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Elmhurst District 205 superintendent leaving for New York job

Elmhurst Unit District 205 Superintendent David Moyer will step down at the end of the school year to take a position leading a New York school system.

The district announced Moyer's departure on Friday, just days after returning to some in-person learning amid pushback from the teachers union.

Moyer will take the helm of a district of similar size in LaGrangeville, New York, near Poughkeepsie. The school board there selected Moyer from a pool of more than 40 applicants. He will leave District 205 at the end of June.

"I want to feel like I'm making an impact, and I have an impact to make yet, and I wanted to go somewhere where I felt that I could do that," Moyer said Friday. "And I think this is a good fit, and it's in a region in the country where my wife and I would like to live."

Moyer views a referendum campaign as one of his top achievements in his six years in District 205's top administrative post. The district in 2018 secured voter approval to borrow $168.5 million to replace two aging elementary schools and fund construction projects at other buildings. It was the largest referendum request on the ballot, and it easily passed.

Moyer also touted efforts to provide all-day kindergarten, a business incubator program at York High School and a permanent home for a transition program for young adults with disabilities.

The school board recently approved the purchase of a park district property for $1.6 million to serve as the new transition center. Known as The Abbey, the former senior center is next to York High School.

"I really admire the people on my team, and all of the teachers that got on the same page about trying to personalize learning for students and create some of these opportunities that move us into the future," Moyer said.

The district will launch a national search for his successor. The school board will discuss a proposed timeline at its next meeting Jan. 26.

"We respect Dr. Moyer's decision to advance his career, and wish him every success in his new endeavor," board President Kara Caforio said in a statement. "At this time, we agree that the focus and priority should be on finishing the 2020-21 school year strong. As board members, we will diligently begin the work of identifying the next leader for our school community."

Board members two years ago were apparently stunned by the news that Moyer was seeking another superintendent's job in Ohio during the referendum planning. Moyer withdrew from that preliminary search.

The final months of Moyer's tenure will be dominated by the school reopening debate, plans to vaccinate teachers against COVID-19 and hiring challenges amid a national teacher shortage.

"We're going to have to work on getting more kids back into the building more consistently," he said. "And we're going to have be very, very intentional about looking at the data and trying to figure for the kids who have struggled the most during this period, what do we need to do over the next couple years, starting immediately, to make sure that those students get to where they need to be."

The district returned to a hybrid learning model on Monday after suspending in-person instruction in response to a COVID-19 resurgence.

The Elmhurst Teachers' Council, the union that represents more than 700 district educators, filed unfair labor practice charges, claiming the district was "discarding its own health metrics." The complaint was filed with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.

"The vast majority of teachers and paraprofessionals are opposed to a hasty school reopening under conditions of substantial community spread," a union statement last week said. "However, the unfair labor practice charges were filed because the Union is opposed to the Board of Education voting one way and acting another."

Moyer declined to comment on the complaint itself, saying it will be going to an arbitrator. But he remains confident in the district's safeguards against the virus.

"The actual specific measures we've taken and things that we've put in place, I think that we've done a good job. I firmly believe that."

The district serves roughly 8,500 students in eight elementary schools, three middle schools and York High School.

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