Lemont Time

Advisory at Lemont High School, referred to as Lemont Time, is a new program that will begin in Fall 2023 and is intended to increase students’ sense of belonging to Lemont High School and foster a school culture of respect and acceptance. 

Lemont Time is a school safety measure, as we believe students who are accepted and respected and who feel like they belong to a school are less likely to commit violence there.

Groups of students within the same grade level will be assigned to a teacher and will meet for 30 minutes on most Wednesdays during the school year. Lemont Time students and teachers will stay together throughout the students’ high school years. In rare situations under extenuating circumstances, a student’s Lemont Time assignment may change.

Lemont Time is designed to reduce anonymity, give students a home base, and ensure all students have a connection with at least one adult at Lemont High School. Additionally, Lemont Time is intended to support students’ motivation and value for academic work and promote higher expectations for academic success.

One pillar of Lemont High School District 210’s Strategic Plan is “Environment”. The goal associated with the “Environment” pillar is to maintain a safe, secure, and caring school climate that fosters student learning and provides a positive work environment. To that end, the District 210 Board of Education established a goal for the Superintendent to increase students’ sense of belonging to Lemont High School and foster a school culture of respect and acceptance. That goal is being operationalized through implementation of an advisory program, which is called Lemont Time. 

Given that school shootings continue to occur with alarming frequency throughout our country, explicitly building a school culture of respect and acceptance through an advisory program is another way we can enhance school safety. We believe students who feel like they belong to Lemont High School and who have a positive connection with at least one adult at our school are less likely to commit violence here. Organizations such as the United States Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security Threat Assessment Center concur. One of the top five strategies for schools described within its most recent publication released May 2023, Improving School Safety Through Bystander Reporting: A Toolkit for Strengthening K-12 Reporting Programs, is creating a positive climate where reporting is valued and respected. Within this strategy, included recommendations are building and supporting student-staff relationships, helping students view adults in the school as trusted individuals, and striving for a climate where people of all backgrounds feel secure, important, and valued.

In 2018, greater attention to students’ social and emotional development was identified as an area of improvement for Lemont High School by a large group of teachers, department chairs, and administrators engaged in school improvement planning. Over recent years, anecdotal information from teachers, social workers, and counselors concerning the prevalence of students struggling with anxiety, depression, school phobia, and fear of missing out, coupled with increased referrals to student services for emotional concerns, are other reasons for Lemont High School to expand upon what is currently provided for social and emotional development. 

Recent data related to the number of Lemont High School students hospitalized for emotional concerns in the last two years (28 during the 2021-22 school year; 25 during the 2022-23 school year) plus the number of students who have used mental health days as reasons for absence this year (112), continue to support implementing an advisory program. 

Recently, we asked our teachers to rate student-to-student interaction within the academic classroom setting and learned 55 percent of the teachers who responded rated such interaction as poor, 38 percent rated it as average, and only 5 percent of our teachers rated the quality of student-to-student interaction in class as good. Activities planned for Lemont Time will promote face-to-face, student-to-student interaction.

The concept of an advisory program at Lemont High School was recommended by a committee of teachers and administrators and approved by the Superintendent and Principal. Implementation of Lemont Time in the fall of the 2023-24 school year is a component of the Board of Education’s Strategic Plan.

Feedback about this program was provided by members of the Principal’s Student Advisory Committee. We believe student voice is an important part of a successful advisory program and we anticipate ongoing review with the Principal’s Student Advisory Committee during the upcoming school year. Periodically, all students will be asked for their thoughts to find out what they liked or didn’t like about particular Lemont Time lessons and what suggestions they might have for improvement.

Social and emotional learning in schools has a consistent and positive impact on student academic achievement according to research covering more than one million students (Durlak et al., 2022). Brain science shows that social, emotional, and cognitive development are intertwined and integral to academic learning and success (Immordino-Yang, 2011). The academic performance of students who participated in SEL programs was an average of 13 percentile points higher than peers who did not participate in SEL programs (Taylor et al., 2017). Students participating in SEL had higher levels of overall school functioning including attendance, engagement, and homework completion (Cipriano et al., 2023).

Direct feedback from students, teachers, and parents/guardians is one way we will measure the success of this program. This will be done periodically with students through exit slips at the end of Lemont Time periods, longer surveys, and verbal feedback from the Principal’s Student Advisory Committee. We also will periodically gather feedback from teachers on what is working and what is not working in terms of content and instructional materials. We also will seek parents’ perceptions. We hope to see the quality of face-to-face interaction among students in an academic setting improve. Right now, only 5 percent of our teachers rate such interaction as good. We will review data from the 5 Essentials Survey (required by the Illinois State Board of Education), which provides us with information about students’ perceptions of various aspects of Lemont High School. The survey given to all seniors as they graduate also will provide valuable insight we will consider as we assess the effectiveness of our advisory program.

