District 41 superintendent: 'Sole focus' on current job
Superintendent Paul Gordon said Thursday that his "sole focus" is leading Glen Ellyn Elementary District 41 after school board members learned this week he was a finalist for a job he didn't get in his home state of Colorado.
Gordon said he was recruited for the superintendent's position in the second-largest school district in Colorado. But the Jeffco Public Schools board instead selected a Colorado superintendent Monday to take the helm of the 86,000-student district.
Gordon has two years left on his contract, which runs through June 2019, and he said he will continue to focus all his efforts on District 41.
His comments come just weeks after voters narrowly approved a $24.2 million funding request for building projects at the Glen Ellyn district's five schools.
Gordon said he was attracted to the Jeffco post because his parents live in Colorado.
The position also would have come with a significant pay increase. Gordon now makes $224,783 a year after receiving a 2.6 percent merit pay raise and a $9,600 bonus tied to performance goals Monday.
The Jeffco board promoted a salary "in the range of $300,000" and hired Ray and Associates Inc. to recruit candidates. That's the same firm District 41 used in a national search for a superintendent that resulted in Gordon's hiring in 2013.
He previously served as a chief academic officer in a district in suburban Denver.
Ray and Associates screened 69 applicants for the Jeffco job and narrowed the list to 11 for the school board's review. On April 20, the board chose six to advance to in-person interviews.
The revelation that Gordon was a finalist came at the end of a lengthy debate on the District 41 school board Monday about whether second-grade teachers should maintain the current practice of specializing in an area of instruction instead of teaching multiple subjects during the school day. Four new board members - three of whom campaigned as a slate - also took their seats Monday.
The majority decided to discontinue the program in second grade despite Gordon's recommendation to keep it.
Gordon said the district has "inconclusive data" about teacher specialization - one of the cornerstones of the so-called Think Tank plan developed by his predecessor and the board at the time. Gordon also said teachers "believe it is the right structure," and many of them spoke in favor of it Monday.
After Gordon's defense of the practice, board Vice President Kurt Buchholz alluded to Gordon "being in Colorado recently." It wasn't clear how Buchholz knew, and he didn't immediately return a message Thursday.
"We've had kids in this system, one of my own in this system," Buchholz said. "And you're telling me, that 'we can't come up with whether something's good or bad after four years, but I'll tell you what, hold me accountable after three years.' You may not even be here in three years, we know that."
Gordon told the board he was asked to interview for the Jeffco position, calling it a "great opportunity" to go back home.
"And was I honored that I didn't apply for this job, that people reached out to me and said, 'You know what? You're pretty good. You're pretty good,'" Gordon said. "I'm not good enough to get the job. I was No. 2. I was No. 2, but I own that. You know it is what it is. Only one person gets jobs."