Unlearning Leadership Planning – Article in IL ASCD Journal Summer 2017

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ”
Alvin Toffler

 

In this blog post I’m sharing an article published in the Illinois Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development (ILASCD): The Unlearning Leader’s Guide to Strategic Planning, Summer 2017, Volume 63, Number 1, pp. 8-16

End of Year Message – #Engage109

“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.

Teacher & Edu Staff Appreciation Day/Week – Thank You #Engage109

This is teacher, nurse, educational support staff (and administrator) appreciation week! We can never say thank you enough to our educators!! THANK YOU!

I’m sharing a quote I have held closely for many years and I’m sharing two notes I recently sent the DPS109 community.

“How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes.”
Maya Angelou


Dear District 109 Families and Community Members,

At its last meeting, the Board of Education declared Tuesday, May 9, 2017 as Teacher Appreciation Day in District 109. Please join the Board of Education and the District administration team in applauding our teachers and all of the educators and support staff throughout District 109 who work so hard each day. We have high-achieving, nationally recognized, innovative, warm and welcoming schools because amazing teachers engage, inspire and empower our students – your children, grandchildren, and the children of your friends and neighbors!

I encourage you to find a way to show your support to your favorite teacher, or any school staff member who makes a difference in the lives of the children in our community. Whether you write a heartfelt, handwritten note, have your child create a work of art, or just go out of your way to say a personal “Thank you,” you are giving a great gift. They deserve all the thanks that we can shower upon them!

Sincerely,
Mike


“If we neglect our gifts and talents, they, like an unused muscle, will atrophy and waste away.”  Stephen Covey

Dear District 109 Teachers and Staff,

The Board of Education recently approved our 2017 Strategic Plan. The planning process was both reflective and forward thinking, and very eye-opening to me. I realized how much we have accomplished in four short years.  I also acknowledge and thank you for being open to change. I know that’s not easy. Your leaps of faith and constant hard work have allowed our students to thrive, and schools to achieve local, regional and national recognition. In the strategic planning process we should all be proud of the input and impact of that input. Your voices and your input helped shape the goals, objectives and plans. I look forward to working with you and for you to achieve our goals in the coming years.

On April 24, the Board of Education declared Tuesday, May 9, 2017 Teacher Appreciation Day in District 109. The community will celebrate you throughout the week. To show our thanks, the District administration and Board will provide a gift and special treat at some point during the week. They are small tokens of our boundless appreciation of you and your continual work to engage, inspire and empower our students, their parents, your colleagues, and our community.

So THANK YOU, from me personally, and from the Board of Education and District leaders, for allowing us to work with the best team of educators in the nation.

Sincerely,
Mike

Our New Strategic Plan – #engage109

“If you want extraordinary results you must put in extraordinary effort.”
– Cory Booker

On Monday, April 24, 2017, the Board of Education of the Deerfield (IL) Public Schools District 109 approved the 2017 Strategic Plan! This new plan is the outgrowth of focus groups, interviews, surveys, studies, analysis, and leadership. More than 1700 voices have been heard as part of this process.

We have a Portrait of a Graduate, a mission, vision, guiding principles, goals and objectives.

This is the District’s Guiding Document! All actions, plans, initiatives, plans, programs and reviews will be aligned with and measured against this plan and its components.

 

From my letter to the community in the Plan:

On behalf of the Board of Education, I am proud to present the 2017 Strategic Plan. We developed this plan with input from more than 1,700 people in our community through interviews, focus groups, surveys, data analysis and student performance.

Those 1,700 people included representatives from the following stakeholder groups: teachers, parents, students, support staff, community members, business leaders, government leaders, administrators and members of the Board of Education.  The plan lays out the mission, vision, portrait of a graduate, guiding principles goals and objectives. This plan will guide our work on behalf of the children we serve. The three broad goals to which the objectives are aligned clearly share that which we value: Limitless learning experiences for ALL children.

The 2017-18 school year will mark the first year of implementation of this plan.  I look forward to working with our entire community as we embark on shaping the future of education in the Deerfield Public Schools. Thank you for your continued support as we continue to Engage, Inspire, Empower our students, each other, and our entire community.

We take the concept of limitless learning experiences for ALL children very seriously. We do believe that the current, 19th Century structures serve many of our students and families (it’s familiar and it’s a system that is not completely broken). But, there are more and more students for whom the current system simply does not work. There are more and more students for whom the current structures block their growth and potential. Just because the systems have worked for more than a century does not believe we have to continue them blindly with no options.

