Caucus Endorses Four Candidates for DPS 109 School Board
DEERFIELD (Friday, November 16) —The Deerfield Public Schools (DPS) District 109 Caucus voted to endorse four candidates for the Board of Education on Thursday, Nov. 15. The candidates will be running for the four open 109 School Board seats in the April 9 consolidated election. Each seat is for a four‐year term.
They are (in alphabetical order):
Find out what's happening in Deerfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
• Katie Bittner
• Scott Kluge
Find out what's happening in Deerfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
• Sari Montgomery
• Ron Worth
Following two rounds of interviews on November 7 and November 14 with each of the seven candidates who applied for endorsement, the 19 Caucus members slated the four candidates early Thursday morning over four hours of deliberation.
“They are a diverse set of candidates—a lawyer and legal instructor, a strategy consultant, an engineer and business owner, and an education administrator and teacher—all of whom we believe will add value to the Board with their skill sets and backgrounds,” said O’Neal Miller, Caucus chair. Each of the candidates also holds a postgraduate degree in his or her respective field.
Katie Bittner, currently a special education coordinator for Waukegan public schools and a former teacher, has lived in Deerfield for eight years and has two children in DPS 109 schools.
Scott Kluge, a strategy consultant with marketing and advertising experience, has lived in Deerfield for seven years and has three children in DPS 109 schools.
Sari Montgomery, a lawyer who represents attorneys in disciplinary proceedings, has three children in DPS 109 schools and is an eight-year resident of the district. She resides in Riverwoods.
Ron Worth, who was appointed to fill the vacancy of Mark Levitt in January 2011, was the only current Board of Education member to apply for Caucus endorsement. An engineer and founder of a company of which he is also CEO, he has four children, one of whom is currently in DPS 109 schools. He has lived in Deerfield for 10 years.
The four School Board seats that will be up for election are currently held by Ellen London, Michael Rosenbaum, Deborah Muller, and Ron Worth.
More biographical information will be made available about the four endorsed candidates on the Caucus website in the coming weeks.
“Perhaps prompted by the intense public interest generated during the contract negotiations between the Board of Education and the Deerfield Education Association, we received a lot of interest from community members wanting to join the Caucus,” Miller stated. “We welcomed 12 new members to this year’s Caucus, who, along with those who have served on previous Caucuses, well represented the different voices in our community.”
The DPS District 109 Caucus is a nonpartisan, community-based organization dedicated to maintaining and expanding the tradition of excellence manifest in Deerfield's elementary and middle schools, with its role in candidate endorsement at the core of its commitment to the citizens and students served by District 109 schools.
For more information, please visit http://www.dps109caucus.org/Home.
