Editorial: An encouraging trial of leadership sharing at schools

We confess to a certain sense of eager anticipation as Mundelein High School District 120 and Mundelein Elementary School District 75 look to a new school year with a shared superintendent. The districts announced the plan a little over a year ago, and now it's encouraging to see the arrangement actually coming together.

Several local school districts share some services with neighbors, and it's not uncommon for municipal agencies in neighboring towns to share bookkeeping, clerical or other duties. But almost no agencies go so far as to share the management from the top as the Mundelein school districts are set to do. As our Russell Lissau reported Monday, District 120's school board has agreed to cover 57 percent of the salary and benefits for Superintendent Kevin Myers and three other shared administrators, all of whom currently work for District 120. District 75, which will cover the remaining 43 percent, is due to approve the arrangement in August.

And that's not all. The districts are also exploring other possible combinations of business office staffs and duties, Lissau reported.

We've long supported more consolidation of school and government operations. In a state with nearly 7,000 units of local government, mergers and cooperation are surely paths to streamlining operations and lowering property taxes. The move by districts 120 and 75 is no formal consolidation, but it does recognize that managing administrative costs is a meaningful way to improve efficiency of operations and save taxpayer money.

Officials at the two districts have not completed calculations of how much they expect to save through this experiment. They may have an indication later in the summer, and we, not to mention taxpayers in the districts, look forward to seeing the numbers.

Yet, even beyond the financial component, the Mundelein districts' experiment promises to demonstrate how autonomous school systems can use consistent, shared leadership to improve the quality of the education each provides. This is a significant outcome that can only expand on the potential to save money.

The experience should pique the interest of other systems that feed into Mundelein High School, notably Diamond Lake Elementary District 76 and Fremont Elementary District 79. And, it may provide valuable lessons for districts across the state that could benefit from similar collaborations. We're excited to see that it's about to take off.