Listening Spurs 109 Superintendent to Act

As a Village resident, Deerfield Public Schools District 109 Superintendent Michael Lubelfeld was doing a lot of listening last year before he began the interview process to take the helm at the District.

That listening motivated Lubelfeld to form the Superintendent’s Task Force on Middle Level Education this month seeking members of the community to help move Caruso and Shepard Middle Schools forward.

“From the initial surveys I saw when (the District) was conducting its search a lot of issues were discussed,” Lubelfeld said. “A lot has come to my attention (since) I would like to see addressed.”

The Task Force was the outgrowth of a promise made in June to take a detailed look at the world language program after an initial decision to drop French from the middle school curriculum. The District then decided to offer French but study its popularity.

“The District made a commitment to conduct a study of world language from (the decision to keep) French,” Lubelfeld said. “I decided to make it a bigger study.”

So far more than 88 people have asked to participate and the District will continue to welcome volunteers through the end of the month though that is not a formal deadline, according to District Communications Director Cathy Kedjidjian.

The group will initially meet as a whole in October and then form subcommittees to take a closer look at not only world language but also social and emotional issues, fine art, STEM (Science, technology, engineering and math), tracking and gifted education as well as a group looking at noncore classes.

There is little doubt about the area at the top of Lubelfeld’s list for study. “It would emphatically be science from pre kindergarten through adulthood,” he said. He sees this effort as a two year process with a Feb., 2015, target date.

Some things will be addressed quickly—like within the first six months—while others which may require capital expenditures could be on the 18-month calendar.

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