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Illinois School Board Journal
November/December 2004

Newest ISBE leaders start out 'up to speed'

by Linda Dawson

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

Calling this a "watershed" for education in Illinois, Randy Dunn leapt into his position as interim State Superintendent of Schools by hosting the Annual Superintendents' Conference in Springfield, where he outlined four focus areas for the newly restructured State Board of Education.

"I have a good feeling about the talent and expertise of this new board," Dunn told superintendents and educational leaders on September 21. "We don't have to bring these people up to speed about educating kids. This is the first opportunity in a long time for a unified leadership team ... an opportunity to do some things better."

Those "things" include dealing with a certification backlog of 7,000 applications that go as far back as July 2003, Dunn said. Making the certification process simpler and more efficient is the first focus for the new leadership team, which includes Dunn, seven new members of the state board, new senior staff members and Governor Rod Blagojevich, who is exerting a firmer control on the agency that regulates the state's public education system.

Other focus areas include changing the culture of the board to reflect a clearer focus for education in Illinois; saving schools money through new purchasing programs; and switching from a "reactive" mode to being "innovative leaders."

Appearing most of the time at the head table by himself, Dunn set a determined but relaxed tone for the agency's new direction by repeatedly asking the superintendents to "call me Randy," instead of "Dr. Dunn." A former teacher and public school superintendent, Dunn is taking a leave of absence from his position as chairman of the Department of Educational Administration and Higher Education at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale to lead the state agency.

He assumed the reins at ISBE just a day before the annual conference, the same day seven new board members were sworn in and State Superintendent Robert Schiller faxed in a request for a leave of absence.

Under legislation signed in mid-September, Blagojevich was granted the power to replace seven of the state board's nine members. His new appointees are:

Jesse Ruiz of Chicago, chairman; Andrea Brown of Goreville; David Fields of Danville; Ed Geppert of Belleville; Vinni Hall of Chicago; Brenda Holmes of Springfield; and Chris Ward of Lockport. The two remaining incumbents are Dean Clark of Glen Ellyn and Joyce Karon of Barrington.

Among those named to new positions at ISBE are:

Mark Kolaz, assistant superintendent for operations
Jonathan Furr, general counsel
Eamon Kelly, interim chief of staff
Don Evans, division administrator, human resources
Linda Jamali, head of teacher certification
Nicole Wills, Kelly's assistant
Jennifer Saba, Dunn's assistant

What to expect

With the changes, both in the board and staff, the Journal posed questions for Dunn to give school board members and administrators an idea of what to expect. (The Journal plans to profile the new state board members in subsequent issues.)

What changes do you envision for the agency both initially and long term?

When I accepted this position as interim superintendent, the governor laid out four major charges for the agency: create a culture of collaboration, clear up the teacher certification backlog, save local school districts money, and develop innovative strategies for addressing problems schools have faced for years. Of the four, I really think that the first and last will have the greatest bearing on how the agency itself operates.

Creating a culture of collaboration means shedding the stigma of a state bureaucracy and, in turn, moving our efforts toward service and support of districts, schools and children. Internally that means we are going to really focus our efforts on constituent service, whether that means adding voice mail, reducing response time on constituent calls, or updating the Web page to make it more user-friendly.

It's also going to mean that all of our employees will have to adopt the mentality that we are a team. Because most of the tough issues we deal with in education transcend artificial divisions or organizational "silos," state board staff members need to understand that we're all in the same boat when it comes to helping people find solutions to their problems.

Developing innovative strategies to solve long-standing education problems is something I hope will spark a little bit of creative genius in all of the people working here at the agency. Again, as a state agency charged with the administration of state and federal education law, the Illinois State Board of Education has seldom considered policy development a major job duty. I hope we are going to see more innovative thinking coming out of the agency in the next several months and years. We have always had the expertise and the resources at state board, but we have not always had the leadership consistently encouraging employees to adopt the mindset.

In the long run, I think we can expect to see the agency build upon its initial successes with the two charges I just outlined. I also think we can expect to see greater and greater accountability as we see the governor's office and the state board adjust to a more direct working relationship with one another.

