In the fall of 1995 Mike Sorensen walked into Brook Park Elementary School as a fresh-faced student-teacher for gym. On July 1 he will return to the LaGrange Park as its principal.
Last Thursday the Brookfield-LaGrange Park School District 95 board unanimously voted to name the 34-year-old Sorensen the principal at Brook Park. Sorensen will replace Claudia Newman, who is retiring at the end of the year.
Sorensen has spent his entire career in District 95. Soon after finishing his student-teaching, he was hired at Brook Park to replace fill in for a teacher on maternity leave. When that teacher did not return after her leave Sorensen stayed on to replace her. After spending over six years at Brook Park Sorensen moved to S.E. Gross Middle School when he was hired to be assistant principal in addition to teaching two gym classes a day.
Now Sorensen is excited to return to the place he got his start.
“Brook Park really never left me,” said Sorensen. “I’ve always been an advocate for Brook Park. I love the chance to go back.”
Sorensen is young for a principal. But his youth fits right in at District 95 where Superintendent Thomas Hurlburt is only 40 and S.E. Gross principal Todd Fitzgerald is 34.
Sorensen said he doesn’t thing it will be very difficult to be in a supervisory role over teachers who know him from his own teaching days, even if some of those teachers are more experienced than he is.
“I think people know what I’m all about,” said Sorensen. “They really understand that I’m really team-orientated. I think if I would have come from a teacher in the building to an administrator that would have been more difficult.”
When he began teaching at Brook Park becoming a principal was not on Sorensen’s mind. But former Brook Park Principal Sharon Garcia saw leadership potential in Sorensen and encouraged him to pursue administration.
So Sorensen earned his master’s degree in educational leadership from Aurora University and got hired as assistant principal at Gross. He said that he became excited by seeing the impact he could have as a school leader.
“I saw it as a way to help even more students, and not only to help students but to help teachers,” said Sorensen.
Sorensen’s familiarity with the district and the district’s familiarity with him gave the school board a high degree of comfort with their decision said District 95 school board President James Landahl.
“We knew what we were getting,” said Landahl. “He’s a known commodity. We feel very fortunate that we are able to promote from within.”
Sorensen will have a full plate right from the start. This year, work will begin on an addition that will bring several new classrooms and a large multipurpose room to Brook Park. When the addition is completed, fifth grade will return to Brook Park for the first time since 1983. The district is also considering beginning a full-day kindergarten option when the addition is completed.
Sorensen is known for his collegial attitude and focus on students.
“He’s always focused on the students, what is best for students,” said Hurlburt who was the principal at S.E. Gross when Sorensen was hired to assist him. “That was true for him as a teacher and also as an administrator. He’s always made it a priority to be out in the classrooms, to be out in the building, to still maintain those connections with the staff and the students.”
Sorensen will be paid $76,000 a year in his new position.
The choice of Sorensen culminated a process in which six applicants were interviewed for the job. Three were invited back for a second round of half-day interviews at Brook Park and finally two names were submitted to the board. The final three candidates included one candidate from outside the district, Sorensen, and another internal candidate.
Sorensen grew up in Lyons, attending Lincoln School in Brookfield and Nazareth Academy in LaGrange Park. He received his bachelor’s degree from Elmhurst College.