Speaks about education reform initiatives

Welcoming the Class of 2025 back to school, Lt. Governor Sheila Simon highlighted a new leadership program aimed at keeping Carbondale Middle School students on track to graduate.

Simon joined Principal Marilynn Ross to tout the first CMS Leadership Academy, which provided students with tools to handle stress and inspire good behavior. The summer academy builds on a discipline program students will learn about in the opening days of class that aims to increase the time students are spending in class.

The future college Class of 2025 is now in sixth grade.

"The Class of 2025 is going to shape the future Illinois," Simon said. "We need to provide every student, from Carbondale to Chicago, a clear path for success. Investing in their education is an investment in our state workforce."

The year 2025 is the deadline set by Illinois leaders to have 60 percent of working-age adults hold a college certificate or degree. Economists say the highly educated workforce will be needed to attract and retain jobs of the future.

As part of the 60 by 2025 strategy, Simon's office is working with the state's public universities and community colleges to bring up college completion rates among students through Guided Pathways to Success, which aims to streamline course requirements so more students can graduate on time, in less debt and with a career connection. She also helped launch the state's first math curriculum to cut down on remediation needs and led the Classrooms First Commission as it recommended ways for districts to redirect $1 billion from administration to classrooms.

Simon serves as the state's point person on education reform and chairs the Joint Education Leadership Committee for the P-20 Council, the state's top educational advisory body. This was Simon's second address to the future college Class of 2025 in Carbondale. She first visited in 2011 when the Class of 2025 was in third grade at Thomas Elementary School.

"Classrooms First" agreement emphasizes efficiency and effectiveness

SKOKIE – Aug. 20, 2014. Lt. Governor Sheila Simon celebrated an education reform milestone between Niles Township High School District 219 and Skokie/Morton Grove School District 69 on Wednesday. Superintendents signed a "Classrooms First" agreement today that aims to align instruction, reduce high school remediation needs and maximize financial resources at both districts.

"This agreement puts students first by focusing on educational effectiveness and efficiency simultaneously," Simon said. "I hope this inspires the other elementary school districts that feed into District 219 to take similar steps, and that other districts throughout the state take notice."

The intergovernmental agreement creates shared faculty and instructional tools between Niles West High School and District 69, the largest of the five elementary school districts from which it draws new students each year.

The reforms are largely based on the findings of the Classrooms First Commission, which Simon chaired and which issued a report detailing recommendations for voluntary and virtual school district consolidation in 2012. The report urged school districts to share services and cut administrative costs in order to redirect savings into classrooms.

The Niles agreement creates shared faculty between the districts and personalized learning plans for students, among other changes. Two shared positions will oversee science, technology, engineering and mathematics curricula, and instruction between the two school districts. The new alignment should reduce the need for costly remediation - or re-teaching - of math and sciences in high school and college.

Starting in 2016, new kindergarteners will also be issued the same "individualized learning plans" District 219 uses to personalize the instruction of its high school students. That plan will follow students throughout their entire K-12 career, said District 219 spokesman Jim Szczepaniak.

"Our Classrooms First Consolidation agreement with District 69 will guarantee students and their families that their elementary education will properly prepare them for high school and that their high school experience will make them ready for college and ready to succeed in life," said Nanciann Gatta, superintendent of Niles Township High School District 219. "We're honored that Lt. Governor Simon is able to join us for this signing event to validate what we are doing in Niles Township to show that public education works."

Simon joined District 219 and District 69 officials at the signing ceremony, which featured a series of talks by district instructors, and a tour of the high school following the presentation and signing.

Intergovernmental agreement adopts efficiency, effectiveness reforms

SKOKIE – Lt. Governor Sheila Simon will celebrate an education reform milestone on Wednesday at Niles West High School. School officials will sign a "Classrooms First" agreement, a step toward educational efficiency and effectiveness at Niles Township High School District 219 and Skokie/Morton Grove School District 69.

Beginning this fall, Niles West High School and its largest feeder district will share faculty and instructional tools in order to maximize resources and reduce remediation. The reforms are largely based on the findings of the Classrooms First Commission, which Simon chaired and which issued a report detailing its recommendations in 2012.

Simon will join District 219 and District 69 officials at the signing ceremony, which will feature a series of talks by district instructors and a tour of the high school following the presentation and signing.

TIME: 9:30 a.m.

DATE: Wednesday, Aug. 20

LOCATION: Black Box Theater, Niles West High School, 5701 Oakton St., Skokie

Six others receive honorable mentions

Rock Island, Ill. - Three students from across the country were awarded first, second and third place at the national level of Modern Woodmen of America's 2014 School Speech Contest. Six others received honorable mentions.

Chloe Thurlow, an eighth-grade student at Reeds Brook Middle School in Hampden, Maine, was awarded first place. Jaye Carvelli, an eighth-grade student at Lumberport Middle School in Lumberport, West Virginia, was awarded second place and James Thiriot, a fifth-grade student at E. Melvin Honeycutt Elementary School in Fayetteville, North Carolina, placed third.

First-, second- and third-place winners of the fraternal financial services organization's annual contest earn a $2,000, $1,500 or $1,000 savings plan and two award plaques - one for the recipient and one for the school. Modern Woodmen financial representatives sponsor the local contests.

Teresa Collins, New York, New York; Hanna McCaw, Andrews, North Carolina; Daniel Denenberg, Omaha, Nebraska; Katie Jensen, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Remy Arroyo, Anaheim, California; and Abigail Zindars, Mukwonago, Wisconsin, received an honorable mention in the contest.

The topic for this year's nationwide contest was "the importance of healthy living." Modern Woodmen asked all student speakers to consider how maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important for individuals, communities or the nation as a whole.

The School Speech Contest, one of six youth educational programs sponsored by Modern Woodmen, is provided to schools across the country at no charge. For more than 60 years, students have gained confidence and improved their communication skills by participating in this contest. More than 100,000 young people competed in 2013, of which 23 advanced to the national judging in June.

As a tax-exempt fraternal benefit society, Modern Woodmen sells life insurance, annuity and investment products not to benefit stockholders but to improve the quality of life of its stakeholders - members, their families and their communities. This is accomplished through social, charitable and volunteer activities. In 2013, Modern Woodmen and its members provided more than $20 million and more than 507,600 volunteer hours for community projects nationwide.

To learn more about Modern Woodmen and its free youth educational programs, visit www.modern-woodmen.org.