Message from the TFD 215 Board of Education

Dear Thornton Fractional School District 215 Families,

At the general Board of Education meeting on January 23, 2024, I was provided with the distinct pleasure of being appointed as the Superintendent of Schools for the 2024-25 and 2025-2026 school years.  I am truly grateful for the opportunity to continue serving our students and to successfully educate them to be valuable members of society, no matter their career path. I began this journey with District 215 over 23 years ago as a student teacher, classroom teacher, track and field coach, assistant principal, principal, director, assistant superintendent, and interim superintendent. With this wealth of knowledge and experience, I look forward to years ahead in serving as superintendent.

Time flies when we are having fun!  As we approach the end of a productive 1st semester, I would like to reiterate how District 215 staff and students are moving towards achieving successful outcomes. New and existing programming have paved the way to ensure that students are engaged in career preparation and development, attaining hands-on training in high skilled, high demand areas of our labor market, and obtaining employability in their preferred career pathways. 

Dear Thornton Fractional School District 215 Family,

I would like to thank all staff, students, parents, and career representatives for participating in our Infinite Scholars Fair and the IACAC College, Career, and Transitions Fair that was held at TF South. The event provided an opportunity for our senior students to meet with over 100 college representatives from around the country. The Infinite Scholars Fair promoted on-site admissions and scholarship opportunities. At our 3rd Annual District 215 IACAC Fair, students across the district at all grade levels were able to attend the fair. Students had the opportunity to gain new knowledge and an understanding of what is beyond high school by interacting with an additional 130 or more colleges, universities, careers, military branches, and transitions services.  

We encourage all parents/guardians to make necessary arrangements to join us on Thursday, October 5, 2023, for Parent/Teacher Conferences that will be held at all campuses. You can decide to meet with teachers virtually or join us in person. 

Dear Thornton Fractional School District 215 Family,

It is with great pleasure, honor, and humility to serve you as Interim Superintendent for the 2023-2024 school year. I am excited to work with students, parents/guardians, the leadership teams, and staff in this new role. It is my true desire to accept new challenges, duties, and responsibilities to provide a collegial and productive working environment for all students and staff. I am especially looking forward to establishing and maintaining a school community environment of respect, care, and rapport for all.

Dear Thornton Fractional District 215 Families and Community,

We are about halfway through the school year and the accomplishments of our students and staff are inspiring. During the October Board of Education meeting I was honored, as your superintendent, to recognize four students who achieved College Board Nation Recognition for their excellence on the PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT 10, or AP Exams. We honored two students who not only made it to the 2022 National Speech & Debate Tournament, they placed fourth in the nation for Poetry Reading (John McBeth), and eleventh in the nation in storytelling (Christiana Oluwole). TF215 has such a rich history of achievement but in a first for our district, I also recognized Leshawn Sanders who was appointed to the Illinois State Board of Education’s (ISBE) Student Advisory Council. The council of students represents districts from the entire state and will help guide the development of policies and initiatives with a student perspective. Leshawn is an excellent addition to this council.

While we celebrate individual student accomplishments, the state school report cards were recently released to the public and even faced with the challenges covid presented to the district, our students did well on the assessments. Thornton Fractional District 215 received a Commendable rating based on several measures with huge recognition to students in our special education classrooms for exceeding the state average in English/Language Arts and Math. Commendable is a good rating and everyone should be proud, however TFD215 is EXEMPLARY and that is our goal.

To support our mission of moving from Commendable to Exemplary, we have undertaken a Strategic Planning process and you can find the framework on our website at https://www.tfd215.org/downloads/misc-web/strategic_plan_framework_2023_and_beyond.pdf . We are now in Phase 2, and YOU will play an important role in the success of this phase by providing your input in focus groups, town halls and completing surveys. Our community school partners will provide perspective that will be woven into collaborative, data-driven goals and strategies for 2023 and beyond. Multiple platforms will be utilized for you to provide your input in January and February. Later in December we are implementing a texting notification system to provide another mechanism to communicate with our parents and community. We need you to help develop a viable solid strategic plan so please watch for more information after the winter break.

On behalf of the Board of Education and administration, we are thankful to you for your ongoing support of our students, staff and TFD215 community.

Sincerely,

Dr. Sophia Jones-Redmond

Superintendent