Hinsdale South Leadership Rated Highly

DARIEN, IL – A spring survey of teachers showed they have confidence in Hinsdale South High School's leadership, with Kari Peronto as principal

Peronto, a former South assistant principal, just finished her first year at the helm. Also hired last year were the school's two assistant principals and the director of deans.

In the spring, Hinsdale High School District 86 surveyed teachers through Boston-based vendor Panorama Education.

According to the survey, 62 percent of teachers rated South's leadership positively on effectiveness, up from 28 percent a year earlier.

Meanwhile, 79 percent responded that staff-leadership relations were positive, up from 41 percent.

The survey showed similarly high ratings from school employees outside the faculty.

Last July, Peronto took over from Patrick Hardy, who was principal for two years.

"You knocked it out of the park," school board member Liz Mitha told Peronto at a board meeting last week. "That is an incredible accomplishment for a first-year principal... That is often something that takes a long time for a principal to change a building culture to make it positive and build those relationships."

Member Jeff Waters said a couple of residents brought up the survey results to him.

"There's tremendous growth since you've been here," Waters said.

Peronto has spent her entire educational career at South, starting as a special education teacher in 2004.

"I appreciate the feedback, but it's also the entire team," Peronto said at the meeting. "This is my first year as principal, but this is also the first year of the entire leadership team really."

The spring survey showed that 46 percent of Hinsdale Central's teachers rated the leadership's effectiveness positively. And 62 percent gave positive marks for staff-leadership relations. The ratings were unchanged from a year earlier.