Elmhurst Superintendent Takes New York Job

ELMHURST, IL — Dave Moyer, superintendent of Elmhurst School District 205, is taking an out-of-state job for the new school year, the school board president announced Thursday.

In a mass email, President Kara Caforio said Moyer recently made the board aware of his intentions to change jobs.

Moyer is becoming the superintendent of the Arlington Central School District, which is based near Poughkeepsie, N.Y., the Poughkeepsie Journal reported Thursday evening. The district is about the same size as District 205, which has more than 8,000 students.

Moyer has been Elmhurst's superintendent for the last six years.

Caforio said the board would begin a search for a new superintendent immediately. That process would involve a search firm and opportunities for public feedback, she said. An update, she said, would be provided at the board's Jan. 26 meeting, if not before.

"We are grateful for the dedication Dr. Moyer has exhibited these last six years to implement a vision of continuous growth and improvement for all our students and staff," Caforio said. "His educational vision will be missed."

Moyer plans to start his new job July 1, she said. The announcement of his departure comes while the district faces heavy pressure to allow more students into the schools.

Before Elmhurst, Moyer was the superintendent of Moline-Coal Valley School District 40 in Moline from 2012 and 2015, according to his LinkedIn page. And he was the superintendent of the Burlington Area School District in Wisconsin from 2010 to 2012.

Moyer's appointment was approved in a unanimous vote by the Arlington board on Thursday evening, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported.

"There's a lot of learning that needs to be done, and it's not an arbitrary situation where I decide we are going to do this or we are going to do that," Moyer told the Journal.

In August 2018, the school board learned that Moyer had been seeking to become a superintendent with a district in another state. At the time, Caforio said Moyer's effort to get another job called into question his loyalty and the future of a bond referendum, the Chicago Tribune reported. As a result, a $165.5 million referendum was temporarily delayed, the newspaper said.

Moyer withdrew his name for the other job, but Caforio said the board wanted time to discuss Moyer's commitment to the district, the Tribune reported.

The district went through with the referendum in November 2018. It passed.