The 21 Ledger

We are excited to announce that registration for incoming kindergarten and new students for the 2025-2026 school year is officially open! Children who will be five years old on or before September 1, 2025, are eligible to register for kindergarten, and families new to the district with children entering any grade level are also invited to complete their registration!

If you have a student currently enrolled in District 21, including a preschool student, registration for the 2025-2026 school year will begin in May.

Applications are now available for the 2025 Tarkington NEU Scholarship, which will provide $500 to a former Tarkington student who is currently a senior in high school and intends to enroll in college, university or career training coursework for the fall 2025 school year.

In order to qualify, an applicant:

• Must have attended Tarkington beginning with the year it was accepted as a No Excuses University school (2008-09 through present day)
• Be accepted and plan to enroll in a college, university or career training center

At District 21, we are deeply committed to creating a safe, welcoming, and supportive environment for all our students and families. We recently received several questions about recent changes in immigration enforcement and their potential impact on public schools in Illinois. We want to reassure all parents that our district has clear guidelines in place to protect the safety, privacy, and well-being of our students should immigration officials come to our schools.

Our District 21 Health Center has been seeing an influx of kids with Flu A and strep, so we wanted to send out some communication focused on what to do if a kid gets sick, as well as some resources comparing cold and flu symptoms.

What can I do if my child gets sick?

• Make sure your child gets plenty of rest and drinks lots of fluids

• Talk with your child’s health care provider before giving your child over-the-counter medicine

• Never give your child or teen aspirin, or medicine that has aspirin in it. It can cause serious problems.

• Call your child’s health care provider if your child develops flu symptoms and is younger than 5 or has a chronic medical condition like asthma, diabetes, or heart or lung disease.

• If you are worried about your child’s illness, call your health care provider.

Can my child go to school or day care with the flu?

No. If your child has the flu, he or she should stay home to rest. This helps avoid giving the flu to other children.

When can my child go back to school or daycare after having the flu?

Children with the flu should be isolated in the home, away from other people. They should also stay home until they have no fever without the use of fever-control medicines and they feel well for 24 hours. Remind your child to protect others by covering their mouth when coughing or sneezing. You may want to send your child to school with some tissues, and a hand sanitizer, if allowed by the school.

Did you know...? Attending school every day has impacts beyond elementary, middle, and high school? Research shows almost 90% of students that miss 15 days a year in high school drop out of college. Prepare for the future by encouraging consistent attendance every day your student isn’t sick.

We have been growing readers in D21 since the beginning of school and using the Beanstack platform as an incentive to log minutes read throughout the year through reading challenges. So far this year, we have 3,742 students participating actively and as a district we have read 21,913 books...or 1,484,818 MINUTES!

Ask your child to show you how many minutes they’ve logged this year—they can easily do this on their Chromebooks through the Beanstack app. They can also connect their school Beanstack account to their Indian Trails Library account for even more reading opportunities! We encourage you to ask your child about their progress and support their reading journey!

• English Log-in Directions

• Spanish Log-in Directions

• Russian Log-in Direction

The Indian Trails Library has many events and workshops for students and their families during February. Check out the calendar of events for specific activities and times this month.

Throughout the years, we teach our children all about “Stranger Danger” and how to stay safe when it comes to interacting and avoiding people they don’t know. We have instilled this concept in our children from a very young age in hopes they would know to reach out to a trusted adult or call 911 for help.

Unfortunately, during these times, the possibility for an encounter with an unknown person is possible, not necessarily probable. We hope that if someone approaches them, offers them something for free or asks them to get into their vehicle, our students remember that they should always say “No” and get to somewhere safe.

Hello, D21 community! We wanted to take some time to thank everyone who brought their child out for our preschool screenings during the month of January. At this point, our program is currently full for the 2025-2026 school year. However, we are starting to accept screening requests for 2026-2027!

If you're interested in scheduling a screening, please follow this link to access our updated flyer and request form.

Thank you for your continued support of early childhood education in our community!

Over winter break, OMNI counselors organized a Winter Camp for District 21. A total of 58 elementary students between kindergarten and fifth grade came together at Whitman to take part in high-energy games and crafts, including soccer, sharks and minnows, line dancing, drawing, painting/coloring, and bracelet-making.

Each morning, OMNI counselors invited students to either gym activities or arts and crafts, switching rooms after 45 minutes to engage in the other activity. Students were able to engage their mind and body while enjoying each other and the activity at hand. After another 45 minutes, all students would come back together for an all-member game, which ended up being many students' highlight of the day! Students would re-energize with a light snack and some time to draw before heading back home.

OMNI counselors saw a myriad of learning, playing and collaboration in the two weeks of camp. Physical activity, positive role models, and social interaction support overall positive mental health functioning. OMNI was extremely excited to offer an opportunity like this to District 21 students!

