It is with great pleasure that I welcome each of you to the start of the 2011-12 school year. I hope that your family’s summer was restful and enjoyable and that your child is anxious to return to school.

We have an exciting year planned with programs that are designed to inform, enlighten and entertain you. While most of our staff is returning I wish to introduce two new members of Peacock’s 8^th grade team. Please join me in welcoming Ms. Kari Monegato and Ms. Dana Zucco. Ms. Monegato will teach 8^th grade Spanish while Ms. Zucco will be our new 8^th grade Resource teacher.

It is also a pleasure to announce that Peacock (and Franzen) received entirely new flooring throughout the building. Vinyl flooring now populates most of our building including classrooms and hallways while new carpeting has been installed in our main office, pupil personnel office area and the band and music rooms. In addition, all washrooms and our stairwells received new tile and flooring respectively giving Peacock a needed facelift. There was also extensive tuckpointing done to our southeast wall extending to the roof line. Many of you undoubtedly had noticed the yellow barrels near the entrance to the stage in the gym that had been needed to catch leaks from that area. Given our changed appearance, we are all anxious to have you visit our “new” school as soon as possible.

Since you are reading this letter online I hope that you are aware of some of the options that have become available to you from our website. The website’s portal called Webstore allows parents of current students to make online payments for a number of mandatory and optional/participation fees. These fees include the grade level fees, Cheer Camp fees, and the interscholastic fees. We hope that you find this payment feature a convenient option for your busy schedule.

Our parent handbook will once again reside exclusively online. Please visit the district’s website, go to the “Schools” tab and click “Peacock” to view the PDF formatted handbook. Embedded within that handbook at the end is a page entitled “We’ve Read and Understood”. Please note that this page will also be provided to your child on the first day of classes in a hard copy form for both of you to sign and return to your child’s advisor by September 9^th. The signed form affirms that the contents of the Parent/Student Handbook have been reviewed. Another document that is online is our district’s calendar. That calendar provides you with month-to-month listings of special programs and school-based activities of interest and importance. Please note that a specific link to a print friendly version of the calendar can be accessed from this page.

We will continue to utilize our SchoolReach system of phone messages communicating specific programs with their dates and times. These messages are typically sent out one day in advance of the program and usually arrive at 7pm. For the 2011-12 school year District 10 will use a new student management system that will include a parent portal to access live student information including grades and assignments. Our prior system known as STI will no longer be used.

As the school year begins I want to remind everyone of our community service requirement for which all students at our school are responsible. By the end of each school year a student is in attendance at Peacock a minimum of six service hours must have been completed. Students who have attended Peacock for all three years must have accumulated a minimum of eighteen service hours. These hours are to be approved and certified by the sponsoring agency using our school’s form. Please review all requirements for community service contained in both the Student Assignment Notebook as well as the Parent/Student Handbook.

It is with great pleasure that I formally announce Peacock’s attainment of the State of Illinois’ academic progress distinction known as Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). This designation is the result of the stellar performance on ISAT’s by our students this past March as reflected in a combined 94% of all students meeting or exceeding state standards in Reading and Math along with 7^th grade Science. The achievement is further broken down in the following percentages of all students meeting or exceeding State of Illinois Standards:

Reading Math Science

6^th grade – 95% 95%

7^th grade - 94% 97% 98%

8^th grade - 91% 93%

On behalf of Peacock’s entire staff I wish each family a successful and prosperous school year. That success is predicated upon the establishment of a communication process between your home and our school.

Respectfully,

Dr. Reinhard Nickisch, Principal
F. E. Peacock Middle School
rnic...@itasca.k12.il.us