“Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.”
– John C. Maxwell
Recently I had the good fortune to enhance my leadership knowledge by interacting with superintendents and school system leaders from 24 US states and the District of Columbia at a Personalized Learning Summit through the American Association of School Administrators, the AASA. The amazing experiences of my peers and colleagues help strengthen my ability to lead and serve in the community where I have the privilege of working as the superintendent of schools. My recent leadership journey brought me to the beautiful state of Utah with majestic mountain tops and vistas – quite impressive for an Illinois native like myself! We visited schools, an amazing public library space, we watched a film and interacted with the director/producer, and we engaged in thinking, planning, defining, and leadership development.
I am so grateful to have a Board as supportive as the Deerfield Public Schools District 109 Board. They encourage me to seek professional growth and development opportunities on behalf of the school district. I am a better and more impactful leader as a result of the amazing and powerful leadership experiences in which I can lead and participate. Leaders came from all over the USA: IL, OH, KY, TN, ME, NJ, NY, AK, CA, AR, MN, MA, MI, MO, VA, ID, UT, OK, WY, GA, WA, AL, TX, AZ – all in all 24 states and the District of Columbia. The richness of experience and the depth of differences, similarities, scale, creativity, etc. was really impressive. Regardless of our community or district demographic we all serve for the same calling. Our collective aim is to improve educational outcomes for all chilren in all settings.
We superintendents all serve school boards, communities, students, teachers, school systems and the business world. We all aim to support engaged learning environments designed to support and strengthen student learning for all students. We all have a calling to serve and a mission to improve our systems.
As I have written in the past, we are committed to engaged learning, personalized learning, and community engagement. As I have also written in the past, we have but ONE chance to support a child’s learning experiences in public education. The child has one chance at 1st grade, one chance at 8th grade – it’s imperative that we act with urgency to provide the BEST, most excellent educational system for ALL children – all the time. During my time in Utah – a really beautiful and rugged terrain and part of the world – I felt the sense of urgency to act, lead, support our awesome teachers, to support our precious students, to lead with passion! One of the amazing learning institutions I visited on the journey is called Innovations Early College High School and Career & Technical Center. Wow! What an impressive place for a public high school student to learn, grow, excel, and become a productive member of society.
-Integrated coursework
-Teacher collaboration
-The content is personalized, individualized, and differentiated – truly personal pathways
-Flexible teacher day
-Class meetings are designed like our traditional “classes” – students may attend meetings for direct instruction from and with teachers and tutors
-One on one small groups meeting coaching
-Competency based assessments
-Tied to state standards
-Teacher has access to online system
-Counselor role for teachers
-Constant professional growth, weekly PLC (professional learning community)
-Weekly Faculty meetings
Parents chose school because “Daughter was bored at traditional school, they came here for a change”The parents like that the students must prove competency in subjects – no social promotion!Other parents “Wanted child to love school and enjoy learning – they get to go at own pace – this school benefits all learners [lo med hi] – the children are genuinely engaged”.Another parent shared that “My child wanted to come here after a rough time in gifted program at traditional Jr. High. She is twice exceptional and she didn’t fit in. [Child] petitioned mom to agree to enroll in this new concept school”. Mom reports that now the family is very pleased.A parent commented that at Innovations all personnel have “respect for students”, she went on to comment that it’s “inhumane how we treat kids” in traditional schools.