A new school year has begun in Peoria, and District 150 Superintendent Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat is optimistic new programs to combat chronic absenteeism and phone use will be successful.
One of the newest changes in Peoria Public Schools District 150 is the use of YONDR pouches to lock phones away during the school day.
Kherat said the goal is for students to be less distracted and more present in the classroom. She said one student did cut their pouch open on the first day, but other than, that there weren't any major hiccups.
Students who damage their pouches will have to pay $30 to replace them and face disciplinary action.
Kherat said the district is working to make this a permanent change in the district.
“As it relates to the implementation we have to be consistent,” she said. “We have to be firm and we have to be fair, we cannot, you know, relax on the brakes. It has to because it's that serious and important.”
There are exceptions for students who use their phones for medical reasons such as tracking medications, she said.
Read more: Peoria Public Schools plan to lock up student cell phones draws parental concerns
Kherat also said the integration of Quest Charter Academy students has gone smoothly, noting an employee from Quest has been hired to be a case manager for the students.
“She's going to track every last one of them wherever they are, and attendance and of course past passing, how are they doing with schoolwork and then behavior as well,” she said. “And we'll be able to determine if it's a really good fit, or if we need to have a conversation about another placement, because we have quite a bit of placements.”
The district also hired 15 former Quest teachers and staff. Kherat said the next steps are deciding what to do with the two buildings that belonged to Quest. As part of the merger, the district now owns the buildings again and has some ideas on how to use them, such as a dual language school.
Eventually, Kherat said there will be a discussion on the possibilities with the board of education, but for now the priority is ensuring Quest students find success in their new schools.
Staff needs
Hiring and retaining staff remains a priority this year. Kherat said the Grow Your Own and Teacher Ready programs have yielded good results so far.
The Grow Your Own program aims to recruit and retain people from the Peoria community. Teacher Ready is available for people with bachelor's degrees who want to get their teaching certificate.
Kherat said this year District 150 is launching a new apprenticeship program targeting people with associate's degrees.
“We're working with BloomBoard on that program,” she said. “And so they will work on the teaching certificate, they'll do everything at work… so I'll give them an extra hour, a release hour, where they can, you know, do their work.”
The program is available for teachers aides and assistants employed with the district.
Kherat said international teachers continue to help fill staffing gaps, adding there are about 100 international teachers this year.
“The whole purpose is, you know, that they're learning from the United States education system, learning specifically from Peoria,” she said. “And then they're sharing the culture with us as well.”
Absenteeism
Lowering the chronic absentee rate is another district- wide goal this year. The district had a absenteeism rate of 41%, according to the latest Illinois State Report Card. That's compared to 28% statewide. Kherat said every school in the district has a plan to get that rate down.
“It's front and center. Because we know the children are not there, there's no way we can impact them,” she said. “So that's the first step in school improvement is making sure that the children are there.”
Intervention for chronically absent students ranges from calling home to visiting students at home and creating plans to get students back in school.
“We have FamilyCore, we've subcontracted with them, an entity that provides sort of a home school facilitators, we pay for that,” she said. “They're going out to the homes. So yes, they, you know, they have the data and they know what they have to do.”
Kherat said improving academic performance is another goal. She said the district has set a goal to have 5% of students exceed in the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) state testing for English language arts and mathematics.
Last year, they had 2.7% for English language arts and 1.3% in math, but Kherat said she is confident District 150 will reach those goals.