Lemont Time is not:

• A study hall, a time to make up tests, or meet individually with faculty members
• A planning period for faculty
• Rigid and inflexible
• A forum for adults to voice their personal opinions or beliefs on controversial subjects
• An opportunity for adults to indoctrinate students into particular ways of thinking
• A counseling or therapy session
• Just a time to mess around

In its first year of implementation, Lemont Time topics will be the same for all grade levels. Our plan is to build grade-level specific content into the curriculum each year as the program evolves. However, we anticipate the nature of discussions of a particular topic during Lemont Time to vary appropriately based upon the grade level of students. For example, a discussion of Homecoming activities and participation with a group of seniors is likely to be different than a discussion of that same topic with a group of freshmen. Because we highly value student voice and teacher feedback as we implement Lemont Time, we anticipate some advisory topics and activities may be tweaked or discontinued and some advisory lessons might turn out to be just right as they currently exist. We may find some topics are best suited for younger students and others are more beneficial for older students.

Lemont Time themes, lesson topics, and instructional materials all will be available to preview by the Friday before each Wednesday that advisory will occur. As the implementation of Lemont Time progresses and we gather feedback from students and staff, currently planned content and/or instructional materials may evolve or change.

Please click here to access the monthly themes and lesson topics planned for Lemont Time during the 2023-24 school year. 

Please click here to view more specific details of the planned scope and sequence for Lemont Time periods in August, September and October 2023. Details for the rest of the school year will be made available in the future.

Social and emotional learning is a joint responsibility between parents/guardians and schools, and students in Illinois schools participate in these types of activities as early as kindergarten. Public school districts in Illinois must comply with the Children’s Mental Health Act of 2003, which states, in part: “Children’s social development and emotional development are essential underpinnings to academic success.”

In 2004, the Illinois State Board of Education required all public school districts to develop a policy for incorporating social and emotional development into the educational program. In 2005, the Lemont High School District 210 Board of Education adopted Policy 6:65 Student Social and Emotional Development, which states, in part: “The Superintendent shall incorporate social and emotional learning into the District’s curriculum and other educational programs consistent with the District’s mission and with the goals and benchmarks of the Illinois Learning Standards.”

Currently, social and emotional development is addressed within Lemont High School’s Health, Physical Education, Psychology, and Family & Consumer Sciences courses, as well as during observances such as Red Ribbon Week and Suicide Prevention Week.

Please review the response to “Why is Lemont High School implementing an advisory program now?” for additional information.

While students will be “held over” for 23 minutes on most Wednesdays, the amount of time they spend at school on those days is not longer than typical Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, or Fridays. The student day on most Wednesdays will start 40 minutes later (as it has previously) and end 23 minutes later than other typical school days.

All academic classes, including math classes, actually will gain instructional time next year because Lemont Time will include necessary non-instructional tasks that currently are done during class time, such as review of safety protocols, practicing safety procedures, selecting courses and registering for classes, and taking various required surveys. 

We disagree students will never need or use what is learned during Lemont Time. Emotional intelligence, the ability to recognize and navigate emotions in others and the ability to regulate one's own emotions, is a highly valued skill in the workplace. Employers want workers with strong interpersonal skills who can collaborate with and forge collegial relationships with individuals from different backgrounds and cultures. An article from The Wall Street Journal indicates 92 percent of employers say social and emotional learning skills are as important as technical skills.

We very much anticipate Lemont Time evolving over time. Each year, we plan to build grade-level specific topics and activities into the curriculum so that in four years, the program will feature greater differentiation among grade levels. Student voice is critical to the success of this program and through regular methods of soliciting feedback from students regarding what they like and don’t like, and suggestions for improvement, we anticipate ongoing adjustments will be made. Some lessons might be great in their current form, others may need to be tweaked, some may be discontinued, and new topics may be added. The Lemont Time curriculum committee consists of teachers from every department in the school, as well as administrators, and will utilize feedback from students, parents/guardians, and teachers to continually improve the program.

There will be time in Lemont Time dedicated to post-secondary planning and career exploration, as well as differentiated time for seniors to learn about and prepare for scholarship opportunities and to process the college selection experience with others who are going through it at the same time.

A group of administrators and teachers representing every department in our school created monthly themes and lessons that will be implemented in Lemont Time. As the safety of our students and staff is of the utmost importance, school safety will be part of the content. School safety measures will be reviewed, practiced, and emphasized. 

Some of the other topics planned for Lemont Time include identifying and applying preferred learning styles, prioritizing and other organizational skills, how to communicate with adults in person and with email, how to ask for help, how sleep affects lifestyle, strategies to use if experiencing test anxiety, setting academic goals for the semester and school year, post-secondary planning and career exploration, use of social media, and listening skills. Students will be encouraged to engage in acts of kindness and learn about ways to become involved in the school community and in the greater Lemont community. 

