Welcome to Center Cass School District 66. Thank you for choosing us to be your partner for your child’s personal and educational success. District 66’s mission is to challenge, inspire, and empower students every day, and in doing so, students will be prepared for today, and more importantly, tomorrow. 

Challenge:  When students have a growth mindset, challenge is fun! Students are challenged to think critically, reflect on their work, and improve every day. Students are encouraged to take risks, branch out, and exit their comfort zones. Learning should occur everywhere; students need to recognize learning opportunities and maximize them. Ultimately, we want to see application of learning through the development of new student skills and dispositions, not just compliance or reciting content memorized to be forgotten.

Inspire:  Inspiration is a personal experience; thus, learning needs to be personalized. We work hard to make connections between new learning and prior student experiences to gain a deeper sense of “why” the learning is important and “how” students can use the learning in current or future practice. We also strive to activate a student’s head, heart, and hands in the learning process. When a student only engages one intellect, learning is surface level. When a student works to learn through their head, heart, and hands, and then in varied social and cultural environments, learning is transformational.

Empower: When students own their learning, they are empowered to develop self-identify, build self-confidence, and model self-discipline. Students should understand who they are, how to develop their self-interests, and the steps necessary to achieve their dreams. Students are empowered to set lofty, age-appropriate goals, motivated throughout the process, held accountable for results, and celebrated for their successes. The mastery of a student’s “self” skills is key to their success.

At District 66, we believe it takes a village to grow our students, both figuratively and literally. In order for students to be prepared for high school, college, career, culture, and life, we backward map our curriculum to ensure that the learning from 8th grade all the way through pre-kindergarten is purposeful, aligned, and relevant to student’s current and future success. We are blessed to have three “Villages” full of amazing parents, faith-based organizations, civic organizations, businesses, and first responders from Woodridge, Darien, and Downers Grove, who are ready and willing to contribute any way they can to student learning and success.

We believe in open and effective communication. If there is anything that we can do for you, please reach out to the appropriate school personnel and we would be happy to assist you. Wishing you the very best this school year.