Message from the
Caucus Chair

Residents of District 109: 

Education has long been the heartbeat of Deerfield. It is the reason many of us chose to call this community home and the foundation upon which our children’s futures are built. For over 40 years, there has been a quiet but vital force working behind the scenes to protect that foundation: The D109 School Board Caucus.

The role of a School Board has never been more important—and the process of selecting its members has never been more critical.

Our Mission

The District 109 School Board Caucus is dedicated to maintaining and expanding the tradition of excellence manifest in Deerfield's elementary and middle schools. At the core of our commitment to the citizens and students served by District 109 schools is our role in candidate endorsement. We exist to ensure that when you head to the polls, you are choosing from candidates who have been rigorously vetted by your own neighbors.

Navigating a Changing Landscape

If you turn on the news today, you will see that school boards across the country have become flashpoints for political theater and hyper-partisanship. We see headlines of boards gripped by division, where the focus has shifted away from the classroom and toward national ideological battles.

These trends are concerning because they threaten the "tradition of excellence" we have worked so hard to build. A healthy school board is not a place for personal agendas; it is a place for high-level governance, fiscal responsibility, and, most importantly, a focus on student growth.

How the Caucus Protects Our Schools

The Caucus serves as a non-partisan filter against these national distractions. We help ensure a healthy school board and an informed voting public through three key pillars:

1. A Comprehensive Process: We don't just "pick" candidates. We encourage a diverse range of citizens to step forward. We then undertake a fair, deep-dive interview process that looks at a candidate’s professional background, their understanding of curriculum and finance, and their ability to collaborate.

2. Community Representation: Our membership is made up of you. We consist of representatives from each of our four elementary and two middle schools, alongside community members without students in the schools. We are parents, professionals, and taxpayers who represent the actual breadth of Deerfield.

3. Informed Endorsement: We do the heavy lifting of research so that you don't have to. When the Caucus endorses a candidate, it is a signal to the community that this individual is prepared to lead with stability, intelligence, and heart.

Our Commitment to You

The "C" in our Caucus stands for Community. We believe that by vetting candidates with a standard of excellence, we prevent the polarization seen elsewhere from taking root in our district.

We invite you to learn more about our process, attend our forums, and join us in this vital work. Together, we can ensure that District 109 remains a place where education comes first, and where our Board of Education reflects the very best of our community.

Sincerely,

Shannon Sword 

Chair, D109 School Board Caucus