JULY 2018 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 31
Few school districts on Long Island
have embraced technolog y as
enthusiastically as the Deer Park Union
Free School District.
e district is made up of ve schools: Deer Park
High School, John F. Kennedy Intermediate
School, John uincy Adams Primary School,
May Moore Primary School and Robert Frost
Middle School, which combined have about
4,100 enrolled students.
We recently caught up with Christopher
Kauter, district administrator of instructional
technology, who discussed the importance of
tech, the district’s mission and why he chose
education.
uestion: What makes Deer Park Union
Free School District special in your opinion?
Answer: We have a strong group of
administrators and teachers who embrace
change, love the students and are willing to put
forth the extra e ort to see the students learn
and become lifelong learners.
Q: Can you tell me about the role that
technology plays in the school district?
A: Deer Park School District has believed for a
long time that technology, when used properly
in the classroom, has a long-lasting impact on
learning. In 2012, the district adopted G Suite
for Education and has been promoting the use
of Google Classroom and many third-party
applications to speci c grade levels and target
audiences throughout the school district. Next
year, we are pleased to begin our 1:1 Learning
Program in grades 5 through 7. Each student
will receive a Dell Chromebook. e program
will reach grades 5 through 12 by 2022 or 2023.
Deer Park school administrator talks tech
Q: What is the biggest
challenge of your job?
A: With technology changing
and evolving at a rapid rate, a
major challenge is keeping up to
date with the newest so ware.
To counter this challenge, it
is important for me to attend
conferences, workshops and be
a member of the Association
of Suffolk Supervisors for
Educational Technologies
(ASSET), which I am president of for the
2018 to 2019 school year. Without a core group
to be able to bounce ideas o of, it would be
extremely di cult to stay up to date and evolve
the technology integration in the school district.
Q: What major trends are you seeing in U.S.
education and how are they impacting your
school district?
A: A major trend which I am embracing is
aligning our traditional learning environment
with a blended digital learning model. is
includes incorporating the 4 Cs of Learning
(Creativity, Collaboration, Communication
and Critical inking) to transform traditional
learning into 21st century learning.
Q: What is the mission of your
school district?
A: The mission of the Deer Park
School District is to provide each
and every student with exemplary
programs of study within a safe,
healthy and nurturing environment.
It is our vision that our students will
achieve academic excellence, mastering
those concepts, skills, and processes
that will enable them to become
thoughtful, productive citizens
in our society. Our students will be career/
college ready.
Q: How did you get started in
education?
A: I started my career as a social studies
teacher. As I became a veteran teacher,
my interests spread toward instructional
technology and the impacts the tools were
having on education. A er much trial and
error, I was fortunate to receive local,
state and national recognition
for the instructional technology
integration which I was bringing
to my classroom. ese honors
included being accepted to
the Google Teacher Academy
and receiving the NYSCATE
Teacher of the Year award. My
experiences and interest led me
from the classroom to pursue
my next phase in education as a
district leader.
Q: What is your favorite part of your job?
A: Working with the sta with professional
development and projects. en being invited
into their classroom to see the impact on their
students. Another area of interest is working
with other district administrators to build
curriculum and organizational capacity. is
year, we started to build our Future Ready
Schools Plan, which focuses on seven gears
(Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment;
Use of Space and Time; Robust Infrastructure;
Data and Privacy; Community Partnerships;
Personalized Professional Learning; Budget
and Resources). is plan is currently a work
in progress, but it has allowed us to re ect and
dive deeper into our strengths while building
a plan to focus on our programs which need
attention.
Custom Computer Specialists is proud to
sponsor Spotlight LI. Since 1979, Custom has
been dedicated to providing Long Island’s
schools, local government agencies, health
care facilities and businesses with advanced
technology solutions and support. To learn
more about Custom Computer Specialists, or to
be considered for a future Spotlight LI, please
email info@customtech.com.
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