A typical 30-minute Lemont Time period will include short activities designed to set the tone, lighten the mood, relax a bit, and find common connections with other students and the advisory teacher. Next, the teacher will provide an overview of the lesson topic, which may include a short video, a verbal description, or possibly showing a few slides. This brief overview will be followed by discussion of the content among the students, facilitated by the teacher. In the last few minutes of some advisory periods, students may share what they liked or didn’t like about the advisory lesson and what suggestions they might have to make it better. This feedback may be in the form of a short survey or exit ticket.

All students will be assigned to an advisory group and will be required to report there during the Lemont Time period on most Wednesdays during the school year. Students may not opt out of Lemont Time.

After reviewing the content, instructional materials, and activities planned for a particular Lemont Time period, a parent/guardian may request for a student not to participate in a certain portion of that particular lesson due to specifically related extenuating circumstances.

Lemont High School does not have study halls.

Our Skyward scheduling program will be used to randomly assign groups of approximately 15-18 students within the same grade level to a particular member of the faculty, with reasonable balances of male and female students in each Lemont Time group. Students of all ability levels will be included in these groups. Some groups may consist of both students with special needs and general education students.

All faculty members with the exception of our deans, school nurse, and Department Chair for Student Services will have Lemont Time groups.

Below is the schedule for most Wednesdays during the school year:

Period 1: 8:40-9:50 a.m.
Period 2: 9:55-11:05 a.m.
Period 3: 11:10 a.m.-1:10 p.m.
Lemont Time: 1:15-1:45 p.m.
Period 4: 1:50-3 p.m.

Late starts for students on most Wednesdays are done in order for teachers to participate in weekly professional learning communities (PLC). The work done by the faculty during this time includes teachers of the same courses reviewing students’ academic progress and making curricular adjustments. PLCs are an essential component of curriculum, assessment, and instruction processes at Lemont High School and shortening that time to less than its current duration does not allow enough time for meaningful PLC collaboration.

Extending the end of the school day by 23 minutes on Wednesdays when the school day for students starts 40 minutes later is reasonable and does not increase the amount of time students are in school. The class schedule on most Wednesdays already differs from the class schedule on other days of the week due to late starts for PLC, so it was logical to incorporate one modified schedule on Wednesdays to accommodate both PLC and Lemont Time. Also, fewer athletic events occur on Wednesdays than on other days of the week.

Just as in a traditional classroom, school administrators and/or the Student Services Team will help to resolve any conflicts between students or between a student and a teacher. We will manage these situations as we do now, on a case-by-case basis. If conflicts cannot be resolved with interventions, a student’s Lemont Time group may change.

At this point in time, it is too early to discuss future expansion of the program. However, beyond Lemont Time, our Student Services team will continue to provide additional support to small groups or individual students as needed.

Lemont Time does not replace any independent meeting time for students to connect with social workers, school psychologists, or school counselors. Lemont Time is not a therapeutic intervention.

Communication between Lemont High School and District 113A to help prepare middle school students for high school is ongoing. Articulation between Old Quarry Middle School and Lemont High School occurs within academic subjects and among the student services and special education departments. The content of advisory programs at both schools also will be periodically reviewed and discussed. Given the differences in age groups, it is not anticipated an advisory curriculum will be shared.

Lemont Time includes students of all ability levels. Advisory groups may consist of students with special needs as well as general education students. Students whose IEP services include support from a paraprofessional in traditional classes will be provided that same support in Lemont Time. If needed, curricular modifications will occur on an individual basis.

Faculty members who have not been directly involved on advisory teacher committees have had multiple opportunities to anonymously express their thoughts and opinions during this period of preparation for advisory. Such feedback has informed the development of our advisory program. The Association of Lemont Teachers has been supportive of advisory since it was recommended by a group of its members.

Concerns about students’ social and emotional development were expressed by a group of teachers and administrators in 2018 during school improvement planning discussions. To that end, the concept of implementing an advisory program was recommended by a committee of teachers and administrators. Lemont Time themes, topics, and lessons with supporting instructional materials have been created by a committee of teachers, and this same committee of teachers will continue to make adjustments to the curriculum as we get feedback from students and all faculty. While teachers will spend some additional time reviewing Lemont Time lessons each week, they are not expected to create their own lessons from scratch. We don’t see the preparation for Lemont Time as extensively burdensome.

All teachers completed mental health first aid training and became certified in mental health first aid during the 2022-23 school year as part of the professional development that was done to prepare teachers for advisory. Teachers will carry this knowledge with them in academic classes as well as Lemont Time. Specific training for teachers on how to build a sense of belonging among a group of students also was provided this school year, and will continue into the fall. These research-based activities are applicable to academic classes as well as Lemont Time, and teachers are encouraged to incorporate these strategies into their non-advisory classes.