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Cox ... cont’d. participate in the College Express program, which offers 18 different career-focused learning opportunities. “When you can partner with your local community college and offer students the opportunity to take dual enrollment classes and essentially enter college with one or two years of course credit under their belt, it’s great in terms of rigor and great in terms of saving money in the long term,” Cox said. The district’s commitment to career preparation extends beyond dual enrollment. Salt Fork boasts a nationally recognized agriculture program, with their FFA chapter ranking among the Top 1 percent in the country. The district also requires a personal finance course, offers comprehensive family and consumer science programs, and provides innovative junior high exploratory courses including STEM, current issues and history through sports and film. Despite the challenges of being a small, rural district, Salt Fork has maintained a fully licensed teaching staff—a point of pride for Cox in the face of statewide teacher shortages. “We’re a district that a lot of teachers want to come and join,” he notes, highlighting how many staff members choose to send their own children to Salt Fork schools. Outside of the district, Cox has served on the IASA Governmental Relations and Advocacy Committee as well as the Illinois Vision 2030 Predictable Funding Workgroup. A key focus of that initiative has been preserving Evidence-Based Funding and expanding resources for facility improvements and mental health support. “I think our state needs to do everything in its power to increase opportunities for students and provide school districts with as much local control as possible so they can figure out what works best for their communities,” Cox said. In addition, Cox serves on the Executive Board of the Illinois Educator Risk Management Program and is a member of the Vermilion County Workforce Education Committee, where he helps to build connections between the education and business communities in partnership with Vermilion Advantage.

be a part of the process.” At Huntley High School, where he served as principal for five years, Dr. Rowe oversaw the growth of the school’s pioneering Blended Learning Program from a small pilot into an integral part of life at HHS. The program’s success deepened when Huntley was accepted into the state’s Competency Based Education Pilot Program and secured a $39 million Capital Improvement Grant from the state to reimagine its facilities. These advances culminated in HHS being named by study.com as the country’s number one high school for blended learning in 2019. “Our high school went from 100 kids to over 2,500 students taking at least one blended class,” Dr. Rowe said. “We greatly expanded blended course offerings, began offering online courses, and really began to tackle competency-based education.” In 2023, Dr. Rowe replaced Dr. David Schuler as superintendent of Township HSD #214, one of the largest high school districts in Illinois. His focus has been on discovering innovative ways to maximize resources to become more efficient while strengthening learning opportunities and developing long-term goals. A facilities study identified $875 million in capital needs throughout the district, including heating and cooling systems, classroom renovations and athletic facilities upgrades. “That is going to be our charge for the next decade,” Dr. Rowe said about addressing facilities. “How can we bring new life into our facilities in a thoughtful manner through operational efficiencies while elevating the overall learning experience.” On the academic front, Dr. Rowe will oversee a strategic planning process that aims to, among other things, bring more academic alignment across the district’s seven campuses and discover new ways to help students make the transition from their elementary feeder districts into high school, and beyond into the postsecondary world, and the workforce. “I am following Dave Schuler, who is one the most respected people in our field,” Dr. Rowe said. “This district has done a phenomenal job in developing pathways and CTE programs. However, the community has expressed a desire to build a future together that involves all our stakeholders and focuses on moving District 214 from a great district to an exceptional district!” Dr. Rowe serves on IASA’s Governmental Relations and Advocacy Committee for the Cook North Region and has held seats on various community boards throughout his career.

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