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Message From State Superintendent Christopher A. Koch - May 9, 2011
Severe weather
is an unfortunate part of life, especially here in the Midwest
during the spring. The tragic consequences of flooding are once
again impacting areas of our state, especially in our deep southern
counties. At least six of our districts were out of class last week
and some will continue to be out this week as students, faculty,
staff, administrators, parents and other community members come
together to battle the floods, with little thought to anything else.
The timing is never good, but for high schools in the impacted area
it has been especially challenging as the floods occurred during
what was to be their PSAE administration. We are working with our
testing contractor to provide an additional testing window for these
districts that are coping with this natural disaster, but it is
little consolation for communities that are battl ing to save their
homes. Unfortunately, adding a third testing window so late in the
year will delay all of our PSAE scores by a couple weeks, however,
we want to provide every student possible the opportunity to take
the test. I know it will cause additional inconvenience for all
districts, but if it was your community and your kids living through
this type of disaster, wouldn't you want the same consideration?
Some of you may want to help. Please, do not go to the flooded areas
or send supplies there on your own. Instead, I encourage you to work
through your local Red Cross. If we have additional updates or are
able to identify specific ways to help, I will send a special notice
via our Weekly Message channels. Please keep the people in these
flooded areas in your thoughts and prayers.
This week, we will send letters via our IWAS system to principals
that provide more informa tion about the "Find a Book" summer
reading program. We will also send and post online a parent letter
that you can send to your schools' families. All of the "Find a
Book" information is located on our website at
http://www.isbe.net/htmls/summer_reading.htm and is available
for your use.
Have a great week.
Chris
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