The Board of Education on Jan. 16 formally approved two bids to complete renovations of the remaining unused portion of the Gill Administration Building and convert it into storage space. The project gives the district the necessary space so the rental of storage facilities and cargo containers will no longer be necessary. The reduction in cost for these outside storage options allows the district to return such funds to the education program

The Illinois State Board of Education has extended the timeline for the short term substitute license through 2028. We had some wonderful new sub candidates that applied to work with us this past year. Many of these subs are right from our community! We’re excited for these additions to our sub group but we’re not done yet. We are continuing to hire subs this summer. Please let your neighbors and friends know that we are hiring for next year.

We still have openings in our sub pool for the following positions:

• Secretary - $100/day

• Health Assistant - $100/day

• Teaching Assistant - $125/day

• Teacher - $141/day

• Registered Nurse - $309/day

• Long term teacher (more than 10 days in the same classroom) - $227/day

In addition, any subs who work 100 days this year will receive a $1,000 bonus at the end of the year.

Check out this video on how to apply for a short-term substitute license, and this link for more information.

Be kind when you’re online! When older children start to use online games and social media to talk to others, it's important to speak to them about cyberbullying. Here are some tips on how they can become positive members of online communities:

• Think before you hit “send”. It can be easy to send an angry message in the heat of the moment. Take a pause and think twice about how your words will impact the person you’re messaging. Sometimes, people tend to act more boldly online because they can’t see the other person’s reaction. The other person’s feelings could be hurt, even if you can’t see them react behind the screen.
  
  

• “Liking” a mean message is part of the problem. Even if you didn’t post a mean comment, liking it still supports the cyberbully. Instead, be an upstander who defends others! Show support for the person being bullied, and tell a trusted adult.
  
  

• Don’t spread rumors. Don’t assume that everything you read online is true! If something seems off, ask a trusted adult about it and do your own fact-checking. Always ask yourself if the person who posted the information is a trusted source, and don’t repost someone else’s rumor.
  
  

• Don’t be afraid to block and tell a trusted adult. If someone is making you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, don’t be afraid to block their profile. Your well-being should always be the priority. You should also tell a trusted adult, who will know the best way to handle bullying situations as they come up.

The Village of Wheeling on Monday, Feb. 3, named Maya S., a fifth grader at Tarkington Elementary School, as the 2025 recipient of the George Hieber Citizenship Award, the youngest-ever recipient. Since she was five, Maya has created a kindness project in conjunction with her birthday every year to assist the less fortunate in Wheeling and the surrounding communities. Congratulations to Maya on this AMAZING honor!

After 24 rounds of intense competition (and another six to break a tie for third place), we are thrilled to announce our top three finishers for the District 21 Spelling Bee!

First Place: Ethan T., a seventh grader at Cooper Middle School

Second Place: Aadvik K., a fourth grader at Tarkington Elementary School

Third Place: Abby L., a sixth grader at London Middle School

By winning the district-wide competition, Ethan advances to the 15th Annual North Cook ISC Scripps Spelling Bee on Tuesday, February 25, in Lincolnwood. If he is not able to compete, Aadvik will go in his place. G-O-O-D L-U-C-K, Ethan!

The eighth grader, who first joined choir at the age of 3, recently represented the district in Peoria as part of the Illinois Music Education Association’s first-ever Junior High All-State Chorus! The annual event highlights the top student musicians from across Illinois, and serves as part of ILMEA’s mission to promote music education and recognize outstanding student achievement in music. Claire was one of 150 students across the state selected for the group.

During the month of February, students and family members from Longfellow and Tarkington descended upon the Indian Trails Public Library for their school's Family Literacy Nights! The two-hour event gave them a chance to see what services the library has to offer; listen to several staff members read books aloud; work on an assortment of science, technology, engineering, art and math projects; sign up for a library card; complete a scavenger hunt organized by the library; and receive a free book donated by the Rotary Club of Buffalo Grove.

"Family Literacy Night is a powerful reminder of how reading brings people together,” said Amy Breiler, director of teaching and learning for literacy. “Seeing so many students and families engaged in activities that celebrate the joy of reading and storytelling highlights the strong partnership between our schools and community in fostering a lifelong love of learning.”

In late January, we kicked off our first Family Learning Program event of the calendar year! Middle school parents joined us to dive into the communication tools that keep our community connected, including ParentSquare and Google Classroom. Thanks to everyone who came out to learn how we stay informed and engaged together. Stay tuned for details of our next event!

The event, held on January 25, brought together jazz bands from more than 20 schools to celebrate music, creativity and the hard work of student musicians. Following a brief setlist, our students were able to receive valuable insights from some of the state's finest music educators, helping them grow both as musicians and as individuals.

I am very proud to say that I have officially committed to the University of Missouri to continue my education! I am majoring in journalism, but I am unsure about my minor—maybe World Religions? There are many things I am looking forward to about going to college. I am excited to meet new people, get involved in journalism programs, and get away from home!

The livestream video of the January 16, 2025, meeting of the Board of Education is now available.

The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on February 20, 2025, at 7 p.m. at the District 21 Community Service Center and Administrative Office.