Leadership Matters - May 2013

Member News from the Regions

named winner of the national Milken Educator Award. Hawkins is the only Illinois winner this year and will receive a $25,000 prize. STEVE PTACEK became Superintendent of Jacksonville District 117 on April 8. Ptacek, who had been Superintendent of Joppa-Maple Grove Community Unit District 38, replaces Interim Superintendent BARBARA SUELTER. TERRY BOWERS Two Rivers

Evanston School District 65. She is replacing DR. JAMIE S. REILLY. DR. BHAVNA SHARMA-LEWIS has been named superintendent of Riverside Elementary School District 96 effective July 1. Dr. Sharma-Lewis currently is Superintendent of Harrison School District 36. She will replace DR. JONATHAN LAMBERSON who is retiring. DR. KATHY L. WOLFE has been named superintendent of West Chicago District 33. She was previously Assistant Superintendent for Business & Operations there. She replaced DR. ED LEMAN , who retired in March. STEPHANIE HAWKINS, a teacher at Lynne Thigpen Elementary School in Joliet, has been Cook West Three Rivers Du Page

DANIEL BRUE has been named Superintendent of Meridian District 15 in Macon effective July

Abe Lincoln

1. Brue currently is Superintendent of Bement Community Unit District 5. He will be replacing Interim Superintendent FRANK MEYER. DAN OAKLEY has been named

Superintendent of Fieldcrest School District 6 effective July 1. Oakley

Central Illinois Valley

currently is Superintendent of Avon Community School District 176. He will replace JOSHUA OLSEN , who will become Assistant Superintendent at Olympia School District 16.

of Milledgeville recently passed away. He was formerly superintendent at the

Northwest

Chadwick-Milledgeville school District . PAUL TOBIN of Mt. Carroll passed away May 4, 2013. He was a former IASA Board member and former superintendent at the Mt. Carroll School District.

DR. BETH SAGETT -FLORES has been named

superintendent of Golf Elementary School District 67 effective July 1. Sagett-Flores currently is the Human Resources Director in the Cook North

Olympia teacher helped design state science curriculum Ms. Chris Embry Mohr , who heads Olympia 16 ’s science department, was part of a 41-member team that developed the science and engineering practices and content that all K-12 students should master to prepare for college, careers and life. “Science is about doing. It’s not just learning facts to answer Jeopardy-style questions,” Mohr said. The new standards reflect that. Students will learn, model and examine the “big picture,” she said. “She’s a very hard worker,” said Superintendent Brad Hutchison , adding, “We are extremely honored” she is part of the school and the national team. The new guidelines call for teaching science in context and encourage integration with multiple core concepts. These methods can be found in Olympia’s greenhouse where students help with climate control and filtration for fish that are raised along with vegetables, many hydroponically grown, and also used in the school cafeteria. The new standards are based on the Framework for K-12 Science Education developed by the National Research Council, Mohr said. She was on the life science team. Every standard was created with three dimensions: disciplinary core ideas; scientific and engineering principles; and cross-cutting concepts. The Next Generation Science Standards are now moving through a timeline for adoption in Illinois to become the new state standards.

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