EAST PRAIRIE SCHOOL DISTRICT #73
7620 East Prairie Road
Skokie, IL 60076
P. 847-673-1141
F:847-673-1186
www.eps73.net
August 2023
East Prairie Community,
I can feel the excitement in the air as we approach the beginning of school. Our students are excited to see old friends, meet their teacher, and participate in new sports, clubs, and activities. As a parent, I know we are all looking forward to the social-emotional and academic experiences our children will have as they grow, mature, and change. As an educator and the spouse of a teacher, I know our staff has been hard at work preparing and planning to welcome all of our learners for another impactful school year. We look forward most to connecting and getting to know your child - their interests, opportunities, and strengths. The beginning of school brings much to be excited about at East Prairie.
We value the success of the whole child and continue to make that one of our top priorities. Recognizing the ongoing impact of the pandemic and the needs of our school community, we continue to plan ways to grow the social-emotional skills of our students. Empathy, collaboration, and communication skills are the underpinnings our students will need to be productive, caring, and engaged citizens. Our daily opportunities to learn and grow in this area remain a commitment from us to you. Furthermore, to support our students this upcoming school year we have added a full-time school psychologist. They will partner with our social worker and staff to help meet the needs of all students.
Our staff used the summer months to take a deep dive into our work intervening for students and supporting positive behavior. Two teams of educators were created that researched best practices so we could determine which practices were most effective and how we can continue to improve. Our systems have continued to grow each year as we strive to systematically support the vast needs of all students. Our goal is to ensure we are providing both extra academic and behavioral time and support for each student who needs it. We simultaneously strive to provide extension for every student who has mastered a skill or concept so that they grow to their fullest potential.
The safety of our students, staff, and community remain a top priority. We continue to partner with first responders to prepare for emergency situations. Our staff will again practice for hard lockdown situations, and we will involve our students in age-appropriate ways to grow their preparedness. Specific lessons have been designed to account for the developmental levels of our students. In addition to our training processes and drills, we continue to enhance the structural safety of our building. We frequently review our approach and the opportunities we have to keep our building safe and secure while also comfortable for our learners, staff, families, and community.
We will soon be updating our website with a new format and a more modernized design. One great feature you will notice is the connection between the computer and phone versions. The site will operate in a beta format for the first few months as we adapt to best meet your needs. We will let you know when it launches and always appreciate your feedback.
As we continue to strive to improve our curriculum across content areas, we are excited to roll out our new preschool curriculum and kindergarten through fifth grade math adoption. These tools will provide our teachers with excellent resources to help our students learn our essential standards. Building off this work and to enhance the value of our standards-based report cards, our teachers have been hard at work creating learning progressions for their standards. These progressions will make clearer to students, teachers, and families the proficiency of their child towards our standards. This will be a yearslong process that we are excited to begin this year.
East Prairie’s teachers, staff, and community offer our students an extraordinary learning environment. I could not be more proud to serve as superintendent of a system committed to ensuring that every student learns at the highest possible level. If there is anything we can do to support you, please contact a member of our team.
Enjoy the rest of the summer and the start to an extraordinary school year.
Sincerely,
Paul Goldberg
Superintendent