Chicago charter school founder named to U-46 post

The founder of a renowned charter school in Chicago was named to an administrative post at Elgin Area School District U-46 Monday.

Jim O'Connor, principal of KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) Ascend Charter School on Chicago's West Side, has been selected as the executive director for student services, a new cabinet-level position, district officials announced.

The position was created in January, after Superintendent Jose Torres announced that seven administrative positions would be eliminated at the end of the school year. He also created several new positions - assistant superintendents for elementary and secondary education; a chief of staff position; and an executive director of student services.

O'Connor, who begins July 1, will oversee the district's special education and English language learners programs.

The appointment is of note because Torres, who came to U-46 from Chicago Public Schools, has remarked in the past that he is not a big proponent of charters.

However, Torres said Monday, O'Connor was selected for his track record of "reducing barriers to learning" at KIPP Ascend, a fifth- through eighth-grade school that is over 90 percent minority and has a high poverty rate.

According to 2008 state report cards, more than half of U-46's 41,000 students are minorities. About 43 percent of students come from low-income homes.

In 2002, O'Connor was awarded fellowship by the KIPP School Leadership Program. where he received management training and completed internships with charter schools across the country.

The school's first class of alumni graduated in 2007. That class, according to the school's Web site, was one of eleven Chicago public schools ranked first on the Illinois Standards Achievement test's math portion.

O'Connor, who earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame and a master's degree from the University of Chicago, also taught biology at Noble Street Charter High School in Chicago and spent several years working for the Teach for America program in Arkansas.