Des Plaines District 62 Supt. Bob Willis has nominated one of his top deputies to take over Iroquois Community School when Principal Thomas Ray steps down this summer.
Having sifted through 30 resumes, Willis said Thursday that he will ask the district board next week to name Philip DiLallo, currently in charge of the district’s special education program, as the new principal of the year-round school at a salary of $86,670.
An educator for nearly 20 years, DiLallo, 41, moved to District 62 in 1981 after two years in neighboring East Maine District 63.
He spent the next six years teaching special education at Chippewa Junior High, and he doubled as head of District 62’s mental impairment department from 1984 to 1987. DiLallo next served as principal at Terrace Elementary before taking over as associate superintendent of pupil services overseeing special education, residency and discipline.
The challenges are certain to continue at Iroquois, which opened as a year-round program last summer after a year of heated debate about how the changeover was ushered through by Willis and the board.
Deemed a success by many district officials and parents, Iroquois still remains an experiment with its multi-age classrooms and year-round schedule. The difficulty in jump-starting the new program was cited by Ray in deciding to resign as principal and return to the classroom as a teacher.
But many of the issues seem to play to DiLallo’s strengths, according to some district officials, who described him as a people person with ample administrative experience to see the project through.
Still, DiLallo said Thursday he hesitated.
“I initially wasn’t sure of the direction I wanted to go,” he said. “But it’s exciting.”
DiLallo was one of four finalists for the Iroquois job. Also on the short list was Tavia Floyd, principal at Palatine District 15’s Pleasant Hill Elementary and who is now being considered as a replacement for DiLallo as head of pupil services.
