Accountability

Summer – Same Focus on Excellence – #ENGAGE109

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“As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round.”
– Ben Hogan

Photo of Music and Art classroom/learning space redesign 2016
Photo of Music and Art classroom/learning space redesign 2016

It’s Summer and that means construction, re-design, and recharging in the Deerfield Public Schools District 109! For the past three years we have re-designed and re-imagined learning spaces in kindergarten, middle school STEM/STEAM/Science and hallways, and this summer we are embarking on a major set of projects to continue our transformation.

This year the middle school art and music wings will be re-designed and upgraded, taking us from 1960’s era learning spaces to the present and future. And each of the four elementary school library learning spaces is undergoing a complete “face lift” and redesign process as well. A major highlight of this work is the renewed focus on STEAM – Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics K-8. Each elementary school library learning space will get a PTO (Parent-Teacher-Organization) funded SMART lab!

In addition to summer construction we have many teacher learning and professional development sessions underwIMG_20150421_093844ay. From our focus on problem based learning with a cohort of 35 teachers and administrators and iCoaches from around the district’s six schools to math curriculum mapping, to data assessment review, our teachers hardly get the “summer off”. On the contrary, our educators spend the summer recharging for the next school year! As we review the data from the past three years we focus on far more than simply student test performance. Of course, as responsible educators and leaders we do focus on student learning and test performance, that is part of our 360 degree view of success and growth in our district.

 

As we have shared in various formats, including the 2016 State of the District video, the District takes great pride in measuring and reporting to the community. We look at multiple measures to inform our decisions in support of educational excellence and student learning, growth, success, and safety.

  • Organizational Culture (part of the Big 5 started in 2013)
  • Student Engagement (new for students in grades 3-8 started in 2015)
  • Climate (started in 2013)
  • Impact of 1:1 Transformation of Learning Environments (BrightBytes started in 2014, students in grades 4-8, parents, all staff)
  • “Pulse” surveys (ongoing at various grade levels across the district)
  • Illinois Youth Survey (students in grades 6 and 8 every other year)
  • PARCC – mandated by law since 2014
  • Measures of Academic Progress (MAP tests in reading and math, three times per year K-8 since 2013)
  • Coming in the Fall – STRATEGIC PLANNING input surveys and focus groups (ECRA group)

In addition, a new feature to find out the PULSE of the district is live via this blog (top right) and via the Superintendent’s Web Page via our District website – please take a moment to rate the quality of our district!

As a public school district it’s imperative we measure and report on the

Return on Investment!

This past year I was fortunate to share the DPS109 story of excellence and share the leadership impact of the Board, the Leroiadership Team, the Teachers, the Staff, the Students, the Parents, and the entire community across the county, state, nation, and world!

 

Throughout the summer months we will continue to share updates, photos, information about the Deerfield Public Schools Journey on the road of excellence and innovation! During the summer our District Center and each of the two middle school offices are open and ready to serve every day (the hours are different but our commitment to excellent customer service is a 12 month, 24/7 commitment!).

Please remember that the Text-a-Tip hotline is open 24/7 as well! If anyone needs confidential help from a trained counselor, remember that they can text a message to 224HELP (2244357).

Text a Tip to 224HELP

 

 

ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER
ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER

March Notes – From Staff Newsletter – #Engage109

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“Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart. ”
– Ancient Indian Proverb

 

Each month we share a newsletter for staff and I open it with some news, views, and information. I’m sharing an excerpt of my portion in the blog today:

As we approach spring it’s exciting to think about how fantastic it is to work in District 109 – and I’ve recently done some really fun work that has allowed me to see, firsthand, the sharing of learning and teaching across the district. In December, I shadowed a 4th grade South-Parkstudent in Samantha Johnson’s class at Walden, and in February, I was honored to teach Emily Wallace’s first graders at South Park as my “Presence is Present” gift. I loved being a teacher again – and I think the students were happy to have me; at least their notes expressed their appreciation! Across the nation there is a movement and news called “Shadow a Student Day” – I’m thrilled to be part of this in Deerfield. I’m so proud of my administrative colleagues who are also shadowing students, substitute teaching, and walking a mile in the shoes of employees!

bad59220-e2f2-4066-93db-3ae2f394b2b6We like to share the great things that are happening in our schools with other educational professionals worldwide.

