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It is my privilege to serve as Superintendent for Lake Forest Elementary District 67 and Lake Forest Community High School District 115. I am humbled to have the opportunity to lead these two extraordinary school districts and, as an administrator, community member, and District parent, I am grateful to the District 67 and District 115 Boards for making that possible.
Since joining this Districts in July 2021, I have focused on listening, learning, and developing relationships with staff, students, and the school community. Together, we are building on past successes, imagining new possibilities, and creating our future together.
One important example of this is our Portrait of a Learner visioning process, begun earlier this year. We invited members of our Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, and Knollwood communities to serve on a Portrait Design Team, representing a diverse collection of stakeholder groups, including students, families, staff, civic leaders, and community members.
The Portrait team met four times over the course of several months and, through a series of facilitated conversations and exercises, process considered the following:
- What are the hopes, dreams, and aspirations that our community has for our students?
- What are the skills and mindsets our students need for success in this rapidly changing, complex world?
- What are the implications for the design of the learning experiences that we provide in our Districts?
In the end, the team rallied around six competencies that they determined, in addition to academic rigor, will best prepare our students to succeed in their future lives: critical thinking, communication, empathy, adaptability, confidence, and citizenship. The Portrait Design Team also collaborated on a graphic image to serve as a visual reference or “Portrait” of their work. This will serve as the North Star
Our new Portrait is just the beginning of the exciting work ahead for our Districts. With core competencies defined and prioritized for our learners, we will embark on strategic planning in the fall of 2022 to ensure that our curriculum is aligned with those competencies and guiding student work in every classroom.
We are grateful to our Portrait Design Team members for their diligence in this process, and to our community for their ongoing support. Thanks to the engagement of our talented faculty and staff along with a caring community, we will continue our shared tradition of educational excellence while preparing our students for the ever-evolving world that awaits them.
