District 54 is proud to announce that Campanelli Elementary School was named a National Banner Unified Champion School by Special Olympics.
Campanelli is now one of 18 nationally recognized schools in Illinois joining Lakeview, Mead, Addams, and Keller. District 54 is the only school district in Illinois to have more than one school with a Champion banner.
A unified championship school demonstrates a commitment to building an inclusive school through collaboration, engagement and respect for all members of the student body and staff. Schools must meet 10 standards of excellence based on three overarching components. Those components are
- A Special Olympics Unified Sports program, where students with and without disabilities train and compete as teammates,
- Inclusive Youth Leadership groups and
- Whole School education, awareness and engagement
At Campanelli Michelle Pikscher, Megan King and Emily Osterman have led these efforts for the past few years, with the support of Principal Amy Houlihan and Assistant Principal Dilshad Patel. They are joined by Ashley Blocker and Caroline Bullington who are the sponsors of the Young Athletes program at Campanelli.
