For a school district that, like all Oak Park taxing bodies, professes transparency, we are deep in the murk at the District 97 elementary schools.
So many peculiar aspects to the sudden resignation of Supt. Ushma Shah last Friday. It came less than one week before schools open for the year. This school board extended her contract by two years in May. There has been no announcement of a new job elsewhere for Shah.
And while there was a press release issued Friday that was touted as a shared announcement, declaring Shah to be a “visionary leader,” no one will say a word about what has transpired here.
The Journal has been working this story since Friday. Texts. Phone calls. Emails. We’ve reached out to Dr. Shah repeatedly. No response. We’ve reached out to the district’s PR person and are told the gushy press release is their only comment. We watched Monday’s special board meeting where Shah’s resignation was accepted without a peep from any elected official. We have filed a FOIA request asking for her letter of resignation. We’re told the district will reply within five business days. We have sent another FOIA asking for all records and communications related to her contract and her departure. We will see whatever comes back.
And we have contacted Cheree Moore, president of the school board, multiple times, asking for comment, only to be told she had no comment before the board met on Monday. Not surprisingly she had no comment after the board met on Monday. In fact, she texted our reporter, Gregg Voss, asking him to stop calling her and to direct all requests through her board email.
This is all unacceptable.
Moore is the top elected official in a school district in turmoil. Not talking is not the right answer.
Meanwhile here we are again.
On Monday evening the school board hired the tag team of Powell and Wernet, retired superintendents, who will share the interim superintendent title to stay within state regs on their pensions. If the names Griff Powell and Patricia Wernet are familiar, it is because they played the same roles in District 97 during the 2021-2022 school year when the district was last between superintendents.
To state the obvious, it is not a good thing when over a five-year period a school district has interims for two of those years.
Then there is the search process, which will be very time consuming for the school board over the next year, and then there is the ramp-up for any new superintendent to learn the ropes, make a plan, develop a vision, reorganize the senior staff and work to begin executing. And maybe that choice will be an excellent one. Or not.
This district’s track record on hiring superintendents is not a good one (and we were fans of Dr. Shah). Kelley. Collins. Roberts. Not stellar.
Our conclusion. It starts with candor toward the community.