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NewsInBrief
Applications for the 2019 Illinois Superintendent of the
Year will be accepted through August 27, 2018. The
online application procedures can be accessed
The Illinois Superintendent of the Year program is part of
the AASA National Superintendent of the Year program
designed to recognize the outstanding leadership of
active, front-line school superintendents.
A superintendent does not need to be nominated to
submit an application. The completed application should
include a video of not more than two minutes or a text
compilation of the candidate’s work associated with IASA
as well as the signed acknowledgment form. That is in
addition to the items required by AASA, which includes a
video highlighting the candidate’s accomplishments.
The Illinois Superintendent of the Year Selection
Committee will review the applications and will select the
state winner in mid-September. The criteria for the Illinois
Superintendent of the Year include:
• Leadership for Learning—creativity in successfully
meeting the needs of students in his or her school
system.
• Communication—strength in both personal and
organizational communication.
• Professionalism—constant improvement of
administrative knowledge and skills, while providing
professional development opportunities and motivation
to others on the education team.
• Community involvement—active participation in local
community activities and an understanding of regional,
national and international issues.
The Illinois Superintendent of the Year will be announced
in November at the Joint Annual Conference in Chicago.
The winner will be eligible for consideration of the AASA
National Superintendent of the Year award, which will be
announced at the National Conference on Education in
Los Angeles, California February 14–16, 2019. For more
information about the Illinois Superintendent of the Year
program, please go or contact Cherry Middleton at
or at 217–753–2213.
Get a little jumpstart in your preparedness for the new school
year by tuning into the latest IASA Podcasts. The weekly podcast
series tackles the most important issues facing public education
in Illinois and provides knowledge and insight from experts about
how to run the best school district possible. Here are some of the
latest podcast topics.
• ESSA Implementation—IASA associate director/legal counsel
Sara Boucek discusses how ESSA implementation is going in
Illinois and details what superintendents need to know about
new school designations being rolled out as part of the law.
• Competency-based learning— Round Lake Area Schools
CUSD #116 was among 10 school districts in Illinois chosen
last year to participate in ISBE’s competency-based learning
pilot. Dr. Donn Mendoza, deputy superintendent, discusses
how the effort is going and what it took for his school district to
implement the change.
• Dr. Heidi Podjasek, director of professional development
at Oswego Community Unit School District 308, discusses
why and how her district switched to a trauma-informed care
approach to better understand student behavior and help
students stay on track.
• School Safety Part 2—School safety security expert, Ken
Trump, discusses ways school superintendents can keep their
buildings safer. Trump encourages superintendents to focus
most on peoples and procedures rather than products and
hardware.
• Creating a Successful Educator Prep Program—Township
High School District 214 Superintendent Dr. David Schuler
discusses how his district is addressing the teacher shortage
problem by growing their own educators. Over three years,
the initiative has placed just over 300 students in the teacher
pipeline.
• Women in Leadership—Lemont School District 113A
Superintendent Dr. Courtney Orzel discusses why she wanted
to become a superintendent, why more women are entering
administration, finding a balance between work and home life
and how her district crawled out of financial ruin.
The podcast is available in the Apple Podcast Library, Spotify,
Pocket Casts, Overcast, Castbox and Google Play. We also
share the podcasts on the Illinois Association of School
Administrators Facebook page and Twitter at @IllinoisASA.
You can always find a link to the podcasts on the IASA website
at
Illinois Superintendent of theYear
ApplicationsAcceptedThrough
August 27
StayTuned to IASAPodcasts
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