Oswego 308 officials: New school year off to a great start

The 2019-2020 school year is off to a great start in Oswego School District 308, according to district administrators and the Board of Education.

The district's more than 18,000 students returned to classes in the district's 22 schools Aug. 14. The district is the seventh largest in terms of enrollment in the state of Illinois.

During the Board of Education's Aug. 19 meeting, Superintendent Dr. John Sparlin said he was impressed with the energy he felt while visting district schools during the first week of classes.

"I heard the same things, I saw the same things; talking about the same energy, the positiveness, the enthusiasm, and people happy to get back to work and the kids coming," Sparlin said, adding, "This is my eighth year in 308 and I truly believe that this was the best start of the school year during my eight years here."

"I've seen a lot of great things coming out of the different schools," board member Toni Morgan said. "Everything looks great, all the teachers and all of the different people who were getting ready for the new school year - great job."

Morgan also gave a special shoutout to the district's transportation department and bus drivers.

"I think that Oswego 308 does a fantastic job of making sure the bus drivers are ready, making sure the routes are known and bus stop times for pick up are right on the money, so good job," she said.

"I was impressed with all of the schools and all of the cool things they were doing to get ready," Board President Lauri Doyle said. "I also applaud all of our maintenance staff for getting our buildings ready to go. It's been pretty neat to see how excited everyone has been, just at all the schools, doing different positive stuff with the kids."

The only complaint, Doyle said, joking, came from her child, who had wanted an extra 20 minutes to get to the bus - but the bus was on time.

"Excellent job to everybody, this has been a really great start to the school year," she said.

Board member Heather Moyer praised the district's communications and public relations and IT (Information Technology) departments, for their work in launching the district's new Tyler Student Information System, which replaced the Home Access system.

"I know it was a big job, and continues to be a big job, and thank you for all of that," Moyer said.