)
  • Consideration to Approve Resolution Reauthorizing the Treasurer’s participation in the Illinois School District Liquid Asset Fund Plus (ISDLAF+)
  • Consideration to Approve 2025-2026 Meal Prices
  • Consideration to Approve NSLP Contract renewal
  • Suspension Appeal for Student A

A copy of the agenda can be viewed here. The meeting will be live-streamed on the district YouTube channel.

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Illinois Democrats backing candidates in new (not really) strategy to get involved in all elections

By Ben Szalinski and Bridgette Fox | Capitol News Illinois

SPRINGFIELD — It’s been just four months since the last election concluded, but another election is on the horizon in Illinois: the April 1 elections for school boards and municipal offices.

Though municipal and school board races in Illinois are nonpartisan, voters may see many of the same political themes that were hallmarks of races during the 2024 presidential election cycle. The Democratic Party of Illinois is applying many of the same tactics it uses in partisan elections to this year’s local races.

“We as the Democratic Party of Illinois should be defending Democratic values in every single election in nonpartisan and partisan elections alike, because all of these local offices have jurisdiction over super critical controls and we think our party has the best platform for governance,” Democratic Party of Illinois Executive Director Ben Hardin said.

The 2025 local elections are the second time that Illinois Democrats are getting involved in nonpartisan races. After recruiting more than 1,000 prospective candidates last year, the state party is supporting 270 candidates for a variety of local offices in all areas of the state.

(Click on image to enlarge)

The party trained the candidates and attached them to “coaches” experienced in running Democratic campaigns. Candidates will also be supported by a six-figure advertising campaign by DPI in the coming weeks.

“I think our voters welcome the information,” Hardin said. “They want to know, and they need to know, who the aligned candidates are.”

It’s also part of the party’s strategy to be more active year-round.

“This is how the party operates now,” Hardin said. “We are not going back to closing up shop after an even-year midterm or presidential election, lying dormant for 18 months and then coming alive again for the next even-year general election.”

Read more here.

Editorial note: This publication strongly endorses incumbent candidates Steve Wang and Katie Karam, as well as that of candidate Deanna Stern, for election to the District 220 Board of Education in the April 1st Election.

Related: So-called voter education group — League of Women Voters — says don’t attend, engage or watch Trump speech to Congress

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By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints

Take a good look at the book recently read by a teacher to her 4th-grade students at my neighborhood public school in Wilmette. You’ll quickly understand why DEI, and trans-activism in particular, have become so objectionable and divisive, particularly in school settings. And why the backlash at the national level to remove such content from our schools, even among Democrats, has become so powerful.

The book that the Wilmette Central School teacher read out loud is called “It Feels Good to be Yourself.” The teacher begins by describing Ruthie, who at five years old determined that she was a he. Her younger brother was just three-and-a-half years old when he announced he was a he. Both kids inform their parents of the gender decisions they’ve made. The decisions are accepted without question.

The teacher reads on:

“You might feel like a boy. You might feel like a girl. You might feel like both a boy and a girl – or like neither. You might feel like your gender changes from day to day or from year to year. Your feelings about gender are real. Listen to your heart.”

Really? Day to day? To ten-year-olds?

As if that wasn’t enough, the book adds this: Doctors and your parents looked at your “body” and just guessed at your gender when you were born. “Maybe they got it right, maybe they got it wrong.

It’s hard to reach any conclusion other than this one: This book is being read to 4th-graders only to create gender confusion among impressionable young minds. 

Here is a link to a Youtube reading of the book. I encourage you to stick with the six minutes it takes to get through the video.

By any measure, the book’s views are extreme to an overwhelming share of Americans. Normalizing these ideas to little kids in a public school setting – that gender can change day to day and year to year, and that little kids have self-determination – is an extreme proposition. Such ideas don’t belong in our schools.

Read more here, and please vote wisely on April 1st for District 220 Board of Education.

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Steve Wang, Katie Karam and Deanna Stern are three of six candidates up for four four-year seats in the Barrington Area Unit District 220 Board of Education April 2025 election.

Report by Steve Zalusky | Daily Herald

Candidates for the Barrington Area Unit District 220 school board were asked what they would change about the district at a candidate forum held by the League of Women Voters Sunday at the Barrington Area Library.

Incumbent Steve Wang said he would like to see the district continue being a voice for the parents and taxpayers. Wang praised the district’s leadership, programs, students and educators. He pointed to the district’s AAA bond rating, contract agreements with teachers and support staff and its successful addition of two superintendents.

Incumbent Katie Karam, noting that 220 is a unit district encompassing both the elementary and high school levels, suggested a mentorship program. High schoolers would mentor middle schoolers, while middle schoolers would do the same for elementary students.

Challenger Deanna Stern said she would like to promote less device usage in all of the schools and focus more on old-fashioned communication and even going back to actual textbooks. She also said students need to improve typing skills.

Read more here.

Related:Barrington District 220 School Board candidate forum recordings released

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The District 220 Board of Education meets this evening at 6:00 PM at the District Administration Center, 515 W. Main Street. Items on their agenda include:

  • FOIA Reports
  • Revised Personnel Report
  • Consideration to Approve a Resolution Authorizing the Honorable Dismissal Due to Reduction in Force of Partial-Year Full-Time Educational Support Staff
  • Consideration to Approve BEA Memorandum of Understanding
  • First Reading of Board Policy

A copy of the agenda can be viewed here. The meeting will be live-streamed on the district YouTube channel.

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The District 220 Board of Education meets this evening at 6:00 PM at the District Administration Center, 515 W. Main Street. Items on their agenda include:

  • FOIA Reports
  • Personnel Report
  • Consideration to Approve Instructional Materials Report for 2024-2025
  • Consideration to Approve Project Work Order #11 to the Pepper Construction Company Master Agreement for Barrington High School Piping Replacement Project in the amount of $3,454,669
  • Consideration to Approve a Resolution Authorizing Non-Renewal of Non-Tenured Teacher Final-Year Probationary Teacher

A copy of the agenda can be viewed here. The meeting will be live-streamed on the district YouTube channel.

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