Lake County Gazette

The Woodland Community Consolidated School District 50 will hold the first meeting of its WISE (Woodland Inclusion and Special Education Empowerment) parent resource group for the 2025-26 school year on September 17. The session, titled "Positive Parenting: The C.U.B. System (Cooperation • Understanding • Behavior)," will take place from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at the Woodland Educational Support Center, Oak Room.

WISE is a special education resource group designed for parents. The upcoming workshop aims to provide practical strategies for positive parenting, focusing on cooperation, understanding, and behavior management in children. Alice Belgrade-Moss, MSEd., LCPC, BCBA, will lead the session.

"Parenting doesn’t come with an instruction manual—but it can come with tools! In this workshop, you’ll learn the C.U.B. System: Cooperation, Understanding, and Behavior. These simple strategies help reduce tantrums, encourage independence, and build your child’s self-esteem using positive reinforcement. Walk away with easy steps you can start using right away at home," said Belgrade-Moss.

Additional meetings are scheduled throughout the school year covering topics such as understanding IEP teams on November 5, supporting behavior at home on January 21, and academic transitions within Woodland D50 on April 15.

The district represents Lake County and includes Woodland Elementary School, Woodland Intermediate School, Woodland Middle School, and Woodland Primary School (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). According to state data from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), there are 399 teachers in the district earning an average salary of $69,342 before pension contributions; about 85 percent are women while roughly 15 percent are men. No teacher in the district has more than ten absences in a school year (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).

Demographically, District 50 serves a diverse student population: approximately 40 percent White students, nine percent Black students, one-third Hispanic students, and just over eleven percent Asian students (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/). In fiscal year 2020, spending per student was $23,682 for a total expenditure of $125 million (https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/).

For more information or to register for WISE meetings—including Spanish-language resources—parents can visit the WISE webpage or access details via https://secure.smore.com/n/wu6et1.