Marengo-Union

    Approximately two hundred and forty years ago the endeavor of public schooling began in the USA.  Communities shared in the effort of creating and maintaining the one-roomed schoolhouse.  Farmers provided fuel to warm the schoolhouse during the winter and parents helped to build school desks and keep the school clean.  Usually, a single teacher managed students of all ages with the basic of resources – slate board, chalk and a few books.  Today, the one-roomed schoolhouse holds nostalgia not students.  A multitude of textbooks have replaced the few.  Basic resources are no longer rudimentary and varying degrees of high tech equipment allows students to explore their world both near and far.

    School populations have changed since the first school students crossed the threshold to learning so many years ago as have the size of schools and the educational tenets and standards.  School maintenance is no longer dependent upon the volunteer manual labor of the local people.  What schools are dependent upon is the goodwill of the community.  This goodwill rests within the zones of communication between students’ families and the school staff in the culture of community that embraces them.  The delicate balance in any educational setting is the consideration that the good of the whole is subject to the care of the one.                    

    The zones of communication between students’ families and school staff are made up of the social emotional fabric of experiences of all who have been or are being educated in the public school system. These social emotional threads that tug at our pride and protection of offspring, remembrances of school experience and philosophy of learning make the process of educating our Nations children one for the most challenging but rewarding of experiences.                 

Over the years experts have considered different vantage points of education.  John Dewey wrote about the means to acquire the optimal development of children.  Willard Waller highlighted the animosity and antagonism stemming from the different ways parents and teachers see the children. Joyce Epstein brought our attention to the overlapping spheres of community, family and school influences effecting the learning and growth of the student.  Educational challenges of today continue to include these points as well as the economic worries and disparities that plague so many communities.  These economic worries and disparities heighten the stress levels of everyone they touch. So much so that the interconnectedness of the spheres that is the strength of any community become obscure.  What are these strengths and what are they not?  They are the intangible management of social emotional qualities not the tangible processes of curriculum and/or budgets.  They are the compromise of various fractions for the good of the whole.  They are the empathy for the one. They are the pulling together of the community to help in times of need and beyond.  Most importantly they make for a secure holding environment for our children as they begin their journey into adulthood.           

    This journey into adulthood supported by a Free and Appropriate Education has continued across the decades from its beginnings two hundred and forty years ago to present day.  The combination of the art of teaching and the practice of communication between the spheres of Community, Family and School incorporate flaws characteristic of the unique bringing together of such entities.  These flaws are our window of opportunity into the management of our social emotional connectedness. 

We are initiating an intercom monitoring system. The school doors will remain locked throughout the day and visitors need to ring the bell located to the right of the front door. A camera lets the office see who is there and visitors will be buzzed in. Visitors will then sign in at the office, obtain a visitor's sticker then return to the office and sign-out when leaving. 

The Mission 

District #165 is dedicated to academic excellence through the cooperation and interaction of students, staff, parents, and community. We are committed to providing opportunities for students to achieve their personal best, become responsible and productive citizens, and embrace the value of learning.
 
 
Keep Your Students Information Updated 
If you are withdrawing your child at anytime during the school year, you must come in, to fill out the necessary paperwork releasing your child from our school district. The school office(s) Monday-Friday 8:00 A.M.-3:50 P.M.   MCMS 815-568-5720, Locust 815-568-7632.

Please continue to notify the school(s) of any changes being made to phone numbers and addresses as they occur.

Please help to keep all family lunch accounts current.