The most recent Destination 158 session, hosted in the Huntley High School cafeteria, took place last night on Jan. 21. Members of the school board and PTA came together to engage in meaningful dialogue and come up with a strategic plan for the next five years of student education.

This is the fourth Destination 158 session that has been hosted. There will be one more meeting. After that, any significant information gathered will be passed over to the district, then to the school board. 

Before the presentations began, groups of four or five formed to encourage group discussion. Each group received certain forms and tasks that they needed to complete. Each completed assignment was presented in front of the group as a whole, which would further be considered to implement change in the community.

The topics discussed included student mental health and student safety. Vice superintendent Erika Schlichter lead the discussion about social and emotional learning while Superintendent Scott Rowe informed members about the newest safety implementations that will be taking place, or are currently taking place. 

“We are changing the thinking of our students and our staff as to how they can best respond [to unsafe situations] and what options exist for them that they can think about at home,” Rowe said. 

One program that was introduced, CASEL, The Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning. Through research, practice, and policy, educators and policymakers are taught about resources and ways to advance social and emotional learning so that all students can thrive.

Other proactive efforts that were discussed in last night’s session include an addition to the campus supervisors, certain physical enhancements, and the district-wide implementation of Gaggle, which is a proactive approach to suicide prevention that helps monitor technological use under Wi-Fi networks that are authorized by the district. 

The district’s current goal is to build our K-12’s social and emotional framework. New assessments to help raise authority’s awareness about student’s skills and behaviors will be implemented between 2020 and 2021.