This current Strategic Plan allows us to move beyond the 19th Century structures. We can move beyond our 20th Century accomplishments and struggles. We can move forward in this current 21st Century with vision, mission, “the end in mind” and options!

The three goals form the umbrella of the driving forces toward our future – a future where we design, create, implement, and evaluate Limitless learning experiences for ALL children.

Tied to these goals we have six objectives each for a total of eighteen objectives. The objectives were vetted by members of the Board of Education, our research partners ECRA Group, and the Leadership Team (assistant superintendents, principals, associate/assistant principals, executive directors, directors coordinators, etc).

Tied to these eighteen objectives we have formulated eighteen action plans! We’ll tie our work to this plan. We’ll align our work to these objectives. We’ll report more throughout the next few years. In three years we’ll review the entire plan to see what is still relevant. Annually we’ll report on progress, planning, and evaluation. This will be a LIVE plan – not a plan that sits on a binder.

 

 

 

Video Podcast Interview Collaborating with your Administrators on Professional Development Goals

“The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.”
– Ken Blanchard

Recently I was on a video podcast interview with other educational leaders around the country. On the episode of the TechEducator Podcast I was one of three administrators interviewed with technology coaches & educators on the importance of having a strong relationship between the principal (or admin) and the technology coach. It was a great conversation about
leadership, technology, training, support, culture, relationships, recent leadership books, and overall educational excellence.

It was a treat joining Jeff, Sam and Jennifer!

The TechEducator Podcast is a weekly round table discussion about current topics in educational technology.

For more information, please visit www.techeducatorpodcast.com.

TechEducatorPodcast.com

Follow us Live on Video: http://www.TeacherCast.tv
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Hosts
Jeff Bradbury – TeacherCast.net – @TeacherCast
Sam Patterson – MyPaperlessClassroom.com – @SamPatue
Jennifer Judkins – TeachingForward.net – @JennJudkins

The video is shared at http://www.teachercast.net/2017/04/25/collaborating-with-administrators/

The video may start in the middle, if it does, just slide it back to the start.

About Our Guests

Jennifer Schwanke

Jen Schwanke began her career as a language arts educator eighteen years ago. She has worked at both the elementary and secondary level as a teacher and administrator. A graduate instructor in educational leadership, she has written frequently for
literacy and educational publications and presents at literacy and leadership conferences. She is the author of the book, You’re The Principal: Now What? Strategies and Solutions for New School Leaders.

Michael Lubelfeld, Ed.D.

Mike currently serves as the superintendent of schools in the Deerfield, IL Public Schools (District 109). Mike earned his Doctor of Education in curriculum and instruction from Loyola University of Chicago, where his published dissertation was on Effective Instruction in Middle School Social Studies. He is also on the adjunct faculty at National Louis University in the Department of Educational Leadership. Mike has earned an IASA School of Advanced Leadership Fellowship and he has also graduated from the AASA National Superintendent Certification Program. He can be found on Twitter at @mikelubelfeld and he is the co-moderator of #suptchat – the superintendent educational chat on Twitter. He and Nick Polyak co-authored The Unlearning Leader: Leading for Tomorrow’s Schools Today (2017 Rowman & Littlefield). Mike has been married to his wife Stephanie for the past 13 years and they have two children.

Email: lubelfeldm@gmail.com
Twitter: @mikelubelfeld
District on Twitter: @DPS109
District Hashtag: #Engage109
Voxer: mikelubelfeld
Periscope: @mikelubelfeld
LinkedIn: Michael Lubelfeld
Nick Polyak, Ed.D.

Dr. Polyak is the proud superintendent of the award-winning Leyden Community High School District 212. He earned his undergraduate degree from Augustana College in Rock Island, IL, his Masters from Governors State University, and his Ed.D. from Loyola University Chicago. Nick has been a classroom teacher and coach, a building and district level administrator, a School Board member, and a superintendent for the past seven years in both central Illinois and suburban Chicago. Nick has earned an IASA School of Advanced Leadership Fellowship and he also graduated from the AASA National Superintendent Certification Program. He can be found on Twitter at @npolyak and he is the co-moderator of #suptchat – the superintendent educational chat on Twitter. Nick has been married to his wife Kate for the past 16 years and they have four children.

Email: nickpolyak@gmail.com
Twitter: @npolyak
District on Twitter: @leydenpride
District Hashtag: #leydenpride
Voxer: npolya154
Periscope: @npolyak
LinkedIn: Nick Polyak
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