In just one week, the Brookfield-LaGrange Park Elementary School District 95 board is expected to announce the hiring of a new superintendent. Last Thursday after a lengthy discussion in executive session, board members voted unanimously to enter into contract negotiations with the one candidate it has interviewed for the job.
While board President James Landahl did not reveal the name of that candidate, it is believed to be Thomas Hurlburt, currently principal of S.E. Gross Middle School in Brookfield, who expressed interest in the position last fall.
“Our expectation is to finalize [the contract] by our next meeting,” Landahl said. The District 95 board next meets on March 23 at 7 p.m. at S.E. Gross Middle School, 3524 Maple Ave., Brookfield.
The district posted its opening for the superintendent’s position on Feb. 10, but did so only internally. Applications were accepted until Feb. 24 for the job, which is expected to pay $125,000 per year.
According to Landahl, the district didn’t receive any other applications for the job.
On March 1, a committee of district administrators, parents and staff met to interview the applicant. That group provided the board with feedback from that interview related to school finances, curriculum, administration and community relations.
Then on March 6, the Board of Education met with the candidate for a two-hour interview that Landahl described as “thought-provoking.”
“He was very in tune with the direction the board and communities want to see District 95 go,” Landahl said. “There was a unanimous feeling that the candidate was very in tune with what we have been talking about.”
Landahl described the two sides as being very close to a deal, saying that “I don’t see anything derailing the process.”
If Hurlburt is, indeed, hired at the March 23 meeting, Landahl said that a search to replace him would begin immediately. However, the district could opt to hire an interim candidate for as long as a year in order to do a thorough search.
The board has, however, ruled out combining the superintendent position and the principal at S.E. Gross School.
“It’s really an exception, not a trend [in education],” Landahl said. “Any district that has a combined position also has a support staff, like a business manager and curriculum director. We looked for financial advantages, but we didn’t find any. We also didn’t see any from an administrative or curriculum standpoint. The person is just spread too thin.”
District 95 has neither a business manager nor a curriculum director.
The district’s current superintendent, Douglas Rudig is leaving the district at the end of the 2005-06 school year to become superintendent at Elmwood Park Unit District 401. He announced his resignation last October citing “personal and professional reasons.”
According to taxpayer watchdog group The Champion, which tracks teacher and school administrator salaries, Rudig’s salary in 2005 was $157,876.
Hurlburt has been principal at S.E. Gross Middle School since 2001, after spending two years as assistant principal at Park Junior High in LaGrange Park. He is currently working toward his Ph.D. at Aurora University and currently holds a superintendent’s certificate.
