Dist. 95 hires new superintendent from Dist. 203
Kaine Osburn will leave a large Naperville school system to become Lake Zurich Unit District 95's new superintendent in the next academic year.
District 95 board members Thursday evening voted 7-0 in favor of hiring Osburn. He'll start his District 95 career July 1.
Osburn will replace Michael Egan, who's been superintendent since 2009. Osburn, 46, will receive $204,500 for the 2016-17 academic year.
Osburn has been Naperville Unit District 203's deputy superintendent since 2013. He said the smaller Lake Zurich system was attractive for several reasons.
“Lake Zurich is a great fit because the idea of being part of a community district that fosters its kids' learning from kindergarten through high school is special, and I really think the size of the district, coupled with my experience and my strengths as a leader, are going to mesh well together,” Osburn said after receiving board approval.
District 203 has 17,000 students in 22 schools serving kindergarten through high school. District 95 has an enrollment of 5,666 pupils for the 2015-16 academic year in eight schools for kindergarten through high school.
Before taking the District 203 post, Osburn was principal for six years at Niles West High School in Skokie. His resume includes a stint in Northwest Suburban High School District 214, where he was a Wheeling High School division head for English and fine arts.
Osburn topped 54 candidates who wanted to become District 95's next superintendent, officials said. School board President Doug Goldberg said Osburn had several qualities that separated him from the pack.
“The attributes that attracted us to Dr. Osburn were a combination of his experience in unit districts, his very engaging personality and the fact he was able to develop and give us a vision of where he wanted to take our district,” Goldberg said.
As for Egan, 64, he'll begin his retirement June 30. After about 40 years in education, he said, he wants to travel, work on his golf game and be with his grandchildren more often.
Egan started his career in 1976 as a junior high language arts teacher at Chicago Public Schools and held other jobs before landing as Lake Zurich High School's dean of students in 1994. He then was promoted to assistant principal and principal.
He moved up from Lake Zurich High principal to District 95's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in May 2008, then became superintendent in 2009.