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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of | ||||||
| 3 | Representatives are pleased to honor Ed Rafferty as he retires | ||||||
| 4 | from his career in School District 54; and
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| 5 | WHEREAS, Ed Rafferty's entire educational career has been | ||||||
| 6 | in School District 54; he began in 1976 as a special education | ||||||
| 7 | teacher; in 1983 he became the truant alternative program | ||||||
| 8 | specialist, in 1986 the coordinator for behavior disorder | ||||||
| 9 | services, in 1990 the director of special services, in 1994 the | ||||||
| 10 | assistant superintendent of special services, and in 2004 the | ||||||
| 11 | superintendent; and
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| 12 | WHEREAS, Ed Rafferty has been recognized with numerous | ||||||
| 13 | awards over the years including the 2012 Illinois State Board | ||||||
| 14 | of Education Those Who Excel Award in the administrator | ||||||
| 15 | category; in 2010, he was named the Illinois Superintendent of | ||||||
| 16 | the Year; he received the National Organization on | ||||||
| 17 | Disability/National School Boards Association Honorary Award | ||||||
| 18 | for Service to Persons with Disabilities in March 2001, the | ||||||
| 19 | Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder Award in | ||||||
| 20 | recognition of outstanding contribution to excellence in | ||||||
| 21 | education in November 1996, and the Commitment to Excellence | ||||||
| 22 | Award was given to District 54's Special Education Department | ||||||
| 23 | for its work with children with Down Syndrome in November 2003; | ||||||
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| 1 | and
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| 2 | WHEREAS, Ed Rafferty helped implement a myriad of changes | ||||||
| 3 | to the educational process in District 54; he instituted | ||||||
| 4 | tighter schedules to provide more uninterrupted and protected | ||||||
| 5 | time for instruction in the core areas and fine arts areas; he | ||||||
| 6 | saw that every student has the opportunity for intervention or | ||||||
| 7 | enrichment opportunities; he helped develop essential outcomes | ||||||
| 8 | for every grade-level curricular area; common district | ||||||
| 9 | assessments and grade-level assessments have been written and | ||||||
| 10 | implemented, professional development priorities are focused | ||||||
| 11 | and support best practices, and administrators, teachers, and | ||||||
| 12 | support staff evaluation systems are aligned to the district's | ||||||
| 13 | student learning goals; the Measures of Academic Progress | ||||||
| 14 | assessment was installed in all 27 schools by the spring of | ||||||
| 15 | 2007 to provide timely, consistent data to used to determine if | ||||||
| 16 | the goals are being met; and
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| 17 | WHEREAS, Ed Rafferty served as president on the board of | ||||||
| 18 | directors of the Illinois Special Olympics and on the Illinois | ||||||
| 19 | Advisory Council for Bilingual Education; therefore, be it
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| 20 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
| 21 | NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | ||||||
| 22 | we are pleased to honor Ed Rafferty as he retires from his | ||||||
| 23 | career in School District 54, thank him for his commitment to | ||||||
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| 1 | education, and wish him all the best in his future endeavours; | ||||||
| 2 | and be it further
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| 3 | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | ||||||
| 4 | presented to Ed Rafferty as an expression of our esteem and | ||||||
| 5 | respect.
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