Aptakisic-Tripp School District 102 -

🎉 Happy Educational Support Professionals Day! 🎉 Today, we celebrate the incredible individuals who work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure our schools run smoothly. These professionals include clinical service, maintenance, food service, health and student services, paraeducators, technical service, and transportation workers. 📚👏 Let's show our appreciation! Share your gratitude in the comments below or give a shoutout to someone who’s made a positive impact in your school community.

🦴✨Join us this evening for an exciting dive into history and science with the picture book Dragon Bones: The Fantastic Fossil Discoveries of Mary Anning by Sarah Glenn Marsh! 🦴✨ We’ll learn about the incredible life of Mary Anning, one of the most famous fossil hunters, and explore the fascinating world of fossils together. To make things extra fun, we’ll even be using chocolate chip cookies for a hands-on activity—science has never been sweeter! 🍫🪨 📅 Date: Tuesday, December 3 🕒 Time: 6:30-7:30 p.m. 📍 Location: Tripp School Library Bring your curiosity and get ready for a fossil-tastic adventure! #D102 #EveryDayEveryStudent

🌟We are thrilled to announce a new quarterly recognition program celebrating students from grades K-8 who exemplify the qualities outlined in our Portrait of a Graduate! 🌟 Each quarter, principals and teachers from every school will select five outstanding students who demonstrate these key competencies. At last week’s school board meeting, Board President Jordan Sklansky had the privilege of presenting certificates to our first group of honorees! 🏆 Congratulations to these amazing students for their hard work and dedication! We can't wait to recognize even more inspiring students in the quarters to come. 💙 #D102 #EveryDayEveryStudent

🎉Let's celebrate D102's School Board Members! They are dedicated leaders who guide our schools with vision, compassion, and commitment. Their hard work ensures that every student has the opportunity to succeed. 🌟 Thank you for your service and for making a lasting impact on our community! 🙌💙 #D102 #EveryDayEveryStudent #SchoolBoardMembersDay

📢 Exciting Update on Our Gymnasium! 🏗️ Our project is moving forward, and we’re thrilled to involve our junior high students in a meaningful way! They had the special opportunity to sign two of the steel beams that will be a lasting part of our new gymnasium windows. This week, our skilled masonry contractor installed a total of nine beams, including the two beams proudly signed by our students. This gymnasium will truly be a place built for our students, by our students, and with our community’s support. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to bring this vision to life! 💪💙 #EveryDayEveryStudent #D102 #BrightFuture

💛 Happy #WorldKindnessDay! Today, our students and staff came together across the district to celebrate kindness by wearing their brightest yellow! 🌞 Each letter in YELLOW represents a key part of what kindness is all about: ✨ Y is for You—kindness starts with each of us. ✨ E is for Engage—connecting with others with an open heart. ✨ L is for Listen—taking time to truly hear one another. ✨ L is for Learn—about one other. ✨ O is for Offer—lending a hand whenever we can. ✨ W is for We—because kindness is something we build together. By wearing yellow, we’re raising awareness that kindness can brighten our community. 🌼 Be nice. Be kind. Be yellow. 💛 #BeYellow #KindnessDay #ChooseKindness

🍂🍁 Cozy vibes and team pride! 🍁🍂 Our third grade teachers at Pritchett School are staying warm and stylish in their team gear this fall!

✨ Shoutout to our amazing School Psychologists! ✨ Every day, they work tirelessly behind the scenes to support our students, families, and team. You’ll find them diving into data, guiding solution-focused conversations, and standing by families during critical moments. Their expertise drives our decisions and helps us keep D102 moving forward, together. Thank you, School Psychologists, for all that you do! 💙📚

Adhya Garlapati earned the 2025 President's Volunteer Service Award! This award is given to students who volunteer 100+ hours within a year, celebrating those who make a real difference in communities all across the country. It’s all about honoring people who inspire others to get involved and help out. Each award winner gets a personalized certificate and a letter signed by the President. What an amazing accomplishment for A

Congrats to the winners of our character tissue box contest! Some stories featured were Mercy Watson, The Magic Treehouse, and the Wild Robot. Thank you to everyone who entered the contest!

🏗️ Phase 2 Progress Update: School Gymnasium Construction 🏗️ Exciting news! We're making steady progress on our new gymnasium. The walls are almost complete, and the building is really starting to take shape! 💪 This new space will soon be ready to host sports, events, and community gatherings. Thanks to everyone for your support during this process—we can't wait to share the finished product with you! Stay tuned for more updates as we move closer to completion. 🏀✨

🎉✨ Red Ribbon Week Poster Contest Recap! ✨🎉 Students at Meridian showed their creativity and commitment to a healthy, drug-free lifestyle through our Red Ribbon Week Poster Contest! 🖌️📜 Each grade crafted unique posters, and the hard work didn’t go unnoticed. Our amazing staff shared feedback with participants, providing encouragement and advice to fuel future creativity! 👏❤️ The final verdict was up to the students—each grade voted for their favorite from the other grade level, making this a true community effort! 🏆🙌 A big shoutout to all our talented artists and our contest winners. Thank you for inspiring us all to live drug-free! #d102 #redribbonweek #everydayeverystudent

District 102 had another successful Safety Night! Parents attended a Stop the Bleed training and attended sessions on topics such as suicide prevention, building healthy home routines, child CPR, and more. Officer Diaz presented about safety at home and school. Families who attended were entered into a free raffle to win *huge* gift baskets containing family games, books, and craft activities!

A special shoutout to Jayden for winning The People’s Choice prize for the Metra Safety Competition! He was awarded with a $500 Amazon gift card and his artwork will be featured in future Metra promotional materials. Congratulations, Jayden!

As we conclude Principal Appreciation Month, we want to thank our principals for their leadership in our district! We see their work in action in so many ways, supporting students, serving as instructional leaders, and managing our schools every day. We are grateful for their dedication to our students, staff, and families and the important role they play in the success of our school community.

Pritchett School will be celebrating Veterans Day this year by honoring our local veterans! We will be holding an all school assembly and writing letters for these amazing individuals who have served. If you know a veteran (family, friend, neighbor, etc.) and would like to participate in receiving letters and/or attending the school assembly, please fill out this form by Friday, October 25. https://tinyurl.com/mt2mv32v Thank you so much and we can't wait to honor your veteran on this very special day!

November is right around the corner! Be sure to double check your calendars, as there are some dates with no school ahead.

We are featuring Mr. Michels at Meridian as our last Principal for Principal Appreciation month. Mr. Michels is described as being kind, caring, and approachable. His strong leadership qualities are also paired with an excellent sense of humor! Give a shoutout to Mr. Michels!

Community member, Gail Berman is back with more sidewalk chalk art this year! She's getting in the spirit of Halloween and most recently, created our school mascots. Thank you, Gail, for bringing a smile to the students of D102 on their walks to school.

You are invited to attend the D102 Family Safety Night on Tuesday, October 29 from 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. at Aptakisic Junior High School. This event will be conducted in two groups, one geared towards students in grades EC-3 and the other for students in grades 4-8. The event will focus on various aspects of safety, including safety in the home, Safe Prescription Drug Disposal, suicide prevention, depression awareness, healthy home routines, and CPR. There will be a Stop the Bleed training session offered from 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. Childcare will be provided for school-age children upon request. There will be age-appropriate safety activities and therapy dogs. Younger children are welcome to attend the event with their parents/guardians. Please complete this interest form to register! https://tinyurl.com/4w4s8xdr