The two finalists for the superintendent job at Oak Park Elementary School District 97 both appeared in a Zoom townhall on Jan. 29 during which they answered identical questions from Carmen Ayala, former Illinois Superintendent of Schools, who is leading District 97’s superintendent search. The vacancy opened when then superintendent Ushma Shah suddenly and unexpectedly resigned in August the week before school began.
The two finalists are Terri Bresnahan, who is currently the superintendent of Community Consolidated School District 54 which serves the southern portion of Arlington Heights, and portions of Elk Grove, Mount Prospect and De Plaines, and Angela Dolezal, who is currently the Director of Teaching and Learning for Riverside Elementary School District 96.
The two finalists went through a second and final interview on Feb. 2 with the candidates meeting with D97 school board and also a group of parents and district staff. A hiring may be announced as early as next week’s school board meeting.
The 10 questions Ayala asked both finalists were drawn from a community survey which indicated which traits or skills were most desired in a new superintendent. Those watching the Zoom town hall were not allowed to ask or submit questions but were asked to fill out a survey about both finalists rating their answers. The survey data will be reviewed by the school board members who will use it as one factor in their decision-making process.
“We’re not having you engage with the participants because it is important that we make sure that the same questions are asked to each of the candidates,” Ayala said. “When we have an openness we run the risk or the potential of the perception that one candidate may have been favored over another or that the questions were not fair to one candidate or another so that we really want to make sure that this is a very fair, a very open process not only for the district but for the candidates.”
Dolezal went first and answered questions for approximately 45 minutes. She seemed relaxed and comfortable and first offered up a brief biography. After brief teaching stints in Virgina and her native Nebraska Dolezal taught for two years at Holmes School in Oak Park and then was the principal at Longfellow School at Highland and Jackson for 13 years before starting her current job in Riverside in 2019.
Dolezal noted that she tended to stay in positions for a significant amount of time.
“I’m very intentional about my moves,” Dolezal said. “I worked in one school before I moved to Nebraska for personal reasons and then worked in one district in an elementary and a middle school before I moved again for family reasons and then stayed in Oak Park until I left for a different position so I’m very intentional about my decisions.”
Dolezal, who is a former resident of Oak Park, said although she enjoys her current job and wasn’t really looking for another job she was motivated to apply for the District 97 post because of her experience in the district saying that she enjoyed her time working in District 97.
“I gave it a lot of thought and realized I did want to come back to Oak Park,” Dolezal said. “When I was in Oak Park as a principal I really enjoyed my time there, really enjoyed my colleagues there.”
If hired as superintendent Dolezal said that she would continue the work that has been done to align instruction across all the schools in District 97 making it more of a school system than a system of schools.
“I feel that there are things that are somewhat aligned and then I feel that there are things that I feel need to be more aligned,” Dolezal said.
While working in Riverside Dolezal said that she kept her eye on what was happening in District 97.
“I’ve been gone but seven years,” Dolezal said. “Right now I’ve been on the outside looking in and I have been watching and I have been following and am still very well connected to Oak Park. My son plays travel soccer with an Oak Park travel team.”
She also noted that her husband is the president of the board of directors of the Oak Park River Forest Day Nursery.
Both finalists were asked how they define equity.
“Equity is, for me, about being inclusive in access and in outcome, ensuring that there is coherence for everybody,” Dolezal said. “A family or parent should not have to have a certain capital to know how to gain access to certain programming, whether it’s something like advanced learning or an Encore class.”
Dolezal said that academic performance should not be predictable based on race, socio-economic status or other factors.
“Everybody is receiving that same education so everybody should have that opportunity to perform at the same level,” Dolezal said.
Bresnahan, who answered her questions in approximately 35 minutes, said that her definition of equity is broad. She emphasized the need to involve all members of the community in decision making.
“Equity is not an initiative, it’s not something we check off a list, and say oh we’ve achieved equity, equity is really a value and a mindset in how we approach every aspect of our organization and decision making,” Bresnahan said. “It’s a lens that we have to start seeing through.”
Bresnahan, who is in her 11th year as a superintendent, including seven years in Berkeley School District 87, was able to call upon her experience as a superintendent in some of her answers.
“The opportunity to hone my communication skills has really been a core part of my experience of being a superintendent and really going back to my technology days as well,” Bresnahan said.
Bresnahan emphasized the need for open and transparent communication to the extent possible.
“Communication isn’t just about pushing out information, but it’s about seeking that feedback so that we can ask ourselves, did it resonate with the audience, did it meet the needs of our varied audience, were there barriers to understanding the messages that were given, do we have the information that we need collectively in order to build decisions to meet the needs of the district,” Bresnahan said.
Bresnahan said that she would have high expectations for students, teachers, administrators and the community. While she said that data is important she also believes education involves more than training students to be good test takers.
“When I look at Oak Park’s ‘portrait of a graduate,’ I’m not seeing on there that we want high test taking as a measure of success for our graduates,” Bresnahan said. “What we’re looking at is students who are going to come out of our district as change agents and dreamers and innovators and people who are contributing back and I think that the data that we have helps us know if we’re on track to do that but the data is informative, it’s not the end result, it’s not the goal. The data is the tool that informs the process along the way.”
Dolezal said that she enjoys delving into data to gain insights.
“Data is what really drives me also because what gets measured is what gets valued,” Dolezal said. “I love a good spreadsheet.”
