Roosevelt Middle School’s new principal said she has been preparing for more than 10 years to step into a principal role, and at River Forest, she has found a passionate, student-focused community she is excited to lead.
With 28 years of experience in the education field under her belt, Tina Steketee was an ideal candidate to fill the shoes of current principal, Larry Garstki, who will be retiring at the end of the 2023-24 school year.
After graduating from college with an undergraduate degree in English, Steketee took a job at Windy City Sports Magazine, which brought her to the Chicagoland area.
For Steketee, her time with Windy City Sports Magazine helped her get involved with different communities across Chicago, which eventually led to her wanting to work with young people and to pursue a different career.
Steketee enrolled in DePaul University in Chicago under the Urban School Leadership program to pursue a master’s degree in teaching. Through that program, which works to recruit and train teachers to teach at Chicago Public Schools, Steketee made connections and began her education career working with CPS, landing her first job at Robert Nathaniel Dett Elementary School, located on the West side of Chicago.
“I was working with a population of students that was 100% low-income and African American, that was my fundamental foundation in education and my big takeaway in that experience is that what really matters is teaching and learning and not resources,” Steketee said. “When you work in a school that doesn’t have a lot of resources you become pretty creative on how you are going to meet the needs of students.”
During her time at CPS, Steketee flourished and began to be involved through mentoring new teachers and participation in the Leadership Academy and Urban Network Chicago program, which helped support and develop aspiring principals for CPS, in partnership with Northwestern University.
LAUNCH, a pivotal move for her, helped Steketee’s passion for pursuing a career as principal continue to grow. Through the Chicago Principal Association, Steketee did a half-year internship at Walter Payton College Preparatory High School and at Oscar Mayer Magnet School.
“I wanted to work more on that systems level, that building level principal level, where you have the impact to work with teachers, families, and students, and building that capacity,” Steketee said. “It was very much in part because I participated in the LAUNCH program.”
In 2007, Steketee saw a posting for an assistant principal at Roosevelt Middle School at D90.
When speaking about the position with Garstki, the two bonded over their connection to CPS and the LAUNCH program.
“It was a pretty unique connection because at the time there were only about 200 of us,” Steketee. “It was really such a great fit, to work with someone who had a similar training background and philosophy. That build the bridge over here in River Forest.”
Steketee said it was rare — and very special — to have the leadership alignment she and Garstki have.
After coming to Roosevelt, Steketee said she fell in love with the students and loves working with middle-school children.
“It is such a wonderful time, developmentally, in a child’s life,” Steketee said. “I keep coming back because every day is different when you work in a middle school.”
Stephanie Rath, director of communications and community relations at D90, Steketee has brought “thoughtfulness, care, and organization” to D90.
“She fosters excellence, champions excellent instruction, and does it all with great humility,” Rath said.
Looking forward to starting her new position, Steketee said she looks forward to continuing to partner with Roosevelt students, families and the D90 Board of Education.
“Continuing the work, being more focused around the work, it is really related to student growth and achievement,” Steketee said. “We also have a real lens of building capacity for teachers, so that development of staff is important.”
On a personal level, Steketee said she hopes to do more around the student’s well-being and their social emotional learning.
As she prepares for July, Steketee said she wants to have a clear vision of D90’s strategic goals, their vision, and the mission to inspire, empower, and achieve.