Many of you use #engage109 and your school hashtags to share your stories with the Twitter world. It’s fun to see the photos and stories scrolling on the District home page, and the school pages! Many of our administrators also write articles and present at conferences about our schools and our work.  I’m proud to share an article that Greg Himebaugh and I wrote for UPDATE magazine, a publication of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials. The article shares how we’ve managed change in District 109 for the benefit of our schools, our students, and our community. Next week, Caruso will host the Illinois Association of School Boards Lake County Division Dinner; board members, superintendents and other educational professionals from all over the county will come for tours of Caruso’s science, STEM and CMA labs, and will hear from District 109 band, orchestra and chorus students. It will be a full-STEAM evening! Thanks to the staff members who are helping us show off!

As I mention often, this is one source of what’s happening in District 109; you can get more information from Board Briefs, found on the Board of Education Meeting Information page of the website, and feel free to check my blog for periodic postings about leadership, education, and District news.

Thank you for continuing your excellence and dedication to the students in the District and for your efforts to engage, inspire, and empower students, families, the community, and each other every day.

Inspiring a Shared Vision in DPS109 – #ENGAGE109

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“There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.”
– Indira Gandhi

b8077f18-ce80-4257-b717-ea878b099ad9In this blog post I am highlighting the great work of the teachers, students, parents, support staff members, administrators, community members and the Board of Education of the Deerfield Public Schools District 109. Our leadership team has been following the research of Kouzes & Posner. In their book The Leadership Challenge they share decades of leadership research across industry and they proffer that the five practices of exemplary leadership are: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart (MICEE). The focus of this post rests with the Inspire a Shared Vision Practice, and at the end of the post I share a recently published journal article about our District’s shared vision and its direct connection to actions.

From an August 23, 2013 post:
Leaders build relationships. I believe that each person is a leader in one way or another. Some are leaders by nature and talent, some are leaders by situation or role. Leadership is both an art and a science, and there are many books, articles, research reports, and findings about what leadership is and leadquotewhat leadership can do. Two great books on school and district leadership are: School Leadership that works and District Leadership that works. One of the main charges that I have as the superintendent of schools is to support leadership so that leaders emerge in all parts of the organization to Engage, Inspire, and Empower. While I am visible in the schools, and while the classroom is the most important “place” in the school district, I also work very closely with the administrative team in an effort to support their work and their leadership.

This year [2013-14] as a leadership team (district center administrators, and building level administrators) we are working on a book study with The Leadership Challenge. The authors of this classic and highly regarded leadership book Kouzes and Posner detail and describe Five Main frameworks for leadership (Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart).

Our Leadership Challenge is to fulfill our district mission every day in every classroom and in every interaction. One tangible, observable way in which we can guide our leader’s work is found in the Five Main frameworks.

Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart (MICEE)

The Mission of the Deerfield Public Schools, DPS109:

Provide educational experiences of the highest quality that engage, inspire and empower each student to excel and contribute in a changing world.

Our Vision: District 109 students will excel and contribute when they have the knowledge and skills to be: • Lifelong, self-directed learners, • Critical and creative thinkers, • Effective communicators,
• Collaborative team members, • Respectful and responsible members of society

This month (March 2016) Deerfield Public Schools District 109 Assistant Superintendent for Finance & Operations, CSBO Greg Himebaugh & I published an article in the Illinois Association of School Business Officials (IASBO) Journal UPDATE (see below). This article is about how WE in DPS109 have been inspiring a SHARED vision that has lead, leads to, and will continue to lead to ACTION and LEADERSHIP on behalf of students, staff, and community!

DPSLOGO

Advanced Leadership Lessons from work with AASA – #engage109

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“I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.”
– Langston Hughes

logo (1) This week I had the good fortune and honor of completing a two year advanced leadership program sponsored by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA). Upon my return home I and more than 20 other superintendent friends and colleagues across the nation will carry the distinction of being a “Nationally Certified Superintendent”. Last year after our coursework I published an article on the AASA website (click link).

From the article:

“This unique leadership program, designed to help school district leaders succeed on the job, brings together superintendents from around the country. The East Coast Cohort, the group I am a part of, consists of 26 superintendents representing 15 states. So far, we have been able to benefit from lead learners as well as veteran superintendents. Just as important, we also get to learn from one another. These expert superintendents help us understand that the working relationship with our board is perhaps the most important relationship we have.

