Dist. 16 superintendent to leave after 40 years

To say it's rare these days for a school superintendent to spend 40 years in one place is an understatement.

With early retirements forever alluring and the promise of bigger, more prestigious districts on the horizon, a decade seems a long haul.

Queen Bee Elementary District 16 schools chief James White, then, is a bit of an oddity, a title he'd relish with a chuckle and touch of irony.

His first teaching job -- four decades ago -- was in the district from which he's now retiring.

He moved up through the ranks, first working as a sixth-grade teacher, then an assistant principal, then principal of Glenside Middle School. Eventually, he landed in the district office as an assistant superintendent of business.

And then the district gained the sort of notoriety that makes any public official cringe. The Glendale Heights system's longtime superintendent, Joseph Kariotis, was charged with numerous counts of theft and official misconduct.

Kariotis eventually pleaded guilty to 20 counts of official misconduct and spent his nights in jail for six months. He had stolen $14,868 in school funds the district collected from students' class pictures.

That all happened before 1985, the year the now-63-year-old White was invited to step into the vacant job.

As he prepares to walk away, at least officially, 23 years later, the Daily Herald sat down for a chat with DuPage County's longest-serving superintendent. What follows is an edited transcript of that conversation:

Q. You took the helm years ago amid quite a bit of controversy and turmoil. Talk a bit about what that was like and how you worked to restore order.

White. It was a big decision to make about whether I even wanted to be superintendent because it was such a mess. My predecessor spent some jail time.

Once I made the decision to stay, I just got to work fixing everything that was broken: finances, management, structure and most important over time, the image. I'm very proud it's become very good over time.

We have a reputation for being clean cut and doing the right thing, hiring the right people, being uncompromising about honesty and the way we do business. I wouldn't let anybody compromise that fact. You just have to be honest. It's been good for us.

Q. What would you say you're most proud of accomplishing during your time here?

White. The changing of our reputation. Our local community thinks a lot of Queen Bee.

Q. You're going out as the most senior superintendent in DuPage County. Any words of advice for your peers?

White. Always be honest about everything you do. That doesn't mean you can't be smart and manipulative. I'm talking honesty.

Understand your board of education. Your teachers and what happens in their classrooms are the number one most important thing going on in your district. It's not the school board, it's not the buildings.

Q. What do you mean "smart and manipulative?"

White. You have to understand group dynamics. You to have to be able to manipulate situations and people to get them to where they are most effective. You've got seven people on a board, and assistant superintendents, who all have their own agendas and you've got to be smart about people to make sure you get something done.

Q. What are the some of the best and worst changes in education you've seen?

White. The best? We've all become much more professional about teaching. All that professional development we do makes us better teachers.

And the worst have all been promulgated by the State of Illinois: testing, assessment, changing the rules. And it's not only the state board of education, but the legislature. Look at the moment of silence. What a fiasco. Fortunately for somebody like me, who's nearing the end of the road, I made a decision that we wouldn't do anything when they suggested it, when they enacted it and when they ended it.

Q. What do you see as the biggest current challenge facing teachers?

White. The diversity of the student population. It's harder to teach kids who speak that many languages and when you don't have a uniform cultural base.

We're spending a lot of time teaching ourselves -- administrators and teachers -- what we need to know about the different cultures that we are dealing with. All the cultures are quite different. They're great. And when you put them all together, it makes for a really rich environment. But it's hard for teachers.

Q. What's the biggest challenges facing students you see coming down the pipe?

White. The reliance on the testing to tell them whether they are smart or not. It's very unreliable. And I have been much, much less of a fan the lower you get in the grades. So the fact that we're giving these expensive state tests and local tests to 8-year-old kids, I just think it's extremely unreliable as a predictor of almost anything.

I have always appreciated the fact that our community heard my message, which is "OK, fine, we'll do our testing. And if you want to compare it, compare it. But let us tell you why your child really is doing fine in school."

We all have seen kids -- many, many times -- just blossom before they got to eighth grade. Sometimes in fourth and fifth grade. Sometimes in seventh grade. So if somebody would have given up on them earlier just because they couldn't take a test, then we would have been deficient.