WVHS parent posted the Sarah Hooker article on another thread...
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District 204 may find its next chief in Kentucky
Board to go to Louisville to learn more about man in charge of 98,000-student district
By Sara Hooker
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Tuesday, January 30, 2007
The entire Indian Prairie school board is expected to arrive late today in Louisville, Ky., to prepare for meetings with the man who may be the next District 204 superintendent.
Jefferson County Public Schools chief Stephen Daeschner, 64, said he’s scheduled to meet with board members Wednesday to talk about his 14-year tenure as head of Kentucky’s largest school district and to give them tours.
“It’s to make them more familiar with my management style, familiar with the impressions other people have of me,” Daeschner said Monday. “That, I assume, is the purpose of the visit.”
Indian Prairie school board members began interviews earlier this month to fill the top leadership position in the district that includes portions of Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook and Plainfield.
They said last week they were on the verge of making an offer to a candidate to replace the retiring Howard Crouse, who will step down at the end of the school year.
District 204 board members traditionally strive to keep such talks secret, but that plan was spoiled when a Louisville newspaper published an article on Daeschner’s interest in the job over the weekend.
“They’re meeting (Wednesday) with the superintendent’s cabinet, with some community representatives, parents, school board members, and they’re visiting schools here,” said Marty Bell, the Louisville district’s deputy superintendent of community and governmental relations. “They’re breaking into groups so they can cover more pieces of the district.”
Jefferson County Public Schools includes all schools in Louisville and employs 5,700 teachers and instructs more than 98,000 students in more than 150 buildings.
While Indian Prairie board members said the position hasn’t been offered to Daeschner, they see the visit as an opportunity to verify the good things they’ve heard about him.
“We want to validate the claims and what we’ve heard and really see if his skills and leadership are really the best fit for our district,” member Alka Tyle said. “A site visit will make it a lot easier for the board to be able to come to a conclusion as to whether what we see is what we anticipated and expected based on the interview so far.”
Daeschner said he has about 41 years of education experience, including 30 as a top-level school administrator.
He’s spent time in school systems of various sizes from Alaska to Iowa, Bell said.
Board members have said they want to find a replacement for Crouse who will stay with the district for several years to oversee construction of a third high school and other initiatives. Some may wonder why they would be interested in a candidate who’s 64 years old.
Daeschner, for one, said he’s not ready to think about retirement.
“Yes, I pretty well made that decision to commit myself to another five or six years for sure and maybe even longer after that,” he said.
Daeschner concludes his tenure in Louisville with seemingly mixed reviews from the community and board members, who opted last year not to renew his contract.
Jefferson County school board member Stephen Imhoff said Monday five of the seven board members did not want to renew the superintendent’s pact and, therefore, it was never brought up for a vote last year.
“I think he’s done a fairly good job given what his job responsibilities are in a large district of 97,000,” Imhoff said. “He’s not as much of a touchy-feely type of superintendent that some people want him to be. He knows how to find good principals who are leaders of their schools.”
The Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper reported some board members also expressed concern about insufficient academic progress in the schools.
“Supporters praise him for raising academic achievement, bringing the district national recognition for innovative programs, and fighting to keep schools integrated,” the paper reported. “But he also has critics who complain of his sometimes autocratic leadership style, persistent gaps between the district’s high- and low-performing schools, and what they view as lackluster improvements for minority and middle school academic performance.”
The Courier-Journal reported that about 55 percent of Jefferson County’s families were low-income in 2005. It said 61 of the district’s schools failed to meet federal education guidelines.
“I think that was an issue in the community on our test scores,” Jefferson board member Carol Haddad said Monday. “The achievement gap was coming together, but it wasn’t as they wanted it to be. After a while you need to get new ideas of how to address the issue.”
But Daeschner points to a steady improvement in closing achievement gaps that has shown about 23 percent gains in standardized testing results since 1999.
“We’re very, very satisfied with our education achievement gain and the closing of the minority special education gaps,” Daeschner said. “You’re never totally satisfied, but we’ve approached that, targeted that and done a whole lot to address those issues.”
Indian Prairie’s Tyle said those are the types of issues board members will discuss during their trip.
“I think those are the kinds of things we’re still working on. We need to talk to their former board members, current board members, and everyone has their own perspective, and you have to believe in every issue there’s two sides: There are people who are for and there are people who are against,” Tyle said. “That’s what makes this decision a difficult one. You have to sift through all the facts and data.”