During reflective leadership exercises highlighting our unique experiences, we built bonds that united us in the consistencies of the challenges we each face. We also engaged in board and governance workshops with representatives from the National School Boards Association.

An essential element of the program includes coach/mentor support from a master superintendent. This mentor relationship supports multiple levels of growth and support in the superintendency. The superintendency is often described as “lonely at the top,” but AASA is making efforts to change that through supportive, deliberate, thoughtful and high-level leadership and education.”

In Deerfield I have been able to apply the skills and lessons learned from this program. Our Board CSWju_OUsAAJMuesupports leadership growth and development for our leaders and teachers on behalf of one another, the students, and the community. Thanks to the support of my AASA mentor/coach, the master teachers, the AASA personnel, and the opportunities to reflect and grow through this high level leadership program, I am confident that the educational opportunities for our 3000 students have become enhanced.

We all got to experience a capstone event highlighting the leadership lessons in which we engaged. A short view of one of my presentations is shown below:

In our Capstone project experience we held ourselves accountable through goal setting and metric development. As depicted in the slide deck above, and from our Capstone template: “The area to be improved in DPS109 is in the area of technology and its impact on K-8 instruction. The area to be improved will be determined by baseline data collection from September 2014 survey administration with Bright Bytes research partnership. Bright Bytes will measure impact from parent, student, staff stakeholder groups using online survey collection following a model they describe as CASE Technology Framework. CASE measures impact on the classroom, access, skills, and environment. The area to be improved is discovery of the effects/impact of the 1:1 transformative learning environment on learning and performance.” 

We shared our “do” statements as well as our internal and external metrics. Holding ourselves and our organizations accountable through shared successful and replicable leadership strategies that imagesultimately support and celebrate growth and leadership across the nation on behalf of hundreds of thousands of students. We learned a ton from one another during the leadership coursework and related homework assignments and in-district work.

Other examples of accountability included: “Input changes to get to desired state:Empirical data points that support administrative direction, teacher training, parent training and engagement and Board support. Increased CASE metrics from Sept-March – increased student growth rates over time as measured by MAP reading/math K-8.”

During the course of my leadership coursework in the AASA National Superintendent Certification Program, the DPS109 Board of Education carefully monitored survey data, student performance data as well as my leadership performance as the superintendent of schools. Concurrently with the leadership program and our local leadership initiatives, the Board indicated support and satisfaction with the realization of tangible evidence in support of previous Board plans (i.e. Master Facilities Planning CScRi5IWsAAIIv8from 2007-12, the Strategic Plan from 2011-16). The Board was also pleased with successful community engagement (i.e. Superintendent’s Task Force for Middle Level Education). The Board, parents, students, and teachers were engaged in planning, review, implementation, and further review of many initiatives, including the 1:1 Transformative Learning Environment changes. It has been a really busy, active, and impactful 32 months in DPS109 since July 1, 2013 when teams took office! Success in DPS109 is impacted and has been greatly influenced by the professional advanced leadership programming through the AASA National Superintendent Certification Program!

The relationships in our system were enhanced through deliberate outreach including parent technology information nights and working sessions, community film screenings and successive book talks, student focus groups, work groups, and student presentations to the Board of Education. In addition, through intentional communication strategies and leveraging of social media outreach, members of the community reported knowing more about the school system than ever before.

Because of this set of experiences, coaching, mentorship, leading and learning, I have greater confidence in my abilities to lead our organization on behalf of student and staff learning.

Thank you AASA and thank you DPS109 Board of Education!

ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER
ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER

Education – LifeTouch Memory Mission Reflection #6

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“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.”
– Sam Walton

On this journey there were so many outstanding leaders and each and every one of them went out of their way to support our incredible accomplishments.

As I have written before, the Dominican engineer and skilled laborers were among the best teachers with whom I have ever worked. AmFK2A1044ong their many attributes, they were patient, they used multiple forms of communication, they assessed our strengths and weaknesses, they helped guide us to highly skilled work and they never lowered their standards. They took us (unskilled laborers) volunteers as we were, they accepted who we were and what we could do, and they turned us into skilled experts in a number of areas. Their standards of excellence never wavered, in fact they got higher as our skills and abilities increased under their direction.

