10
grieving process for the first week following Bralick’s
passing.
“Tony would have wanted that and it was the
least I could have done for an incredible person who
had such a significant impact onme as a person and
as an educator,” Schuler said. TheWaukesha school
district established theAnthony J. Bralick Scholarship
in hismemory.
From Jerome, Schuler said he learned about
being a “classy professional educator.”
“She taught me that as an administrator you
should always do the right thing, period. The right
thing for students first and then the right thing by
staff, parents and the profession,” Schuler said. “She
said all of that takes significant time, but it’s timewell
spent raising human capital.”
Schuler has been an educator for 22 years. He
graduated with a B.A. from Carroll College in
Waukesha, Wisconsin, and earned both his Master’s
and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Before being named superintendent in Arlington
Heights in 2005, Schuler served as superintendent at
Marshall, Wisconsin from 2000-2002, and at Stevens
Point,Wisconsin from 2002-2005.
Among his top concerns about public education
are the one-size-fits-all approach that many
reformers prescribe, that education appears to be low
-hanging fruit formany politicians and no one is really
championing public education from the left or the
right, and what he says is the false assumption that
public schools arenot being successful.
He realizes that there is no silver bullet, and he
asserts that’s good. “A one-size fits all approach
doesn’t inspire innovation. We should celebrate the
diversity of districts in our country and share the
many success stories going on in our schools so we
can learn best practices from each other,” Schuler
said.
He also believes that local education leaders
have to ensure strategies are in place so that parents
are being vocal advocates for our public schools and
that they are sharing what they know about the
successes of their children’s schools with the non-
parents in thedistrict.
It is critical, from his perspective, that we change
the language of our advocacy on behalf of public
schools, emphasizing that “we should be
championing the work of public schools instead of
always trying todefend them.”
“Unless there is an ulterior motive, all civic
leaders, policy leaders, and parentswant good public
schools. And they exist.Weneed to take back control
of themessage.”
Schuler believes that relationships and authentic
communications are key elements to being an
effective school administrator – and that theburden is
on the superintendent to forge a good working
relationship with the school board, teachers and staff
and the community.
“I do think it’s the superintendent’s responsibility
to modify his or her style to meet the style of the
board president. They are the elected official and we
need tomeet themwhere they are at,” he said, noting
that he has been superintendent in three different
school districts and has worked with seven different
(Continued frompage 9)
(Continuedonpage11)
AASAPresidents from Illinois
1887-88
NewtonC. Dougherty
1904-05
EdwinG. Cooley
1916-17
JohnD. Shoop
1924-25
WilliamMcAndrew
1947-48
HaroldC. Hunt
1956-57
Paul J. Misner
1961-62
BenjaminC.Willis
1969-70
ArnoldW. Salisbury
1979-80
OlinW. Stratton
1992-93
PaulW. Jung
2004-05
Dr. DonaldKussmaul
2007-08
Dr. Sarah Jerome
