From student-athletes to administrative restructuring, the District 99 Board meeting on March 3 was jam-packed with information on the current happenings in the district.

Starting the meeting off strong the district’s state teams and athletes were all recognized for their performance at state or by making it to the state level. Beginning with the Trostangs the District 99 girl’s gymnastics team. With two state finalists, Genevieve Herion and Kaelyn Landry, the Tronstangs took home first place after being undefeated all season.

“The title of state champions signifies so much more to this team than what is led on, it simply adds a cherry on top to the real depth of Downers Grove gymnastics,” said Kaelyn Landry, the fifth-place state winner in uneven bars.

Furthermore, the DGS Speech Team was honored for their State runner-up spot and state finalists. Both teams got designated days by the district and village of Downers Grove for their state champions and runner-up finalists.

These teams weren’t the only ones honored for their success. Multiple individual all-state athletes and coaches were recognized for their continued success.

DGN DECA students also gave an in-depth presentation on the details of the club and celebrated their season’s success.

Shifting from student success, the board meeting went on to discuss staffing/FTE (full-time equivalent). Noting the increased need for filling psychologist positions at DGN, as well as adding more support to the multi-needs program at DGN to provide more space and help with outplaced students.

Superintendent Dr. Hank Thiele discussed an increase in enrollment at DGS as well as a slight decrease at DGN. He also mentioned DGS’ success with the hybrid block schedule as the “resource” period for students on block days is resulting in students taking more academic courses.

“Mostly resulting of the hybrid block schedule in the fact that it used to be a majority of our ninth graders took a study hall, it is now about 85% of our ninth graders taking 7 academic courses,” said Thiele.

The meeting concluded with discussions of the board’s restructuring.

Due to retirement and resignation, the District 99 board will be undergoing some restructuring to continue equally delegating all board responsibilities. Thiele began by stating that the associate superintendent position and assistant superintendent responsibilities following the current associate superintendent of student learning Gina Ziccardi’s retirement.

Thiele also stated the plans to delegate compliance and complaints to the assistant superintendent of human resources job. Compliance and complaints have been dealt with by Ziccardi as of now.

“That’s able to sit with Gina because she is superhuman, but I don’t anticipate the opportunity to hire another superhuman, so we are gonna split that off and add that with professional development,” Thiele said.

The full board meeting can be viewed here, and further updates and recommendations on board restructuring will be held at the March 17th board meeting as well as many more district updates.