What in your background do you see as the major strength that you bring to this position?

More than the number of years I have been involved in education, I think it will be the variety of my educational experiences that will most prepare me for this type of position. From my start in education as a fourth-grade teacher, I know how important it is that we clear up the teacher certification backlog and help promising college graduates who want to teach get in the classroom. I also understand how critical good mentoring and induction can be for new teachers getting their feet wet in this profession.

Certainly my years as a principal and district superintendent help me understand the challenges of administering education programs, particularly when new rules and regulations are continually applied to local districts. And I know how challenging this is in the political environment in which many of our local school boards and superintendents function.

Much of the work I will be doing as state superintendent will mirror the work I did as a district superintendent, though on a much larger scale. I also think my decade of service in higher education at SIUC can be of help in figuring out where the "levers" are for improving K-12 education. But probably the most important characteristics for any state superintendent - if not everyone in general - have to do with the ability to communicate, build trust, and show some consistency and dependability.

How do you interpret the position of "interim?" Is it the position to keep things going or really begin on a new course of action?

I think interim can mean both, depending on the context in which it is being used. In this case, there is a clear expectation by the governor, lawmakers and the people of Illinois that we are going to take Illinois education in a new direction. I think appointing a new superintendent and new board members, as well as making a number of personnel changes in the leadership of the agency, were all necessary measures to help jump-start the kind of reform called for by Senate Bill 3000. So while I plan to serve until the governor and board select a permanent superintendent, I won't just be place-holding. Rather, the new course of action is already underway and the permanent person will come in to build on the work we do in the interim.

Please expound a little on the makeup of the "leadership team" and how this will affect the agency.

As just indicated, I think the agency needed a new leadership team to help jump-start the kinds of changes called for in SB3000. Working with the governor's office, we looked for the best people in state government so we could hit the ground running and really turn the agency around.

Mark Kolaz has extensive experience working with the legislature and also served as deputy director at Agriculture. He joined my staff to oversee operations, and I've begun calling him "The Fixer" because of his unique ability to understand and resolve difficult organizational problems.

Jonathan Furr was formerly the chief legal counsel for the Department of Natural Resources and private government law practice; he will be the general counsel here at the state board.

Don Evans, a former schoolteacher, joins us from Northwestern; he will serve as the new division administrator for human resources, also filling an agency vacancy.

This is a great group of individuals with extensive and varied experiences in state government. Their expertise will be invaluable during this critical time of transition.

With regard to the latter question, I am confident there will not be any "us versus them" mentality here between management and staff. I know what a challenge it must have been for staffers at the agency to adjust to some pretty major changes over a relatively short period of time. I can confidently say that so far everyone has really risen to that challenge. My meetings with division administrators and state board staff have been very productive, and surprisingly many have reported that this is the first time they can recollect being called to the table with management. Those efforts have to continue.

Please describe what you see as the biggest challenges for the board and for education in Illinois on the whole and how you hope these challenges can be addressed.

Certainly addressing the teacher certification backlog will be an enormous endeavor. In the short term, it's going to require long hours and lots of energy from our staff. They've put that in and will continue to do so. In the long run I think we are going to have to take a long, hard look at certification requirements in the state. They need to be streamlined (without letting go of quality-control and accountability measures) so that we can attract, rather than discourage, promising college students who want to be in the classroom.

Our responsibility to interpret No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law and creatively assist districts in that process, while still ensuring that federal dollars are not put at risk, is another major challenge for the agency. Many of the provisions of NCLB disproportionately impact Chicago Public Schools and other large districts because of their size, poverty counts and subgroup counts. Working collaboratively and creatively to address CPS specific issues overall will also be a major challenge for us.

Of course, broad policy questions about funding and state financial support will continue to be examined, and those concerns aren't going to disappear.

I reiterate that I think the changes that have taken place to the governance model for education in Illinois are good ones - and ones that finally get all of the education "players" pulling in the same direction. It's worth our collective effort, I think, to give it a good try and make it work for us (and our kids) throughout the state.