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Illinois School Board Journal
September-October 2000

Meet your new executive director

by James Russell

James Russell is IASB director of publications.

Editor’s Note: Michael D. Johnson is the new Executive Director of the Illinois Association of School Boards. He assumed his duties September 1 from Wayne Sampson, who retired after 11 years in the position.

Johnson, who holds a doctorate in school administration from Illinois State University, is the first superintendent to hold the executive director’s position since the IASB was formed in 1913. The Bushnell, Illinois, native taught for three years before moving into administrative work. Meet the man who now leads your Association.

Mike Johnson followed a path to education that was forged by his parents, Darrel and Shirley Johnson. Their professional careers began in mid-life; his father worked for Outboard Marine and never finished high school. In his late 30s, he received his high school diploma through the Navy and in 1959 enrolled at Western Illinois University as an agriculture education major. He eventually switched to math and physics. Johnson’s mother, on the other hand, was high school class valedictorian, but was still of the era when women didn’t pursue their educations.

Darrel and Shirley Johnson both became teachers. Darrel Johnson taught in Bardolph, near Macomb, and later at Bushnell Junior High for 18 years. Shirley Johnson taught 20 years in Bushnell Grade School. They are retired—they believe 20 years is long enough for anyone to be in a classroom. Does Mike Johnson believe in this philosophy? "Teaching is not necessarily tied to number of years or age," he said, but there are some "who go too long and who should have left sooner. The sad part is, they should leave on top and when they can say they enjoyed it. But some stay until they have a problem, slip a bit, and leave with a bad experience or when their health fails. Nothing is sadder than if they can’t do what they planned to do when they retired."

Nonetheless, the opportunity to build such a legacy is a driving force behind this family’s career choices. Johnson relates a story his dad told about a worker at the outboard motor factory. This worker retired, received his gold watch and the next day his desk was replaced with a microfiche machine. "My dad came home that day and said he realized that nobody will ever know that man existed. He told me we ought to leave some type of legacy."

Teaching is a way you can do that; by training the next generation, you have a chance to make a difference, the elder Johnson told his son. The decision gave the entire family a different perspective and an appreciation for the dedication that teaching required.

"Before that," Johnson said, "my parents owned a large house, two new cars and rental property. By the time they graduated, we had one old car, no property, and they were two years salary in debt. But they still believed it was worthwhile."

Johnson also became familiar with the people his parents worked with and saw firsthand how they interacted with students and staff. Today, he notes that former students are always remembering them; some dedicate a book to them; others invite them to their weddings. "The important thing is that they’re remembered," Johnson said.

Thoughts of a school administrative career began in 1973, when Johnson was a first-year teacher at Quincy High School, one of the early "Lighthouse Schools." "They had just gotten a ton of federal money," he recalled, and opened their concept of five schools within a school. Johnson worked with independent studies students and eventually switched to behavioral disorder students. It was a tough transition; some students would be brought to class in handcuffs or even straight jackets. Nearly all of them were considered to be students who would not make it. Johnson said, however, they were able to "save" half, or four of the eight students. Of the one group, two died, and two others were locked up. But the other students eventually became productive, working graduates.

This experience required Johnson to develop close relations with administrators, law enforcement officials and judges, and that’s when he determined that "as long as I’m going to be doing this kind of thing, I might as well be running the school."

He returned to WIU to finish his master’s degree in 1974 and got his first principalship in 1977 at Scott-Morgan C.U. District 2 in Bluffs, a rural district outside of Jacksonville. One week before the start of his second year, a colleague called him about an opening at Southern C.U. District 120, in Stronghurst, near Galesburg. There the superintendent, Chester Knight, said he planned to retire in three years and offered to train Johnson to take over his spot. So Johnson went back to WIU to get his superintendent’s endorsement. That relationship continued over the next five years. When Knight signed a three-year contract to continue as superintendent, Johnson went looking again.

In 1981, at age 29, he was hired for his first superintendent’s job in Toluca C.U. District 2. "This was a good experience for me," he said. "It gave me chance to try a lot of things," which included joint superintendent’s duties when Wenona C.U. District 1 was added. The two small rural Marshall County districts continued to share programs and Johnson got to see firsthand what worked and what didn’t. But he also saw that consolidation was inevitable. Eventually the two districts joined a third, Minonk-Dana-Rutland C.U.District 108 in 1991. "I told them I didn’t want to stay but I would help get it on the ballot and get it in a position to pass, and then I’d move on."

It did, and so did he.

About that time, Johnson was making the rounds at division dinners to discuss his experience with joint district duties when he met June Sorrick, board president at Evergreen Park CH District 231 and treasurer of the Illinois Association of School Boards. When she encouraged him to apply for the vacant superintendent’s job there, Johnson jumped at the chance to move to the south suburbs of Chicago where he discovered that "in many ways they are like any other district and in other ways worlds apart."

"It really pounded home to me the inequities that exist in Illinois. Toluca did a lot with what they had, but it was a lot of smoke and mirrors, financially, compared to the suburbs where they could buy anything they wanted. And did."

As a youngster, Mike was also active in high school extracurricular activities. He was in every musical, and played saxophone, clarinet, piano and some banjo. Another interest developed during his school years was roping and ranch-hand work.

His mother’s cousin had a 10,000-acre ranch in South Dakota where they raised 4,000 head of cattle. Mike spent two summers there and worked 10 to 12 hour days as a ranch hand. He also worked as a counselor for troubled youth who were brought in to help work.

For recreation, they enjoyed "jackpot roping," an event held every Saturday night at nearby arenas. The stakes were not that high; everybody put in $10. But the jackpots could reach up to $500. Johnson, whose specialty as a "heeler" would be to rope the steer on its hind legs, said the roping sport was fun, but added, "I wasn’t very good. I lost much more than I made."

Although Johnson has never owned horses, he has continued to keep his roping skills sharp by offering demonstrations to youth groups or by recreational riding.

His immediate family includes his wife, Kim (McCullough), who grew up in Macomb and Industry, Illinois. A registered nurse, she has worked at hospitals in Beardstown, Monmouth, Streator and Evergreen Park, and at a private practice. The couple have three children: Jason, 21, a senior at University of Illinois; and Jacob and Jennifer, both 15, who will be freshmen at Southeast High School in Springfield.