Rockland School

District 70 student textbook and technology fees for the 2019-2020 school year will remain unchanged.

Fees for the upcoming school year, including textbook rental fees, technology fees, and supply costs, will be $125 for students in kindergarten through fifth-grade, while sixth- eighth-graders pay $225. Incoming sixth-graders will receive a new Chromebook.  

Libertyville School District 70 has been named a Top Workplace 2018-19 by an independent improvement specialist after reviewing data collected by staff survey results.

District 70 placed 11 in the mid-size company category, between 250-999 employees, out of 55 companies listed by the Chicago Tribune, which sponsored the survey. About 2,612 companies were invited to participate in the study. 

The Libertyville school district also was honored with the award in 2015-16. 

Please fill out the Illinois State Board of Education 5Essentials Survey to share your thoughts and impressions on the D70 school/schools your child/children attend. Your voice is important and through this survey, you can be heard. 

If at least 20 percent of the parents of a school respond, the results of this survey will appear on the state School Report Card for that school. This will be the only parent survey for D70 in the 2018-19 school year. We are asking parents to complete the survey by Feb. 15, 2019. 

Only one parent per household may participate in the survey. If you have more than one child at a school, one survey should be completed for all your children at the same school. If you have children enrolled in multiple schools, you may take the survey for each of those schools. We respectfully request that only parents of children in D70 take the survey so that we can gather more accurate data as we dedicate D70 to continuous improvement. Thank you! 

Letter to parents from Supt. Dr. Schumacher. 

The Libertyville School District 70 Board of Education agreed Monday night to hire Dr. Matthew J. Barbini, currently deputy superintendent of schools in Community Consolidated School District 15 in Palatine, to be the next superintendent of schools for District 70.

During a school board meeting, board members unanimously approved a three-year contract with Barbini that will begin on July 1, 2019. He replaces Supt. Dr. Guy Schumacher, who is retiring in June after a decade in the top slot.  

Feb. 18                                 No School - President's Day

Please use caution when approaching school buses as students board before school and as they unload after school. 

It is illegal to pass a school bus whose red stop lights are flashing, according to a letter distributed by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White.

For the first time this year, District 70 grade school students reviewed bus safety with Toby Tire, a robotic bus safety program sponsored by White's office. The program reviewed general safety measures for children, including staying away from strangers, looking both ways to cross a street or board a bus,  staying clear at least 10-feet around buses, and staying seated and speaking in normal tones while riding in a bus. 

In a commitment to new statewide accountability and support, the 2018 Illinois School Report Card will take on new areas of concentration when released in late October. Reinstating the work of the No Child Behind Act, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), signed into law in 2015 by President Barack Obama, offers credence to student growth and graduation rates, accounting for fifty percent of how schools are evaluated, and carrying with it a 15-year timeline.

Transitioning from a spotlight focused on standardized test scores, multiple indicators of students’ success will be used to assess school quality. In addition to standardized tests, comprehensive indicators will include academic growth, chronic absenteeism, English learner proficiency, fine arts participation, school climate survey summaries, science measures, as well as preschool to second grade and elementary/ middle-grade indicators. The system also measures the academic progress of individual student demographic groups across the inclusive indicators. High school indicators comprise college entrance examination (SAT) success, as well as graduation accountability.

Using these balanced indicators, as defined through ESSA, a set of four tiers have been designated to reflect individual school performance; Exemplary, Commendable, Underperforming/Comprehensive, and Lowest Performing/Targeted, with funding and support services aligned to the most challenged or struggling of schools.

For more information, read the comprehensive summary of Illinois' Every School Succeeds Plan.