Lighthouse 112

Lighthouse 112 is the podcast of the superintendent's office in North Shore School District 112, a public pre-K through 8th grade district serving Highland Park, Highwood and Fort Sheridan, just north of Chicago. The district produces it itself. The program calls itself one of many communication tools the district uses to reach its community, and the episodes sound that way. Superintendent Mike Lubelfeld introduces himself on air and speaks as an administrator reporting to the people he serves. In one episode he says the district is proud to still be under construction after a decade of rebuilding its schools, literally and figuratively, and that Sherwood Elementary will reopen to students. That same episode reads out a shared vision of a thriving, inclusive learning community. In another he works through a strategic change agenda: values including growth, integrity, equity and safety, then three goal areas, and finally thanks to the students, from 5th grade through high school, whose contributions he singles out. The report card material is more concrete. There the superintendent's office goes through the district's results on the Illinois Report Card and compares statewide growth percentiles with the previous year, noting that mathematics growth rose from the 54th to the 66th percentile. The show's most distinctive format is the chatbot interview. One episode puts questions to ChatGPT about generative AI in teaching and learning. Its answers list bias, privacy, over-reliance and misinformation as concerns. Another episode interviews Gemini, a tool the district uses, about proposed Board of Education Policy 6:238 on generative artificial intelligence. That conversation notes that district teachers may use tools such as Magic School AI, School AI and Gemini's Workspace for Education but are not required to. It ends by pointing listeners to the live school board meetings. Ben Finfer, the Director of Communications and Community Service, appears in a New Year episode about 2024 that covers classroom materials for reading, writing and math, along with Spanish materials for the district's Spanish-English dual language program. The tone stays earnest and upbeat, and the motto inspire, innovate, engage keeps coming back. Several closings invite listeners to bring their questions to the district team. What a listener gets is the district's own account of its decisions, its test results and its buildings, framed the way the district wants them framed. For hard figures, start with 'Deeper Dive Into D112 Report Card Data 10/31/2024'. For the district's plans, 'Strategic Change Process D112 2025' sets them out. For something stranger, try the AI interviews, where the district questions the tools themselves on the record.