Greg Johnson, the superintendent at OPRF, is getting a new four-year contract that is anticipated to keep Johnson at the helm at the school until he retires on June 30, 2030. At its June 11 special meeting the school board unanimously approved a new contract for the 51-year-old Johnson subject to an amendment to clean up some language regarding the district’s payments of Johnson’s pension contributions.
Johnson’s current contract was not scheduled to expire until next year but school boards that want to keep their superintendent often don’t let the superintendent enter the final year of their contract without an extension in place or a new contract.
“If the board is pleased with the performance of the superintendent it’s very common practice to renew the contract before that last year starts and we are pleased with Greg’s performance so that led us to renew his contract,” said Audrey Williams-Lee, OPRF school board president, in a telephone interview.
Williams-Lee said the school board wanted to make sure that Johnson stayed at OPRF.
“He’s a good superintendent,” Williams-Lee said. “I think he does a really good job with the school and the community so we’re pleased to keep him at OPRF.”
Johnson told Wednesday Journal that his salary will be $294,580 next year up from the $286,000 annual salary he is making this year, an approximate 3% raise.
OPRF has not yet released a copy of the new contract to Wednesday Journal because the changes have not been made and the contract has not been signed yet. Since the contract is intended to be a retirement contract it is expected that Johnson will receive 6% annual raises, the maximum that a district can offer an administrator without incurring a penalty payment from the Illinois Teacher Retirement System. Those hikes in the final years of the contract are a common method of maximizing a retiring educator’s pension. Pension payments are based on the average of an educator’s highest four annual salaries. Johnson confirmed to Wednesday Journal that he plans to retire when his new contract expires in 2030.
“I do anticipate that at the conclusion of this contract I will retire,” Johnson said.
Johnson, who grew up in Elmhurst, is completing his fifth year as the superintendent at OPRF. He came to OPRF in 2017 as the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction after serving as the principal of Champaign Centennial High School. After two years as an assistant superintendent Johnson was promoted to associate superintendent before succeeding Joylynn Pruitt-Adams as superintendent in 2021.
School board member Fred Arkin, who is the only current school board member to have served with a superintendent other than Johnson, said that Johnson has been a good superintendent.
“I think he’s handled himself well,” Arkin told Wednesday Journal. “I’m very impressed with his willingness and ability to communicate with the community. I think he has developed into a very strong superintendent and I think he excels in many areas.”
Johnson said that he is eager to continue his work at OPRF.
“I’m excited to have a new contract and eager to continue the work that we have been engaged in for the last few years and this is always an exciting and, honestly, a fun and rewarding community to work in,” Johnson said. “It’s been a fascinating and interesting nine years that I’ve had so far here and I really look forward to continuing a lot the good work that we’ve done.”
Johnson said he plans to continue work to close the achievement gap, the gap in the academic performance between white and Asian students and Black and Hispanic students. Four years ago, under Johnson’s leadership OPRF initiated an Honors for All freshman curriculum in which most freshmen take Honors classes in core subjects other than math in an attempt to boost the number of Black students taking Honors and Advanced Placement classes. Results have been mixed thus far with a somewhat higher percentage of Black students taking Honors and AP classes but, according to the Illinois School Report a vast achievement gap remaining between the performance of Black and white students on state mandated standardized tests. In the most recent school report card the gap stood at 43.7 points, the difference in the percentage of students meeting proficiency standards, in English Language Arts and 57.5 points in math.
“We need to continue to work to close that achievement gap and we see some progress there but we still have a lot of work to do,” Johnson said. “That will continue to be a focus of ours for sure.”
Under Johnson’s leadership the physical appearance at OPRF has changed with the demolition and rebuilding of the southeast corner of the building to be completed this summer with a new swimming pool, new third floor gym and a host of other improvements. And now Johnson is leading the effort to get a plan approved to rebuild the southwest corner of the building to improve performing arts classrooms and practice spaces.
“We’ve done a lot of good work here and there’s been a lot of progress for the district from where we were nine years ago to where we are now and there’s a lot of work left to do,” Johnson said.