Elmhurst Superintendent's 1992 Death Changed District's Trajectory

David Venetucci, a retired teacher from Elmhurst School District 205, is writing a memoir. Here is the part about a former superintendent whom he says made a difference for the better:

ELMHURST, IL – It was September 1989, during a hectic first month of my first year at York High School, teaching English, print journalism, and public speaking. The faculty adviser of the school's award-winning student newspaper was on sabbatical leave, and I was the designated fill-in. This was my third year teaching after a bipolar two-year professional stint teaching English and yearbook at another west suburban high school.

Busy and stressed early on during that first year at York, I remember one day picking up the classroom phone and, to my surprise, hearing the District 205 superintendent’s secretary on the other end of the line.

Oh crap, I thought immediately. What did I do wrong now?

After two challenging years teaching at another area high school, I automatically feared the worst anytime a building administrator summoned me. My professional insecurities heightened when the secretary informed me that Superintendent Dr. Russ Thiems wanted to meet with me at my earliest convenience. Not knowing why the superintendent wanted to speak with me and lacking the courage to ask the secretary about the meeting, my mind went down a rabbit hole, and my heart began pounding anew.

Nonetheless, I made an appointment to meet with Dr. Thiems after school later that week. I then spent considerable time ruminating about what kind of professional trouble I was now in. In hindsight, all this mental thrashing about turned out to be all wasted cognitive effort, fortunately.

When I met with the superintendent, his only agenda was to shake my hand and welcome me to Elmhurst CUSD 205. He encouraged me to contact him if I ever needed district administrative assistance. That's it. I wasn't in any trouble, at least not yet. Sarcasm aside, I'll never forget the superintendent's charming and supportive demeanor in that brief meeting.

Other York colleagues have since confirmed that Dr. Thiems requested the same audience with them early on during their first year teaching in D205. I suspect he made it a practice to introduce himself to every new staff member. This visit with the superintendent seemed a genuine reflection of the man's character and in no way performative. It was a professionally refreshing experience. And, by any definition, Dr. Thiems' approach here was smart school leadership.

Now, I realize that some former D205 staff may have profoundly different recollections of Russ Thiems, who served as District 205 superintendent from 1983 until 1992. Maybe, unbeknownst to me as a new teacher at York, Thiems was actually a big jerk, and I just didn't yet have the opportunity to see the school district's top administrator at his worst professional behavior. That said, unlike my encounters with other district and building administrators, I never had a negative experience with Russ. Just as importantly, I never heard a colleague disparage him.

At the time, I thought Thiems handled staff problems effectively when needed and didn't feel the need to stir the pot unnecessarily. His administrative style was to treat staff as the professionals they were and to afford them the freedom to do their jobs without micromanagement. That lack of ego involvement is another marker of competent school leadership, and an administrative trait sorely lacking in many public schools.

Besides this notable interaction with Dr. Thiems during my first year at York, I also remember, with chagrin, the administrative power vacuum that followed Thiems' tragic death. Russ and his wife, Patty, were killed in August 1992, just prior to the beginning of the 1992-93 school year, when their vehicle collided with a farm tractor in rural Lee County. Russ was 57 at the time of his death, a full decade younger than I am as I write about him today.

I recall the visceral shock of learning about Dr. Thiems' death. The sudden loss of a district administrator as respected and competent as Russ reverberated through the Elmhurst school community. In retrospect, it changed the trajectory of the Elmhurst public schools.

After Thiems' death, a well-respected assistant superintendent stepped into Russ' role on an interim basis while the Board of Education (BOE) began the sobering process of hiring a new superintendent. I recall York teachers and staff firmly believed the BOE would be wise to elevate the interim superintendent to the permanent superintendent position. We believed hiring from within was the educationally prudent move, as that veteran administrator was respected and competent. Moreover, working alongside Dr. Thiems, this D205 administrator already understood the school district's goals and priorities intimately.

