Grundy Reporter

At its Jan. 17 meeting the Minooka Community Board of Education discussed its DEI efforts. 

Members of the DEI team explained some of the recent changes and programs in the district, including working with its teachers, coaching staff, and other activity leaders, and creating a new program for student intervention that is now being led by some of the district staff and counselors.

“So really the restorative team was focused on modifying student behavior, if you will, through education, reflection, mediation if needed, and continued support to develop interpersonal skills amongst our students here,” Matt Wikoff, Central Minooka High School assistant principal, told the board. “So in a nutshell, a situation may occur whether there was a social media post, whether there was a confrontation amongst students, or whether there was an instance in which not necessarily consequences needed to be issued, but we thought it'd be beneficial for the student to be part of a training, taking a look at mutual respect, belonging and inclusion.”

The program is led by Susanne Madding, dean of students at Central, and Molly Highbaugh, a school psychologist. They took over the training of staff that is done twice a semester, and overseeing the program that students go through. Since they began the program in 2020-21 school year, they have had a total of 69 students go through the program with 13 students in the first year, 29 students and 10 student leaders in the second year, and 17 students in the first session of the current school year and at least 10 more scheduled for the second session. 

The board was told the foundation of training in this program is based on respect. They start with small groups of students and discuss aspects like diversity, equity, inclusion, respect, and empathy and then have the students work with each other to figure out what these things should look like in the halls of Minooka.

The board was told many of the students that had been assigned this program were there because of social media incidents. As a result, the program focuses on respectful and responsible digital citizenship; and making sure students think before posting and interacting with others online. 

The board was told students are very positive about and grateful for the training after they finish the program, recommending it to other students in the school. 

The board uploaded a livestream of its meeting to the district’s YouTube channel.

In other business, the board discussed adopting a new grading scale for students in grades 3-8 for 2023-2024 academic school year.

The board will meet again at 6 p.m. on Feb. 27 at the district office boardroom.