“As a leader, you need to help your people flip their perspective — help them be open to seeing these new challenges as opportunities.” –John Kotter
Dear District 109 Staff, Families, and Community Members,
Thank you for your many contributions to another outstanding year for education in the Deerfield Public Schools District 109. Many of you contributed via focus groups and surveys to the development of our newly approved 2017 Strategic Plan, which will guide our innovative work and growth for the next few years.
While we are quite proud, we never are completely satisfied. Our work is a journey in leadership, education, and service. But before we look to our future, I want to take a minute to highlight success from our recent past. This past year, two of our schools — Walden and Shepard — were named National Blue Ribbon Schools by the U.S. Department of Education. In a series of Botvin LifeSkills parent sessions, we came together as a community to focus on what we all can do to help children make positive, healthy choices. We also started a digital privacy, safety and security initiative and hosted a parent technology night with a former student as our keynote speaker.
Our active and achieving students earned awards and recognition in so many areas, including mathematics, writing, robotics, music, athletics, geography, spelling and Destination Imagination, to name a few. Staff professional development grew with the learning and collaboration opportunities provided by Early Release Wednesday.
This summer we’re doing some maintenance on parking lots, roofing work, renovating the two middle school locker rooms, and performing other “life-safety” projects. Next year, we’ll begin planning for renovating and updating the middle school libraries. Finally, as part of the strategic plan, next year one of our major objectives will be to review at least two of our programs (e.g., foreign language, middle school schedule, social studies, TAP 3-5). We’ll keep the community informed and likely will reach out to you for committee work and input.
We will continue to ask you to Engage, Inspire, and Empower children, students, friends and neighbors to contribute to this incredible community. Please stay in touch this summer. Check the website regularly, and look for emails from Cathy Kedjidjian and your schools — and never hesitate to contact me with comments, questions or suggestions, or just to say hello over the summer!
Sincerely,
Mike
Michael Lubelfeld, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
Deerfield Public Schools District 109
517 Deerfield Road | Deerfield, IL 60015
(847) 945-1844 x7231
http://www.dps109.org | https://dps109supt.edublogs.org
The mission of the Deerfield Public Schools District 109 is to: Provide innovative educational experiences of the highest quality that engage, inspire and empower each student to excel and contribute to improving the world.
Text-a-Tip: 24/7 anonymous support for students who need help for themselves or a friend. Download the Lake County Help app or text 224HELP to 1-844-823-5323 to connect with a trained counselor.