After 'Unimaginable' Years, District 113 Starts Search For Superintendent, HPHS Principal

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — The search has begun for a new superintendent of Township High School District 113 and a new principal for Highland Park High School.

On Monday, District 113 board members held a preliminary planning session behind closed doors with consultants from School Exec Connect, the recruiting firm hired by the board last week, as the board starts the process to identify successors to Superintendent Bruce Law and Principal Debby Finn.

In September, Finn announced her retirement after more than a quarter-century working at the district. After starting her teaching career as a math teacher at Deerfield High School, her alma mater, Finn became interim Highland Park High School principal in July 2018, before being hired on a full-time basis a year later.

"How lucky am I that I got to be at both schools?" Finn told board members in September. "I do feel incredibly lucky, I've had a really fortunate career and I learned a lot and I have a lot of kids who've taught me a lot, and a lot of faculty members who've raised me in this district, and it means a lot and I very much appreciate it. In spite of all the challenges recently, there's so much joy at Highland Park High School."

District 113 Board President Dan Struck said Finn took over as HPHS principal during an especially "trying" time.

Months before Finn's appointment, the board negotiated a $300,000 payout to former superintendent Chris Dignam in order to get him out the door. A federal civil suit against the district and Finn filed by former HPHS assistant principal Amy Burnetti describes some of the turmoil in the district from the 2017 resignations of the HPHS principal and two assistant principals to Finn's appointment.

During the winter of Finn's first year as permanent principal, the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in Illinois let to the shuttering of schools. Then, the summer after her third year in charge, the school served as a family assistance center for victims and survivors of the bloodiest mass shooting in state history on July 4, 2022. A Highland Park High School dropout is awaiting trial on charges stemming from the massacre.

"She has served as principal during a series of years that are just completely unimaginable," Struck said. "Nobody could have predicted what has happened over the past four or five years, but Debby has always been there and been a voice of welcome and making the school a home under some incredibly hard circumstances."

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Law, who last month announced his own plans to retire from public education at the end of the 2022-23 school year, said Finn had made a tremendous contribution to the district when many others would not have been able to.

"Debby has been principal of Highland Park in some of its most challenging times, and she has led with care," Law told the board. She has led with incredible courage and resolve, always to do what's best to her students and her school."

At the board's Oct. 24 meeting, the board approved a plan to pay School Exec Connect $40,500 to conduct the candidate searches for a new superintendent and principal.

Kevin O'Mara, president of the search firm, told board members that broke down to $21,500 for the superintendent search, $14,500 for the principal search with the rest going to anticipated expenses.

"We would strongly recommend you do a through criminal, tort, social media, certification, licensure and university background check, and each one of those is $800, but that's our strong recommendation," O'Mara said.

O'Mara said 97 percent of candidates it identifies are offered a second contract by their respective board. He said the firm is committed to doing another search for free if the person the board hires leaves for any reason in the first two years, the same period of time the firm pledges not to recruit that person away.

Linda Yonke, a former superintendent of New Trier High School who became District 113 interim superintendent after Dignam was ousted, is now a consultant with School Exec Connect. She and O'Mara will represent the firm ahead of the hiring of new administrators.

"We'll talk to teachers, parents, students, administrators, the school board and do focus groups, community forums, and we'll have an online survey," Yonke said.

Yonke said the firm has already begun recruiting and expects to present a candidate profile by early next month and have a slate of six semifinalists to present to the board in January. She said a superintendent will be identified before the interviewing process for a new HPHS principal will begin.

"We do find that Illinois is a very attractive state in terms of education, nationwide, right now. We do get applicants from out of state, but we really find the majority of our applicants are from the Midwest area, and many from Illinois," she said. "We engage the community, we aggressively recruit, we don't just wait for people to apply, we go out and look for people, encourage people that might not have been thinking about or might not have known about this position. This is a very attractive position."

Ahead of the approval of the contract with the search firm last week, Struck said District 113 has the potential to be one of the best districts in the country.

"Our schools have a proud tradition, and we are committed to finding a leader who will build upon that tradition. We are fortunate to have the staff, the students, the resources and the community sufficient to make it among the highest-achieving high school districts in the nation for each and every one of its students," the board president said. "This board is committed to finding a superintendent who is passionate about District 113's unwavering commitment to providing all of its students with opportunities to realize their unique potential."

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