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Stanton Middle School principal definitely unconventional

Jeff Sefcik admits he isn't your prototypical middle school principal.

Sefcik, 49, never wears a suit, and his shoes have definitely seen better days.

"I'm not comfortable in a suit," he said. "Probably because I'd ruin it cleaning up after a kid who throws up in the hallway."

As if on cue, the phone rings on his desk and he answers it in a flash. He nods a few times, then is off to chase down a snack for a child who told a teacher he didn't eat breakfast that morning.

"My main philosophy is, 'Never take yourself too seriously,'" he says as he quickly moves through the hallways, making jokes with students as he darts past. "Everyone in this building is as important as the next. All of us working together is what makes this school great."

That's why Sefcik can be seen some mornings outside shoveling the walkway, or putting out orange cones to direct the buses.

"There is no job in this school that I won't do," he said. "Sure, I would love our test scores to go up, and we are working on that. But my first job is to make sure kids are safe and ready to learn. And if there's something I can do to help that, I'll do it."

That includes kissing the back side of a pig, being duct taped to a wall, and standing on a street corner while dressed as a princess waving as school buses drive past - all things he's done to celebrate successful "Day of Service" PTO fundraising events he's hosted at the school.

"He keeps his promises," said Alexis Smith, an eighth-grader at Stanton. "He's goofy, kind, funny, and helps you out. He's a really good principal."

Because of his love for the job, the way he deals with students, staff and the community, and the appreciation he gets for his methods, Sefcik is featured by the Daily Herald as a top suburban principal.

"I have been working alongside Jeff for 11 years and it's undoubtedly his unconventional ways that make him an exceptional school administrator," said administrative assistant Jill Becmer.

"He is the heart and soul of Stanton School. He takes great pride in each one of his students and staff members, and there is nothing he wouldn't do to help a family or colleague."

Sefcik's path to Stanton is as unorthodox as the Wauconda resident is as a school principal.

Despite having a mother for a teacher, Sefcik admittedly focused on baseball more than school work during his high school and college years.

"I wanted to be a professional baseball player," he said. "But I wasn't in the 1 percent of kids who make that dream happen."

Sefcik was good enough to play baseball at Coastal Carolina University, but his baseball career ended when he was three credits short of earning a degree. After he left college, a professor urged him to write a 50-page research paper to earn the final credits he needed.

From there, he signed on as baseball coach and psychology and physical education teacher at Driscoll Catholic High School in Addison. But, it was a student teaching assignment in the Chicago Public School system that, he said, shaped him into the administrator he is today.

"That experience really taught me to connect with students," he said. "Those students aren't paying to be there like Catholic school kids. I had to find a way to connect with them."

Humor and humility was the way, he said.

"We developed a game where, every day, they would walk in and put a term they used a lot on the board, and I would put a term on the board I used at dinner parties," he said. "It was a great way to connect with those students, and a really cool experience for both sides."

Sefcik remained as varsity baseball coach at Driscoll for a decade, winning two state titles and playing in the state final four tournament five times. But, he left the school in order to "be more involved with my kids," he said.

He took a job as a social studies teacher at Wauconda Middle School, and worked to obtain a master's degree at Aurora University in its educational leadership program.

After completing the degree, he was hired by Fox Lake Elementary District 114 Superintendent John Donnellan as assistant principal at Stanton.

"Jeff is definitely on the unconventional side of school administration, but it's because he is so comfortable in his own skin and extremely confident in leading his staff and school," said Donnellan, who named Sefcik principal at Stanton in 2008.

"There isn't, and never will be, two sets of rules for Jeff Sefcik. He's self aware, knows his strengths and weaknesses and holds himself to the same standards he holds for everyone else. That is excellence."

Donnellan said Sefcik has also trained himself to be an expert in the common core curriculum used at Stanton. He's spent hours with curriculum administrators at Grant High School, and has developed teacher assessments for the curriculum instituted when the district switched from ISAT testing to common core.

"His hard work shows when eighth-grade students routinely are placed higher as ninth-graders when entering high school," Donnellan said. "It shows Fox Lake Elementary students are prepared to take on the next level."

But it's his personality that garners the respect of colleagues, students and community members alike.

"The mayor called me up and said, 'Jeff, I have something you can't say no to,'" he said of being told he was picked as grand marshal of the Village of Fox Lake Holiday Illuminated Parade. "I was honored. I brought some students with me and we had a blast."

Not bad for a guy who claims to have "undiagnosed ADHD (attention deficit disorder)."

"If I have one fault, it's that I focus a lot on the kids and don't do enough to praise the teachers and staff," he said. "I expect a lot out of them, and they do a lot and work real hard. I need to give them more credit."

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  Stanton Middle School Principal Jeff Sefcik admits he isn't a prototypical middle school principal. He said his main philosophy is never take yourself too seriously. Gilbert R. Boucher II/gboucher@dailyherald.com
  Stanton Middle School Principal Jeff Sefcik in Fox Lake. Gilbert R. Boucher II/gboucher@dailyherald.com
  Stanton Middle School Principal Jeff Sefcik counts international currency with sixth-grader Tyler Leanes in his school office in Fox Lake. Leanes and Sefcik say they are part of a "wolf pack" together Gilbert R. Boucher II/gboucher@dailyherald.com
  Principal Jeff Sefcik sits in with a group of sixth-graders in Matt Shannon's English class at Stanton Middle School in Fox Lake. Gilbert R. Boucher II/gboucher@dailyherald.com
  Principal Jeff Sefcik talks to Special Education Coordinator Keli Swierczek during a meeting at Stanton Middle School in Fox Lake. Gilbert R. Boucher II/gboucher@dailyherald.com
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