Lake Forest Schools Hire Interim Superintendent For Next 4 Months

LAKE FOREST, IL — At a joint meeting of the boards of Lake Forest's public elementary and high school districts Monday, members voted unanimously to approve a contract with Constance "Connie" Collins to become interim superintendent through the end of June.

Collins is an associate with Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, the educational consulting firm hired by the district to find candidates to replace departing Superintendent Mike Simeck as the head of Lake Forest School District 67 and Lake Forest Community High School District 115.

Simeck announced in December he was resigning to become superintendent at neighboring Deerfield School District 109. District officials announced last month he had moved forward his date of departure, making March 31 his last date in charge of the districts.

Collins retired in 2018 as superintendent of Community Unit School District 116 in the Round Lake Area. During her eight-year tenure there, she took the district from state financial oversight to receiving four consecutive certificates of excellence in financial reporting, ushered through a building bond referendum, a first-of-its-kind school-based health center, full-day kindergarten and a nonprofit educational foundation.

“I love the K-12 environment,” Collins said in a statement released after the meeting. “I am thrilled to have this opportunity to work with two Districts that are so committed to developing the capacity, character, and confidence of each and every student.”

A native of Gary, Indiana, Collins has a PhD in communications disorders with a focus on stuttering therapy. She started her administrative career in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, area before becoming superintendent of Zion Elementary School District 6 in 2002 and Oak Park Elementary School District in 2005.

Collins was the 2018 winner of the Lake County Superintendent of the Year award and a "Those Who Excel" award from the Illinois State Board of Education. She was also named the Most Influential African American of Lake County in 2017 and is the co-founder and director of the National Alliance of Black School Educators Aspiring Superintendents Summer Institute, which held its ninth session in 2019, according to her resume.

With Simeck's last day set for March 31, Collins is due to begin working March 8 to help smooth the leadership transition.

"Her role will be a supporting one in the remainder of Mr. Simeck's tenure in our district," District 67 board member Suzanne Sands said at Monday's joint meeting. "This will provide an opportunity for our communities to get to know her, for her to get to know our community and our systems and for her to start meeting all of our teachers and wonderful staff and students and community at large."

Collins is contracted to lead Districts 67 and 115 through June 30, at which point the boards are scheduled to have picked a new permanent replacement, according to district officials.

District officials have yet to publicly post a copy of the interim superintendent's contract or provide it in response to a public records request following the contract's approval.

Related:
Simeck Resigns As Lake Forest Schools Chief
Districts 67, 115 Begin Search For New Superintendent
Interim Superintendent Contract Before Lake Forest School Boards

Ahead of the approval of Collins' new contract at the March 1 joint board meeting, Jane Westerhold and Ken Arndt, consultants with Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, provided an update on the search process.

They presented the results of a survey of more than 750 respondents, the findings of a leadership profile assessment and the desired characteristics of a future superintendent resulting from 17 focus groups and six community forums.

Some issues were common to virtually every superintendent search — transparent and open communication, for instance — while others were unique to the communities of Lake Forest, Lake Bluff and Knollwood.

Arndt said community responses consistently identified the need for infrastructure improvements, especially at Lake Forest High School, and a culture of high expectations for students and personnel. But when asked whether students are on track to be ready for college or a career, the respondents were divided.

"When you look at the survey data, 41 percent of the students and 50 percent of the parents said, we're not," Arndt said. "For some reason, they feel that you're slipping, but everybody else thinks everything is fine."

Only about a third of respondents agreed with the statements "there is transparent communication from the District" and "the district engages with diverse racial, cultural and socio-economic groups," according to the survey.

Another issue identified by the search firm is a perception held by students who arrived at Lake Forest High School from Lake Bluff School District 65 via Lake Bluff Middle School.

"We even heard some of this with the high school students who felt like sometimes they were outcasts, or sometimes they weren't accepted as well as students who have come through Deer Path Middle School," Westerhold told the boards, suggesting there may be a way to collaborate more with District 65 officials.

"I don't know how much you do include them, but it seems like there's a perception that they're not always included in things that maybe they feel they should be, and their voice isn't as heard as much as they think it should be. So obviously we are outsiders, we don't know the dynamics of that," she added. "But there is an underlying issue there."

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A slate of finalists is set to be presented to the board for closed door interviews on March 9, with a future meeting in executive session to discuss compensation and contract terms.

A narrowed group of finalists is set to be presented at a public meeting around March 29. Westerhold was asked whether the plan to reveal candidates in open session before a contract is approved had deterred any potential candidates from applying.

"It has not at this point," Westerhold said. "The individuals who we've had conversations with are extremely interested in the school districts, and nobody likes that part of it, because somebody isn't going to get the position, and then they have to go back and face their board, and that's hard, and some people end up needing to move on because their boards have lost trust.

"So it's not easy, but they are aware of it," she said. "And if they can't deal with it, then they're not going to be in the slate."