LM Nov-Dec 2025

Superintendent of theYear

NP: It’s absolutely one of my greatest honors to help run the Aspiring Superintendent Academy. We’ve had almost 400 colleagues come through that program over the years. So many of them are sitting superintendents across the state of Illinois. The last time we checked, it was nearly one in six of all superintendents across the state were alumni from that program. It brings me great joy to connect people together and to support them. We’ve built a network of folks across a really big, very diverse state that wouldn’t be possible without something like the Aspiring Superintendent Academy. IASA: You’ve been a superintendent for 17 years with the last 13 being at Leyden. Any advice for new superintendents about what it takes to sustain a long career in a district? NP: There’s no one answer to that question. Maybe the first part is finding a place that’s the right fit, where you fit with that community and they fit with you, and you fit with that board and they fit with you. Over 27 years in education now, one of the truisms I’ve come to understand is that school leadership is a team sport and not an individual sport. I’ve seen a lot of people come and go, and these jobs can attract people with Type A, big personalities. Those people think they have all the answers or they’re supposed to have all the answers. Those people burn out and go away. I’ve seen it happen time and again. The people who approach leadership with humility and connection, the ones who are willing to pick up a phone and say, hey, have you dealt with this before? Can you help me with this? Those are the people that really thrive and make it in this job. Coming at it from finding the right fit and approaching the job with humility and partnership— you’ll have a much better chance for success.

for kids completing high school on time. Eagle Time helps us slow the day down. It’s less frantic and gives kids more connection points with peers and teachers.

IASA: Can you give examples of how Leyden supports its teachers and helps them grow professionally? NP: We give a lot of opportunities to our faculty to attend conferences in their discipline. We have instructional coaches that work with them in a very structured program their first two years, and then they can optionally stay with their coach for as long as they want. We’ve had to be creative in terms of teacher recruitment and retention. We had a long conversation with our Board of Education around the desire to have our teachers be more reflective of our students. We said the only real way to have our teachers look more like our students is to hire more of our students back as our teachers. So we created the Golden Ticket Initiative. When our kids take our education pathway at Leyden, at the end of it, we bring in the Illinois Teacher of the Year to give a keynote address. We have an educator signing day where we celebrate their decision to be future educators. Then I give them a Willy Wonka-style golden ticket that says we guarantee you an interview back here at Leyden or any of the elementary districts that feed into us. But if you come back home to Leyden, there’s a $5,000 signing bonus waiting for you. We’re trying to not only support our current teachers, but recruit our future teachers through our programming and our own kids. IASA: In June 2026, you and Dr. Mike Lubelfeld, Dr. Courtney Orzel, and Dr. Dawn Bridges will be launching the 11th Aspiring Superintendent Academy with IASA. What has it meant to you to be part of this program?

9 LM Nov–Dec 2025