The Homewood School District 153 school board appointed Morgan Koncel and Cathryne Czarnecki to take over administrative duties now handled by Kathy Schaeflein, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment. She retires at the end of the school year after 13 years in the position.
Koncel and Czarnecki will keep their current duties and split the work of Schaeflein. The school board changed their positions from 10.5-month to 12-month contracts at the Feb. 3 board meeting.
Koncel’s new title is director of curriculum, EL (English Language) programs and grants. Czarnecki’s title will be director of instructional support. Both have been working closely with Schaeflein and are familiar with the work required of her position. By splitting the job, Koncel and Czarnecki took on an assignment that complements their talents.
“The curriculum department will continue to do more with fewer individuals in order to save the district money,” Schaeflein said. “I have the greatest admiration and confidence in both of them as they are amazing individuals and have a tremendous professional work ethic.”
Koncel has 18 years in education, 14 of those in District 153 where she started as a third-grade teacher, then transitioned to an English Language (EL) teacher working with students who had a primary language other than English. For a time, she was both an EL teacher and the program’s coordinator. The job was too big for one person. Koncel became the coordinator of EL and took on responsibility for grants and the pre-kindergarten program.
Czarnecki started as a math teacher at James Hart School in 2007. She later took the position as the RTI coordinator (Response to Intervention) working with students who needed assistance to succeed or who needed enrichment programs to help them continuing making academic gains. Czarnecki then became the math instruction coach and took on duties of assessment.
Czarnecki acknowledges her love of math and data, so taking over instructional assessments is an extension of her work in the district. She will get a broad picture of how students are learning across the region and the country, and then focus on the district’s numbers and learning at the district’s three schools – Willow serving pre-kindergarten to grade 2; Churchill serving grades 3, 4 and 5; James Hart serving grades 6, 7 and 8.
As director of curriculum, Koncel will be working with classroom teachers to learn what materials are beneficial to classroom learning. Schaeflein put materials on a scheduled rotation so that District 153 has books and materials that are accurate to current events or can reflect the latest teaching strategies. The reading curriculum at James Hart School is currently under review. Math curriculum at all levels will be assessed in 2026.
