“We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own.”
– Ben Sweetland

When it takes a village, our village supports published in the Deerfield Review on 9/24/2014

In District 109, we are so fortunate to have individual community members and organizations that strongly support our schools. This school year, the community connection has been stronger than ever. Here are a few examples:

Parent Organizations: On September 16, digital media expert Dr. Devorah Heitner led a parent education program “Raising Digital Natives in a 1:1 World.” (The program will run again on September 30 at Caruso at 7:00pm.) The program was funded by all of the parent organizations that serve our schools: Deerfield Parent Network, Deerfield Education Foundation, and the six District 109 Parent Teacher Organizations.

Response to Surveys: The District relies on honest, thoughtful input from community members to make decisions. This year, we are asking for a great deal of input from staff, students, parents – and all have responded! At the start of the year, we conducted a staff culture survey; results show that, overall, District 109 is a great place to work! We currently are conducting a baseline survey on the impact of technology on teaching and learning; we will survey parents, staff and students again in the spring to measure our growth as we fully implement our 1:1 transformative environment. In a few weeks, we will conduct a thorough climate survey of parents, staff, students and community members. In addition, we launched Let’s Talk! for anyone, anytime, to share ideas, thoughts, complaints, compliments, or questions. The District’s promise for all of the time stakeholders are giving is transparency and response. We will share what we learn, and we will act on what we hear.

Volunteers: We actively seek community involvement to help make decisions about facilities, curriculum, and organization. Last year, the 140-member Superintendent’s Task Force for Middle Level Education laid out recommendations for changes. The Social Emotional Group recommendations are implemented in part through Rachel’s Challenge, a new social-emotional program launching this fall; the STEM and Exploratory groups’ work is evident in the state-of-the-art STEM, communication media arts, and science laboratories. The District is currently seeking community members to share their expertise with students by joining the District 109 Volunteer Pool. Teachers will call on volunteers to join in teaching their students. Community members can sign up at http://tinyurl.com/109volunteer.

Activism: Many District 109 residents take time to educate themselves about the legislation that impacts schools and students. Current legislation that has passed the Illinois Senate (Senate Bill 16, or SB16) will move to the Illinois House in November. If passed, SB16 will have a tremendous impact on the financial status of our District. Our schools would lose more than 50% of the state funding we currently receive, or $1.3 million a year. We know that many community members already have educated themselves about SB16 and have contacted their legislators to express their opinion.

In District 109, we believe that the public school should be the hub of the community. While in other communities may have different priorities, here in Deerfield, we see proof, every day, that education and the children in our schools are the focus.