For the second consecutive year, Lyons School District 103 Superintendent Kristopher Rivera has received a contract extension.
On July 25, the District 103 school board voted 5-0 to extend Rivera’s contract two additional years so that it now runs through the end of the 2025-26 school year. Under a contract extension approved last year, Rivera’s contract would have expired at the end of the upcoming school year.
If a school board wants to keep a superintendent, they are generally loath to enter the final year of a superintendent’s contract without giving the superintendent an extension.
“I’m happy with it,” Rivera said after the July 25 school board meeting, which lasted for approximately seven minutes.
“I’m glad to continue in the district, continue the work we’re doing,” he added. “We’ve got some growth, hopefully, coming in the test scores. We’ve gone from, prior to me, having some struggling schools and now we’ve got two exemplary schools and four commendable and, hopefully, come this October we’re going to find out we have four exemplary.”
Edison and Home elementary schools, both located in Stickney, were rated as exemplary, the highest rating, on the most recent school report card issued by the Illinois State Board of Education. The district’s other four schools were all rated as commendable.
District 103 serves Lyons, Stickney, McCook, Forest View and the southeast quarter of Brookfield.
The school report focuses on student growth and progress. Students in District 103, 75% of whom are considered low income by the state, continue to lag state averages in absolute academic performance as measured by performance on state-mandated standardized tests.
In the district as a whole, only 18.6% of District 103 students met or exceeded state standards in English and language arts as measured in the spring of 2022 compared to 30.1 percent of students statewide.
In math only 12.1% of District 103 students met or exceeded state standards compared to 25.5% of students statewide.
Rivera is beginning his fourth full year at the helm in District 103 after being hired in 2019. His salary this year will be $176,130.
In the final two years of his contract, he will receive the same percentage raise as teachers, 4% for the 2024-25 fiscal year and 3.75% for the 2025-26 school year.
