With logistical and budgetary planning for the upcoming 2026-27 school year gaining momentum, Minooka Community Consolidated School District 201 officials are honing in on meeting the needs of bilingual learners.

At its most recent regular monthly meeting, Minooka 201’s board of education had a preliminary discussion about staffing for the district’s seven buildings.

Sarah Massey, director of human resources, said the broad-brushed review includes reviews of student enrollment projections, as well as specific special education and support needs.

One specific position — a transitional bilingual education teacher at Minooka Jr. High School — was a focal point of the first in-a-series of discussions about staffing needs for the upcoming school year.

“We wanted to get ahead of this one,” Massey said of the proposed 1.0 full-time equivalency position at the board’s Feb. 23 meeting. The position is specifically tailored to the native Spanish speaking population at the junior high school.

Massey said MJHS has a population of more than 20 students that would benefit from having such a specialized teacher on staff within the building, and for the specific grades.

“There are certain points that trigger when you need to increase your supports for students, and we have that situation developing at Minooka Jr. High School, to where we need to increase our ML (multilingual learner) supports for, simply, the number of students that we have there, as well as the intensity of support that those kiddoes need,” Massey said.

Minooka 201 officials actually sought out a transitional bilingual education teacher for MJHS a year ago, for the current school year, but to no avail.

“We wanted to get a jump start on this one because it is such a hard-to-fill position,” Massey said.

The board did not take a firm vote on the hiring at its Feb. 23 meeting, though there was conceptual support for moving forward and seeking out candidates.

“Continuing our efforts and taking care of the kids — it’s great, so thank you for doing what you’re doing,” board member Stephen Blount said.

In other recent matters, the Minooka 201 board of education:

-Continued discussing a strategic planning exercise that is underway. The district is in the initial stages of gathering feedback from the community on curricular priorities, program opportunities, and other related issues in the short- and long-term visioning process.

The district has a series of stakeholder input sessions planned, with two in-person ones scheduled for 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 18, and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, March 21. A community survey also has been launched and is accessible at min201.org/school-board/strategic-plan.

Superintendent Rachel Kinder and Board President Emily Conquest encouraged community members to take part in the survey at the recent meeting.

“We truly do believe it is important to cast this wide net,” Kinder said. “It’s not going to be an extensive, very long survey, but it will be very important and very valuable.”

Conquest added, “I know the survey fatigue is real, but it really is important information for us as we go through this process. The board is excited to have a strategic plan that truly lives in the district so that we really, truly feel like the actions that we’re taking here are supporting our buildings.”

-Heard a report from Kinder on a $60,000 donation from Jones Elementary School’s PTO for the installation of a new outdoor learning center on the school grounds. The donation includes materials and labor for a gazebo and seating areas.

“We are very grateful to accept this from the Jones PTO and excited for spring to come so we can see that project come to life,” Kinder said.