The Rochelle Elementary School District Board of Education has unanimously approved its 2025 tax levy.

The levy, approved Tuesday, Nov. 11, saw a 4.99% increase over last year, which due to being below 5%, did not require a truth in taxation hearing. The board is requesting $11.910,100.

District Business Manager Kevin Dale said during the meeting that the district previously planned a tax levy increase of 4.7% but upped it due to equalized assessed value numbers changing. The approved levy captures more funds for transportation and special education line items, which are the district’s highest expenditure line items, Dale said.

ESSA

District Assistant Superintendent Tony Doyle presented a report during the meeting on the district’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) summative designations.

Each district building is assigned a designation each year by the state based on last year’s scores. The four designations are exemplary, commendable, targeted and needs improvement/comprehensive.

Doyle said all four district schools of Rochelle Middle School, Lincoln Elementary School, Central Elementary School and Tilton Elementary School were designated as commendable. Designation comes from a series of differently-weighted scores and metrics, such as student growth, Illinois Academic Readiness testing, proficiency in math and reading, and truancy.

“We’re happy about all four district schools being labeled commendable, but we know we want to reach towards exemplary,” Doyle said. “We have a lot of things to focus on and challenge ourselves with. As a district we can use this for school improvement plans and things to keep getting better.”

Stepping Stones

Stepping Stones Preschool Director Yazmin Nambo presented an update on her school.

Current focuses at the school include kindergarten readiness, a full-child approach, and play-based instruction to target foundational academic skills for students along with social emotional learning to target functional and coping skills to transition to kindergarten successfully. More conscious discipline work is being done as well, Nambo said.

As of Oct. 27, Stepping Stones had 202 students enrolled; 109 of those students are ready to move on to kindergarten, Nambo said. Monthly preschool screenings have allowed the school to identify more kids that need to be in its program.

Previously, the school saw up to 180 students enrolled at a time. Nambo said the goal is for the school to reach 220 students enrolled by the end of the year.

In August, Stepping Stones Preschool moved into the previously-vacant May Elementary School, which helped it expand and serve students on its waiting list. The district received a preschool-for-all grant for two years (fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2026) that made it consider expanding its offerings and led to the May School location at 1033 N. Second St.

May School was closed by the school board before the 2021-2022 school year as the district shifted to an attendance center model due to declining enrollment and an increase in the district’s dual language program, which was previously only offered at Lincoln and Central Elementary Schools. The district was facing a half-full May School before the decision was made.

Stepping Stones Preschool has been expanded to seven classrooms at May School. There are morning and afternoon classes. The district has revamped classrooms, bathrooms and offices to make the building work for a preschool.

“We had a major transition and expansion to May School,” District Superintendent Jason Harper said. “Thank you to Ms. Nambo and all of her teachers and staff for working through that transition.”

Lincoln

Lincoln Elementary School Principal Amy Hayden presented a building update on her school, which has placed an added emphasis on literacy after seeing a need after students transitioned into Central School.

“Last year we worked on small group reading instruction for every kid every day,” Hayden said. “We’re continuing that this year and we’re committed to getting as many of our kids to that ability to read by the end of first grade because we know research talks about the significant gaps that can happen at that time.”

Hayden said feedback has shown students’ reading is stronger than in previous years. Phonics instruction has been a point of emphasis as well, she said.

Grant

The board unanimously approved the submission of an Illinois State Board of Education School Maintenance grant for costs associated with an RMS science casework area replacement and repair project.

The grant would include $50,000 in matching funds, and the work would take place in the upcoming summer. Dale said the grant process is not competitive and there is a “high probability” of receiving the funding. The work has been pushed off in recent years and replacement is needed as part of state health life safety requirements, Dale said.

Personnel

The board unanimously approved personnel changes, including the resignation of Candace Meiners as a second grade Central School teacher at the end of the 2025-2026 school year, the employment of Janet Cosme Diaz as a bilingual paraprofessional at RMS, and the retirement of Brian Johanning (maintenance) effective Dec. 1, 2025.