12
New IASA president … (continued) _______________________
Geneseo High School would receive
some kind of college exposure by the
time they graduated.
“We have gone from maybe two
Advanced Placement (AP) classes to
15 AP classes, we now have a dual
enrollment program with Black Hawk
Community College, and we have
added a new vocational class to that
program,” Ford said. “I would say that
more than 90 percent of our students
now graduate high school with at
least one college credit.”
Jill DePauw is a sixth grade
social studies teacher who was on
the Geneseo interview team that
selected Kuffel to become
superintendent in 2003. She also is
president of the teachers’ union at
Geneseo, where they just negotiated
a new contract. She marvels at his
energy and creativity.
“I wonder if he ever gets any
sleep because it just seems like he is
always coming up with innovative
ideas,” DePauw said, noting a leadership model they
implemented whereby teams of teachers are co-led
by a teacher and an administrator. “We work on
building issues, professional development,
curriculum, and our latest team, the A3 Team
(Athletics, Arts and Activities) develops policies
related to those three key areas of student
involvement. Scott is truly a supporter of the
Geneseo Maple Leafs in all aspects of a child’s
learning.”
IASA Executive Director Dr. Brent Clark said
Kuffel’s experience and his willingness to stand up
for what’s best when it comes to educating children
should serve him well in providing solid leadership for
IASA, which is one of the nation’s largest statewide
associations for school administrators with more than
1,700 members.
“Scott Kuffel has been on the IASA Board of
Directors for more than seven years. He is a
respected educator and leader who is committed to
providing the best possible educational opportunities
in public schools,” Clark said. “These are very difficult
times and I believe Scott can help us continue to
move forward despite all of the challenges facing
public education.”
Kuffel was a biology major and on a pre-med,
pre-dental track at Illinois Wesleyan when he worked
at a summer school and a basketball camp between
his junior and senior years. It became a defining
moment in him choosing education as a career path.
“I never really had a sense of students who
struggled until that summer when I worked with
elementary-aged kids who were in the Title 1
remedial program,” Kuffel recalled. “It struck me that
there were so many different reasons that these kids
were struggling academically and I knew I had some
calling to that type of service.”
As a junior at Kewanee High School, Kuffel also
spent a year as a foreign exchange student in Kenya,
where the oldest son in the family he lived with was a
headmaster at a Kenyan school. Kuffel’s father was a
veterinarian, but the family bloodlines include a
teacher and educational activist. His father’s cousin,
Jim Bergagna, was a pioneer in special education in
the early 1960s.
“We called him ‘Uncle Jim’ and he helped
establish the first special education cooperative in
the northwest part of the state and was in on the
ground floor of IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act),” Kuffel said. The Freeport school
district in 2009 dedicated a building with Bergagna’s
name.
Family, especially his parents, molded him into
the type of person – and superintendent – he has
(Continued from page 11)
(Continued on page 13)
Superintendent Scott Kuffel goes along for the ride as his son and
Senior Class President Judson Kuffel leads the Geneseo class of 2008
one last time in performing the “roller coaster” during the graduation
ceremony.
