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Illinois School Board Journal
May/June 2007

Linda Dawson is IASB director of editorial services and Journal editor.

In the nearly 38 years since Jerry Glaub took a job with the Illinois Association of School Boards, he's worked with a lot of words and a lot of issues important to school boards.

As one of the Association's longest-serving employees, he's worked with innumerable school administrators as well as school board members from all walks of life. His work: help them solve problems through better understanding of educational issues, finances and the workings of a board.

On May 1, 2007, Glaub officially traded his IASB hat for his favorite fishing hat. After 37 years and six months, he decided to retire … almost.

Michael D. Johnson, IASB executive director, announced Glaub's impending retirement and the hiring of John Lyday as his successor to the Board of Directors and Division officers in early March. Johnson said the Association could feel fortunate because a long-time employee will still be around "for the foreseeable future" as he tackles some special writing projects.

"Jerry provides the history of the organization," Johnson said. "We wanted to maintain that link."

Lyday, who began working in mid-March, has assumed the title of Associate Executive Director, a title Glaub held from the late 1980s until he was named Deputy Executive Director in mid-1996.

Lyday has been a professional communicator for 30 years, directing communications for two Illinois school districts (School District U-46 in Elgin and Township High School District 214 in Arlington Heights) for nearly 20 years and creating the initial public relations plan for Tribune Education, Tribune Company's former educational publishing division.

An accredited public relations professional, Lyday was elected to the College of Fellows of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), a distinction held by just 2 percent of that association's 20,000 members.

While pleased that the Association could hire someone with Lyday's credentials, Johnson said he is also pleased that Glaub will maintain a connection to IASB.

"We owe Jerry a tremendous debt of gratitude for his many contributions to the Association over the years," Johnson said. "Every time a job needed to be done, he took it on, whether it was something that he liked to do or not."

For a time, Glaub had also directed the field services and policy departments in addition to communications. With the hiring of John Mannix in 2002, field services eventually was split off, as was policy services under the direction of now-Associate Executive Director Cathy Talbert.

"For everything that he had given to us, I wanted to let him to go back to doing what he really liked to do," Johnson said.

That love is communications — writing, editing and publishing.

When Glaub joined IASB on November 1, 1969, his title was Director of Publications and Public Relations, a newly created position that combined editing of The Illinois School Board Journal and other Association publications with a new focus on public relations. He had previously written for the Champaign-Urbana Courier before he graduated from the University of Illinois and accepted a job in the alumni office at the university's Medical Center Campus in Chicago.

One of the biggest challenges Glaub said he encountered while at the Association is "trying to devise communications that serve the highly diverse needs of school board members in Illinois."

"Another challenge," he said, "has been selling the notion that — regardless of how many requirements are handed down by state and federal governments — school boards have a powerful impact on the educational environment in their communities and that school board members need to be sure that impact is positive."

High turnover rates on school boards present an additional challenge. "Someone has said that communicating with school board members is like talking to a parade," he added, "and it truly is."

But even though the job has come with its challenges, it also brought with it plenty of rewards, the biggest of which has been the work environment.

"With rare exceptions, the board members, administrators and association staff that you work with at IASB are humane and professional and support the pursuit of common goals for better education," Glaub said. "I also have found that school board members and superintendents always appreciate whatever you do to help them. Those things create job satisfaction … and that is what I will miss the most."

Glaub also feels the Association has gone through a number of turning points, especially in its recent history. The advent of computers has increased staff productivity, he said, and the creation of the Illinois Statewide School Management Alliance has made IASB part of a truly credible voice in state government.

"Still another (turning point) was the evolution of the governance principles," he added, "which gives our staff a solid basis for talking to school boards about their responsibilities."

Lyday's involvement with IASB actually dates back to the mid-1980s when he served as President of the Illinois Chapter of the National School Public Relations Association. He has spoken at the Joint Annual Conference on numerous occasions and has provided communications training at various divisional, state and national meetings.

"I have known Jerry for years and understand that following in his footsteps is a tall order," Lyday said. "I trust that my passion for public education and my fervent belief that communications can play a key role in helping an organization reach its goals will serve Association members and staff well."

Having been an outsider looking in at IASB for a long time, Lyday knows it will be interesting to learn about the Association from the inside out.

"I have been warmly welcomed," he said, "and look forward to working with the staff and the leadership of the Association to advance the mission of excellence in local school governance and support of public education."

While he has no immediate plans to change the way the Communications Department operates, he looks forward to enhancing how IASB communicates electronically while simultaneously maintaining and improving traditional forms of communication.

"While there will always be a place for print communications," Lyday said, "many people today prefer to get information electronically via e-mail and the Internet."

Electronic communications also will allow Lyday to split his time between IASB's Springfield and Lombard offices.

He and his wife, Judy, have been married for nearly 32 years and have two daughters: Cassie, who is a junior at Northern Illinois University with plans to be a meteorologist; and Emily, who loves music and computers but is still deciding how to channel her post-high school education. Judy works at the public library in Elgin and her entire family lives in the Chicago area, Lyday said, while his family lives in suburban Dallas.

"My wife and I met while I was riding on a donkey during a charity basketball game when I was just starting a career in radio many years ago," Lyday shared, when asked to identify something few people would know about him. "I will let Journal readers construct their own jokes and straight-lines based on this valuable information!"