Pastor Angel Moreta is the visionary leader who has set forth on the transformation of Constanza’s outskirts. He is seeing to it that the lives of the forgotten villagers will soon be better. He is the champion of education and social justice who we went to serve. He is the inspiring visionary leader who brings forth people from multiple walks of life in unity for a common good. He deserves tremendous credit for 20160126-201217-29f6o3q.jpgimproving the lives of the young people in these areas. While we were there the Cecaini school was dedicated and authorized by the government – this was the first school project that LifeTouch embarked upon in the Dominican Republic. It was powerful for us to begin with the end in mind in terms of our school project. The pastor is seeing the power of his vision and his leadership in the work of so many.

 

The motto of our school district is Engage, Inspire, Empower. Those strong verbs were present in multiple forms during this memory mission trip. We were truly engaged in the work, in the relationship building and in reflection. We were truly inspired in service, personal growth, and social justice. We were truly empowered to build/construct, make relationships, and to learn from others. In our district we often talk about creating environments where we want our students to run to school every day. Well, in our Dominican construction school, we did run to school/work every day. As a result of our

ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER
ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER

Dominican workers patience, trust, communication (non-verbal, reassuring, in Spanish), respect, attention, and teaching, we ran to the construction site hoping to do better than we had done yesterday. While we were building walls of the school we were breaking down walls of language and culture. While we were building walls with physical force and skill, we were tearing down walls and barriers of emotion and relationship.

I’m not the most handy guy in the world … in fact I have hardly ever done any manual labor or physical construction work in my life. After this trip

LUBELFIELD_Michaeland due to the teaching of some very patient workers and supervisors, I now know how to make concrete – I now know how to apply math in real life situations. Seriously, I knew intellectually that water, cement, rocks, and sand combine to form concrete, but I never had the opportunity to mix, make, and use concrete until this trip. I know know how to lay cinder IC3A9565blocks. The top and bottom sides and the right and left sides have significance in the engineering and physics of the building process. I may have known this in my head in the past, but now, as a direct result of project based learning with an emotional tie, I will NEVER forget how to apply my knowledge.

 

We had to engage in authentic learning on this trip. Our teachers had to guide us and help us and re-direct us as needed. We learned cultural and construction lessons. We were faced with real problems every day and we had to solve them. We were faced with real decisions every day and we had to use teamwork every step of the way. We developed friendships, care, concern, and trust and respect for one another each and every day. All of these 4C’s (Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking) were part of each and every lesson throughout each and every day.

We learned during our home visits, community walks, play and recreation, photography experiences, picture day, we learned from the minute we landed to the minute we took off.

This was truly a memory mission – memories here, there, and everywhere. Our international crew from the USA, Canada, Brazil and the Dominican Republic made a huge impact on the lives of the people we set sail to serve in Rio Grande as well as in each and every one of us as well as all of the people with whom we interacted along the way. We were not tourists we were members of the community!

A 5 minute video of some of us sharing how the trip impacted us is shown below:

LifeTouch #MemoryMission2016 Moments (5 minute video)

Some people have asked me how can they help sustain the progress on these powerful projects … so I’m sharing information in the event you may be interested in contributing to the mission:

One way is to sponsor a child’s education at Cecaini School (Rio Grande, our school will have this option in the fall). The cost is $31/month with $25 going directly to the child’s education and $5 going to administrative costs). These dollars go to support uniform costs, school supplies, any overages would go to teacher training and medical outreach in the community.20160121_161858

In the Dominican Republic the government pays for most of the teacher salaries as well as breakfast and lunch and some appropriations go to supplies. But the government does not currently support administration, specialized teachers for the vocational education program, social work, nurse, etc. People interested in sponsoring a child or children should visit: For those of you interested in sponsoring a child I have attached the link.  http://helpinghandsunlimited.org

FUNDRAISING FOR THE RETAINING WALL or BASKETBALL COURT
There will be a link on thewww.buildinglegaciesintl.org site for both the retaining wall and the basketball court. He will also be posting information about the “Friends of Cecaini” reunion trip, thta will take place December 26, 2016-January 2, 2017.

The FirstGiving site will remain open into June 2017.  If you have other questions about donations via a check or First Giving – contact Jan Haeg jhaeg@lifetouch.com

For more information contact If you have any questions about the December trip – please reach out to Tim Gibson at tgibson@buildinglegaciesintl.org

 

 

See below for the Storify Archive of Life Touch Memory Mission photos and social media!

Thanks Jeff A.