With the start of a new year, District 87 Superintendent David Mouser previewed a new district-wide media campaign, "D87 United," for school board members Wednesday night.
The campaign and its parent-facing materials are focused on the district's efforts to "unite" across several strategic objectives set by the school board, Mouser said.
"The number one goal that we have is achievement, united in achievement. That is student achievement," Mouser said.
There are an additional four focus areas set by the school board that Mouser wants the district to unite around. They include: belonging, or creating safe and welcoming spaces for students; culture, or recruiting, developing, and retaining quality staff; stewardship, or aligning financial resources to student success; and innovation, which is focused on modern facilities and learning environments.
Mouser said the goal of the new campaign is to involve parents, connect them with faculty, staff, and the school board, and provide them the resources they need to engage in students' education.
To the school board, Mouser emphasized the campaign is "the culmination of a lot of work that you did."
He said sometimes strategic direction is developed and set "on a shelf somewhere that nobody's going to know about" — but not the work of the District 87 school board.
"It's a living, breathing thing that people can see," Mouser said.
Other business
The school board also heard the following updates:
- Nicole Rummel, assistant superintendent, shared a teaching and learning update. The district anticipates a higher graduation rate and a lower dropout rate this school year. Rummel shared that by offering 16 sections of 10 dual enrollment classes, Bloomington high school students were able to earn a combined $237,701 worth of college credit for free.
- Michael Cornale, chief financial and facilities officer, shared a budget update for the upcoming school year. Overall, the budget has an expected and planned-for deficit of just over $11 million. "We took on revenue last fiscal year associated with some capital projects that we'll actually pay for in fiscal year '27," Cornale said. "So that really reflects as a deficit or a decrease in that overall fund balance."
- Cornale also shared a facilities update. The district is focused on six ongoing facilities projects: Bloomington High School's [BHS] tunnel project, BHS's west end, BHS's north gym tile and bleachers, BHS's south gym, repairing damage from recent storms including downed tree limbs and flooding, and a miscellaneous category that includes smaller sized facilities projects.
