Arlington Hts. District 25 extends superintendent’s deal

The Arlington Heights Elementary District 25 board extended the contract of Superintendent Sarah Jerome for two years Thursday night.

Jerome’s salary will remain at $228,655 per year, and she said she requested an additional five days of vacation in lieu of a raise. That brings her vacation time to 35 days a year.

The contract is good through June 2014.

“We had a goal-setting session,” said David Page, president of the board, “and went over initiations that she and her team have started. We want to see some of these things through, and she wants to see them through, too.”

Jerome said an important initiative is implementing core standards in subject areas that will be the same across the country and replace the Illinois Standards Achievement Tests.

The extension was passed without public discussion as part of the board’s consent agenda. The board had discussed it in a closed session earlier in the month.

Jerome came to the district in 2006. Previously she had been superintendent of the Kettle Moraine School District in Wales, Wis., a suburban Milwaukee community, for 15 years.

Her first District 25 contract was for five years. Then last year she received a one-year extension, which she said was at her request.

“After being a school superintendent for 20 years, I wanted to be sure I was willing to make the new commitment, and I am,” she said after the meeting.