Official's Dimissal On School Board Agenda

HINSDALE, IL — The Hinsdale Township High School District's administration is seeking to cut ties with one of its top officials. The school board is being asked to vote for the dismissal of Carol Baker, assistant superintendent of academics, effective July 1.

At its meeting Thursday, the school board will vote on a resolution that calls for letting Baker go after her contract expires June 30. The resolution also said the district would not rehire Baker as a teacher for next school year. She would be employed through June 30.

Baker didn't return messages for comment. The district's spokesman, Chris Jasculca, responded to a message left with Superintendent Tammy Prentiss. He said the district was unable to provide the reasoning behind the proposed dismissal because it involves a personnel matter.

The resolution didn't state a justification for Baker's dismissal, but said it was for reasons other than a lack of money.

Baker has been at the Hinsdale district since the summer of 2018. Previously, she was the superintendent of the Lyons Elementary School District from 2016 to 2018.

According to the Riverside Brookfield Landmark newspaper, Baker got the Hinsdale job after the second year of her three-year Lyons contract ended. Her exit was likely because a new majority had taken control of the school board in her first year, the newspaper said.

At the time, the Lyons board's president, Marge Hubacek, who was elected in 2017, said she was not disappointed in Baker leaving, according to the newspaper.

"I couldn't answer that any other way," Hubacek told Landmark. "If I said, 'Yes, I was disappointed,' people could call me liar."

Lyons board member Shannon Johnson, who was elected in 2017, told Landmark the new job was a good move for Baker, given her background in science education at the high school level.

"I think her area of expertise is more on the curriculum end, and I think she'll be more in her zone of comfort," Johnson told the newspaper. "She was always a very nice person, she just wasn't meant to be a superintendent in an elementary school district."

For the last nine years, Baker has been involved with the effort known as Next Generation Science Standards, working as a presenter and writer, according to her LinkedIn page.

She also took part in the recent discussions in the Hinsdale school district on controversial changes to the high school science curriculum. Under the plan approved in November, students would take physics as freshmen, chemistry as sophomores and biology as juniors. That is a reverse of the traditional sequence of science classes.

In mid-December, Superintendent Prentiss issued a public statement apologizing for her administrative team's "ineffective job" in communicating changes to the district's science program. She didn't identify members of the team.

"By not undertaking these efforts until a few months ago, we created a great deal of unnecessary confusion, concern and angst for our current and future families," the superintendent said.

In his statement, Jasculca said the decision on Baker would not change the district's science curriculum changes, which will continue to be led by teachers, department chairs and administrators.

Prentiss was named superintendent the year after Baker's hiring. She was the district's assistant superintendent for student services before that.