U-46 delays superintendent search until after April election

Elgin Area School District U-46 will postpone its superintendent search until after the April elections when new school board members will be elected, and after the development of a new strategic plan, officials said.

School board President Donna Smith said she hopes to start having community discussions in the spring on what they would want in a new leader.

Several board members agreed it's better to develop a strategic plan first before hiring an executive search firm.

"The strategic plan would help the executive search firm considerably," board member Amy Kerber said.

The district is nearing the end of its five-year "Destination 2015" plan; many of the plan's goals remain unmet.

"One thing we did not do well with Destination 2015 is we didn't take anything off the plates of principals, or schools or teachers," U-46 CEO Tony Sanders said. "We just handed them more stuff that they need to get done."

The school board recently hired Boston-based firm District Management Council to develop the new strategic plan with a set of goals to be accomplished within the next five years. The firm's $175,000 fee will come from the district's general operating fund, Sanders said.

Former Superintendent Jose Torres picked the firm before resigning in August to head up the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora.

DMC has developed similar plans for school districts in Boston, Baltimore and Minneapolis. At U-46, a committee of DMC staffers, district employees and other stakeholders will study the district's schools for a month to determine where improvements are needed, officials said.

DMC CEO John Kim said once the group identifies roughly five priorities and measurable goals, it will seek feedback from community groups, including parent-teacher organizations. Feedback will be sought through round-table discussions with various community groups.

"There are increasing levels of accountability and ways to measure it along with increasing needs of a diverse student body," Kim said. "A strategic plan articulates your vision, priorities and goals."

School board member Traci O'Neal Ellis said she supports having fewer goals than those in Destination 2015.

"I feel like all in the rush to meet Destination 2015, there have been 20,000 different initiatives," she said. "I do like boiling down to a list of fewer things to do. Can we go deep, rather than wide? Can we pick a few things to do and let's do them really well? And when we master those things, we can add more stuff."