An attendance awareness campaign, classroom storytime events and a parent survey are some of the disparate ways Minooka Community Consolidated School District 201 officials have been working to strengthen communication in recent months.

Several Minooka 201 officials recently provided a report on the community and family engagement overtures that have been taking place in the 2025-26 school year. The information was shared at a board of education meeting Dec. 15.

“We’ve done a lot of work in coordinating these efforts this year, and you’ll see, from some of the highlights, that we’re on the right path,” Superintendent Rachel Kinder said as she and other district officials outlined the increased emphasis on what is one of Minooka 201’s strategic goals.

In general, attendance rates have dipped nationwide since the pandemic. To counteract the trend, Minooka 201 has been working to share the importance of having students seated in class, based on information shared at the meeting. An attendance campaign got underway in September.

“We’ve recognized that is one of the primary issues,” said Nick Jakusz, Minooka 201’s community relations coordinator. “We need to make sure kids are in school. Even the excused absences add up.”

Jakusz, who has been playing a part in rolling out Minooka 201’s strengthened communication efforts, said the campaign to improve attendance has been demonstrated in a number of ways this school year, including one school’s adoption of a flag and a districtwide competition to see which buildings has the best attendance record.

Minooka 201 also has been using new digital tools to connect with parents. Panorama Education, a data collection platform, and the ParentSquare app are among the examples.

Erika Martinez, director of multilingual services and family engagement, has also had a part in the district’s broader communication enhancement efforts. At the board meeting, she touched on a parent survey that was administered through Panorama that will be instructive in the road ahead.

“This is the first time we are actually collecting data in this manner,” Martinez said. “We’ll use this not only to reflect, but in the future, once we have more data pulled to compare this against to, we’ll hopefully be able to measure whether we’re making growth or if we need to step back and look at something more specifically.”

Minooka 201 received more than 700 responses from this fall’s parent survey, Martinez said. A number of specific questions were asked about communication between school staff and parents and guardians.

The Panorama survey indicated a generally high level of satisfaction among the respondents, based on the information shared at the meeting. A question on the school staff responsiveness, for instance, resulted in 89% satisfaction.

While school safety and security measures have remained a focal point, Minooka 201 officials indicated efforts such as storytimes are an opportunity to bring families into school buildings.

“Not only do we get to show them what they’re doing, but that’s a touch-point that they have the opportunity to give feedback to us,” Jakusz said.

Board President Emily Conquest lauded the work district staffers have been taking to improve communication this school year.

“This is something that is very exciting to see,” Conquest said. “This is something the community has been asking for, the board has been asking for, for as long as I’ve been on the board.”