Nineteen years later, Christine Gerges, then fresh out of the University of Illinois, still recalls her first day as a second-grade teacher at Willard School in River Forest.
She read a book called “First Day Jitters,” which examined the emotions her youngsters would face on their first day of school – excitement, nerves … will they have friends in class, and will their teacher like them?
But at the end of the book, it reveals that the teacher – a la Gerges – is feeling those emotions.
Fast-forward to now, and Gerges is the new Willard School principal. Sure, there might be some nerves that come with taking on a major challenge, but the bigger picture are the fine points of her new job.
“One thing that really resonates with me in terms of leadership, how do principals help motivate the organization, and their teachers specifically?” said Gerges, who was approved by the District 90 board as the school’s permanent principal at its Jan. 21 meeting.
“One of my main focuses is to collaborate with teachers – what are the things that face them every day, and celebrate their successes and the things they are seeing in classrooms where students are showing immense growth, and what are the areas we can support you to help ensure students can meet projected growth?”
Talk to Gerges for a while, in person, and you’ll get the sense through her speech and body language that one word resonates.
Team.
“The role of the principal is very vast, and there are a lot of demands placed on you every day,” she said. “How do we have conversations that come back to the central idea of students, and how do we improve and support their learning experience at Willard? I think that our team does a phenomenal job of putting our students first.
“My thought is we’re better together as a team.”
Gerges, who grew up in Northbrook, began this school year as Willard’s interim principal, and she recalls that first day with the clarity of “First Day Jitter” 19 years ago.
The key words there were being thoughtful and intentional, in the classroom and globally speaking. And that attention to detail has paid off so far.
All three schools in District 90 – Willard and Lincoln elementary schools, where Gerges had stints as assistant principal from 2019-24, and Roosevelt Middle School – received Exemplary designations in November in the annual Illinois School Report Cards. The report cards are reviews of student achievement data and other factors published annually by the Illinois State Board of Education.
District 90 was one of only two districts with three or more schools to achieve that honor.
So, things are going well. But why?
Once again, teamwork and attention to detail.
“Three times a year we do benchmark assessments, using universal screeners to look at how students are doing in reading and math,” she said, “and then we triangulate the information by looking at how students are performing in the classroom – if they are receiving additional services, how are they performing in those small groups, then looking at that test score. Taking that, we consider the whole child and make educational decisions to help that child.”
There’s plenty of excitement about Gerges’ promotion, from district leadership and colleagues alike.
“I am delighted that our school community will continue to benefit from the tremendous experience and passion that Christine brings to the leadership of Willard Elementary School,” said superintendent Dr. Ed Condon in a statement.
Added Willard third-grade teacher Kate Szostak, who taught with Gerges for several years: “She has always been incredibly student-centered and led our team to make decisions that were the best fit for kids. She also guided our team to create tools that helped to increase student ownership that still influence our work today.”