District 220 discusses strategic plan with community

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Barb Romano, pricipal of the Barrington Early Learning Center, talks with Tom Leonard, superintendent of schools, during Thursday's community meeting held at Barrington High School. | Brian O'Mahoney~for Sun-Times Media

Barrington Community Unit School District 220

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Updated: February 27, 2012 8:07AM

Before listening to a report of its 10-year globalized education plan’s progress and outlook, Barrington Community Unit School District 220 board members and community members shared hors d’oeuvres with the schools’ Strategic Planning Task Force on Thursday in the Barrington High School Cafeteria.

The Jan. 19 presentation was the second of 17s meetings scheduled to take place from January until April for the district’s Community Engagement Series, focusing on community conversations and input crucial to the Strategic Plan’s future progression.

District 220’s Strategic Plan originally stemmed from a shared desire by parents and teachers to prepare students with a global competency predicted to be necessary in the future marketplace. From that, the plan’s vision evolved into a mission that currently aims to graduate students that will thrive in the global marketplace as future leaders.

Ways in which the committee members hope to transform the educational system include providing students with global education; individualized learning; social emotional learning; healthy and environmentally sustainable schools; optimal time for learning that may involve extended school days; and up-to-date technology.

A short video on the school board and staff’s recent visit to China, Beijing and Tianjian played as the guests ate, and it featured members commenting on what they experienced after their immersion the in classrooms and culture.

Instructional Technology Coordinator Lynn Swanson briefly summarized the district’s new involvement with Google Apps for Education; an innovative Internet tool that encompasses a free set of tools for both students and educators to use collaboratively on any of the apps’ documents from any Internet-accessible computer.

Swanson recently registered the district for a Google Apps for

Education web domain this past spring, helping them to join a growing trend catching on in other Illinois districts that include Northbrook School District 27; East Maine District 63; Libertyville District 70; and East Prairie School District 73.

“After talking with some of the kids and different teachers at the high school, I learned that the ones who are using it are very happy with it,” Swanson said. “It’s still going to be a lot of professional development to train them on the different tools available.”

Swanson said that she had seen the benefits of using Google Apps for Education at the schools she had worked at prior to beginning her work with District 220 two years ago.

“I saw the benefits of students just learning the 21st Century skills at those various districts,” Swanson said. “It’s great because we can teach them how to collaborate, create and share documents and presentations in a safe environment—skills they’ll need as they continue their education into their career.”

With a deadline set at 2020, committed volunteers and staff members hope to fully achieve the Strategic Plan’s mission through a timeline that focuses on accomplishing specific goals per school year.

The district’s 2009–10 and 2010–11 calendar years focused on the beginning stages of exploring global education with international classroom partnerships, utilizing new technologies and exploring a variation of language models.

This school year’s scorecard has so far inched away from the “beginning” stages, and moved more towards the “developing” stages—the ideal stages the district intends on ultimately achieving are “advanced” and “exemplary.”

Barrington 220’s Strategic Planning Task Force will next hold a community conversation for Barrington High School Students today (Thursday), followed by a presentation from visiting author Dr. Yong Zhao on Feb. 2.

More information can be found on the district website: www.barrington220.org.