Unfortunately, a "pro-business" majority on the board believed it was time to shake things up in District 205 and run the school district more like a business than the respected public educational institution it was. The BOE vote was split, with one vote essentially changing the administrative "character" of Elmhurst CUSD 205.

The pro-business BOE majority collectively thumbed their noses at district teachers and staff and hired an itinerant administrator, reportedly fresh from a contract buyout in another state. This new superintendent — a shrewd, manipulative, and thoroughly dispiriting individual, now deceased — single-handedly erased much of the integrity and respect D205 enjoyed during Russ Thiems' administrative tenure. The seemingly purposeful degradation of staff morale during this superintendent’s tenure was horrific to witness as a teacher. I experienced multiple confrontations with that district administrator. It was no fun to engage in a professional battle with this ill-tempered individual, but it was necessary in the best interests of my students and the new technology-based instructional programs I was developing at the time.

The BOE eventually realized, but as I recall, never publicly acknowledged their mistake and sent this mean-spirited administrator packing in 1999, reportedly with yet another contract buyout.

Notably, in this unfortunate narrative, Dr. Thiems announced shortly before his unexpected death that he planned to retire from his administrative duties in mid 1993. According to public reporting, one reason Thiems decided to retire after three decades in public education may have been the consequences of his staunch opposition to a statewide property tax cap law that the Illinois legislature passed earlier in 1992. With good reason, Thiems believed that tax cap legislation would deprive Illinois public school students and staff of needed instructional resources. Russ publicly expressed concern that proper funding for Illinois public schools was no longer a political priority. He also spoke about the pressures inherent in school leadership positions. Dr. Thiems' principled opposition to that state property tax legislation — proposed and supported in 1992 by fiscal conservatives — likely contributed to the vote in which a one-vote majority of pro-business board members dramatically altered the Elmhurst public schools.

Although the historical parallels are unequal, the profound impact of Thiems' death on the Elmhurst public schools is comparable to the political consequences of Lincoln's assassination in 1865 following the Civil War. District 205 students and staff have experienced seven new superintendents since 1992, with an average of 5.5 years of service, excluding an interim superintendent in 2021. It's a matter of opinion if any subsequent superintendent has equaled the example Dr. Thiems established for integrity and character in his nine years serving in the position.

As an educator, I never aspired to be an administrator. I enjoyed working with kids in the classroom, and I knew that becoming a school administrator would move me away from what I most enjoyed in education. Moreover, I understood the politics inherent in being an administrator, but I disliked it. However, if I had chosen during my career to journey to the so-called "dark side" and become a school administrator, Dr. Russell Thiems would have been an inspiration, a professional guiding star of sorts, with my remembrances of his unassuming, competent demeanor and ardent support for the essential work of teachers and staff. Given the current historic levels of political and social polarization affecting public schools, administrators today would be wise to take a cue from the integrity that Russ Thiems displayed over several decades of service to the Elmhurst school community.

A Google search for the word "character" elicits the following definition, in part: Character "refers to the aggregate of distinctive mental, ethical, and behavioral traits that define a person, place, or thing. It signifies the unique, underlying nature or reputation of an individual (integrity)."

During my 25-plus years teaching in Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205, one district administrator I worked with who demonstrated impeccable character was Dr. Russell Thiems. As the saying goes, character counts.

Author's note

Following Dr. Thiems’ death and in remembrance, the then-named District 205 Foundation created the Thiems Grant program.

The Foundation 205's website reports that this Elmhurst non-profit has awarded over 800 Thiems Grants, totaling more than $2.5 million, to district staff to acquire technology and implement innovative instructional programming at all grade levels.

I'm proud of the multiple Thiems grants the D205 Foundation awarded me to acquire new broadcast technology for York's then-fledgling TV production program.

The link below directs you to the Foundation 205 website and affords an opportunity to support the Thiems Grant program. It’s a charitable cause worth supporting.

Information on the program is online.