West Cook News

Giles Elementary school officials are reveling in the school’s overall standing for academic achievement after it recently placed at or above the national average.

At its April 18 board of education meeting, members from the Norridge School District Board heard from the school building leadership team about how they plan to improve on this year’s achievements during the upcoming 23-24 school year.

Principal Bob Biedke, assistant principal Christine Ahrens, 6th-grade ELA teacher Todd Browder, 7th-grade science teacher Steven Hovorka, social studies teacher Taylor Provax, 8th-grade math teacher Shanna Russell, school psychologist Brittany Tiehen and 8th-grade ELA teacher Judy Figliuolo all made up the district leadership and improvement team. All told, the group held more than 14 meetings and outside workshops to settle on an improvement plan for next year.

“Some of our strengths that we have is that Giles is a committed staff,” Ahrens added in a video of the meeting posted to YouTube. “Nearly 65% of our teachers have master's level degrees or higher education, and 100% of our teachers have received proficient or excellent on their performance evaluations.”

Ahrens added that teacher retention rates have also improved by 20 points over the last year to 93% in the 2022 school year.

“Our students advance in school in both English language arts and in mathematics,” she added. “We also are partnered with Ridgewood High to allow students to advance in the areas of English language arts, math and science. And then lastly, we have a great period of community involvement. Our parents are committed to partnering with staff. All parents and guardians are offered the opportunity to attend student-led conferences, and we've seen a great attendance for that every year.”

Earlier this year, school officials celebrated their successes with the school’s almost 500 students, discussing the PRRIDE program that stands for positive, respectful, responsible, inclusive, determined and engaged and encourages good behavior in their students with one of the largest groups they’ve had in recent times.

From among its four grades, the building had 73 students receive referrals, which, Ahrens said, are both a celebration and an area to work on next year. The PRRIDE program also pairs up 5th and 7th graders and 6th and 8th graders to create community and role models within the building, she said.