Mokena Parents Push District 159 For More Enriched Learning Programs

MOKENA, IL — A group of District 159 parents has expressed concerns to Board of Education members about what they say is board members being derelict in their duties by failing to live up to a board policy that promises to provide enriched educational services to advanced and gifted students within the Mokena School District.

For a second straight month, two parents representing a larger group of Mokena families went before board members on Wednesday night, asking that school officials do more in providing enriched classes in core subjects to advanced students.

The two parents, Angela Swenson and Linda Kraus, have asked the board to consider adhering to a board policy that states that the district's superintendent shall implement an educational program for gifted students and talented learners that will challenge and motivate academically advanced students.

Although the parents acknowledge that the district’s current enrichment program includes math classes for sixth through eighth graders in District 159, the parents say that the Board of Education has not done enough to ensure that the district is living up to its own policy, listed as School Board Policy 6130, for academically gifted students. The group is seeking more enhanced programming for students between the third grade and eighth grade.

The parents point to past district budgets — along with a proposed budget for 2024 — that does not include funding for enrichment programs and highlight a 2021 community-wide survey that placed enrichment classes among the Top 3 improvements that residents are seeking from the district.

State educational standards designate gifted and talented students as those who score in the Top 5 percent of students in a local district. While the parents say that the policy in place for years, they claim that the board and school administration have failed to recognize and implement the policy “even when parents and community members have voiced the need for this policy to be implemented and for resources to be allocated toward gifted learners.

Kraus, who said at Wednesday's meeting that she moved to the district in 2020 after being told District 159 could support her student’s academic needs, has said that the Board of Education has ignored public pleas for more educational services for the gifted.

“(The board) has been silent when the community has raised awareness to these policies and laws that have not been implemented,” Kraus told the board.

Kraus said the board has continued to give district administrators “too much leeway” in not implementing programs for advanced students and that board members have also failed to recognize the dereliction of duty to the community and to taxpayers.

Kraus said that they have been routinely told to “wait and see” when it comes to implementing a program for gifted students and said, “This year is no different.”

“Where is the accountability from the school board?”, Kraus said. “Why hasn’t the school board directly responded to letters from parents and community members regarding the program for the gifted and enrichment?”

Kraus said that the district currently offers “the best opportunity” for athletes to succeed in the district, but that academically advanced students have routinely been ignored. She said that such students do not have the academic equivalent of an athletic director who oversees school sports teams and coaches.

“Our children deserve better,” Kraus said.

Swenson agreed, saying that parents have not heard anything from board members after initial concerns were raised at the board’s September meeting. Swenson said that Mokena’s educational opportunities are not competitive with neighboring districts and that the board’s silence “is an answer” that shows where the board’s priorities on community concerns lie.

While Swenson said she and other parents are grateful for current math classes being offered to gifted learners, the class “does not equate” to the district meeting the goal that is stated in the district policy of challenging and motivating academically advanced learners and engaging them in “appropriately differentiated learning experiences to develop their unique abilities.”

Swenson said that each year that passes without such educational programs represents a “missed opportunity that will not be regained.”

“We have the responsibility to make every reasonable effort to serve these students sooner rather than later,” Swenson said.

At Wednesday’s meeting, school board member Kelli McMillan proposed that a board short-term committee studying school safety and enriched educational programs be established. While the two committees are not yet in place, McMillan included both building safety and enriched learning programs should be topics that the board is considering.

In terms of enrichment learning opportunities, McMillan said that English-Language Arts and Math should be a “top priority”. She said that in 2022, the board approved spending $10,000 on a golf program and $12,000 on a strings program and said that the board should be allocating funds to support students in core subject areas.

She said that as the district continues to focus on improving student test scores, the percentage of students who exceed benchmarks is going to grow who need “more of a challenge.”

“We have a large number of parents who are expressing their desire for us to provide changes to the learning environment of their children,” McMillan said. “They say that’s not happening now.”

She added: “I think we owe it to our students and to our community to invest that time (into looking into improvements). ...It’s clear this is what the community wants.”

McMillan said during Wednesday’s meeting that she is not calling for the board to take action, but that implementing a plan for more enhanced learning opportunities for students is worth investigating and exploring.

“I would like to be the board that responds to what the community is telling us what they want,” she said, adding, “We need to be competitive to our neighboring districts, too, for the good of our community. People can move out of this district and move next door to get what they are desiring.”

In response, board member Jim Andresen said he wanted to go on the record of not being in favor of establishing committees for safety or for enhanced learning, saying the district already had officials in place to look into both matters and said the board should not interfere with that process.

Board members will be voting on whether the committees will move forward at their meeting on Nov. 15.

Parents have exchanged emails with District 159 Superintendent Mark Cohen about expanding enhanced learning programs. In the email, Cohen said that 25 percent of Mokena Junior High students are currently enrolled in an enhanced math class and that the district will be evaluating student progress moving forward. The district, Cohen wrote in the email, has launched enriched English Language Arts programs for kindergarten-fifth grades with a more “rigorous” curriculum and higher-level reading material for students.

He said that the district will continue to examine expanding enhanced programs for English Language Arts in the 2024-25 school year, but that the process of offering differentiated educational offerings remains a work in progress.

“The success of your students are of the highest priority to us,” Cohen wrote in the email to Swenson and Kraus that was obtained by Patch “All students deserve the support to maximize their academic potential. Please know that it is important to us that any changes to programming are based on sound research, grounded in the needs of our students as determined by data, and supported by the District with intention so that there are no false starts, breakdowns, or gaps.

“It is our intention to study districts around us but also districts in the Chicagoland area that are similar to us demographically and are exemplars based on student performance. There are many questions we consider implementing differentiated programming. There is no one way that school districts structure their programs and we have to determine what is best for us in (District) 159.”