Highland Park High School’s community reception to introduce District 113’s next superintendent, Laurie Kimbrel, didn’t come at the most celebratory of times.
On Feb. 18, school board members and parents were still digesting revelations about Kimbrel’s ties to the recruiting firm of Hazard Young Attea as well as accusations of cyber-bullying against her husband.
What the receptions did showcase were Kimbrel’s unflinching and forthright manner of facing controversy.
Before launching into her thoughts on joining the district, she alluded to her spouse’s web postings and shared her own takeaway with fellow educators.
“I absolutely do not condone behavior that lacks civility,” said Kimbrel, recapping remarks made at the opening of the reception. “I have two teenagers and we have had numerous chats over the years about our virtual identities, our presence on the Internet.
“I will tell you that I never dreamed that I needed to have that conversation with my 51-year-old husband,” she told the audience. “I guess my message to you is, don’t take anything for granted. As educators, we need to care about educating everyone around us, all the time.”
Kimbrel’s husband, Tim Olrick, has admitted to posting derogatory comments on the Internet directed toward one of his wife’s critics, using the pseudonym of Tom O’Hara.
The comments were posted to the Facebook page of Friends of Tam, an organization that has raised a variety of concerns about the Tamalpais Union High School District in northern California, where Kimbrel has been superintendent since 2008. The comments also were posted to a local newspaper’s website.
Asked later about her affiliation with Hazard Young Attea, the search firm that recruited her for the District 113 superintendency, Kimbrel said she had gone through training as an associate to assist with HYA’s California searches, but never took part in a search or received any compensation. Her three-month affiliation occurred during an off-recruiting season, she said. She added that she severed her affiliation when she decided to consider the District 113 position.
HYA President Hank Gmitro said Wednesday that Kimbrel was brought on as an associate last spring, and confirmed that she never helped with a search and therefore never received any compensation.
During a board meeting preceding the reception, President Marjie Sandlow said the board learned of both issues during the prior week and is taking the matters very seriously.
“We are in the process of gathering additional information, which we will thoroughly consider and discuss, along with the feedback we have heard from our constituents,” Sandlow said. She added that the review process would include consultation with the district’s attorney.
During the reception, Kimbrel spoke of how she became an educator and her years in Lake Forest High School District 115 and Grayslake Community High School District 127, as well as her core beliefs about education.
She said she believes all kids can and must learn at high levels and that high-achieving students must be pushed to grow further while other students “need more in order to get the same.”
“We need to listen to parents when it comes to their individual student and when it comes to the work we are doing,” she said. Educators also must ask students their opinions and “hear what it is like to walk in their shoes.”
Kimbrel said she welcomes disagreement — believing “the best outcomes happen when disagreement is in the room” — but that the discourse must be civil and people must be treated with kindness and dignity.
She closed her talk, on a lighter note, by answering the “burning question:” Why would she want to leave a locale that is 77 degrees and sunny every day?
“It is about a growing understanding that I have in my own life about the importance of home,” she explained.
“Though I’ve had an absolutely excellent adventure in California and made many friends, it is simply time for me to come home,” she said. “That means home, to the place where it will be 25-below wind chill tomorrow, but with that 25-below wind chill comes warm hearts, amazing pizza, good friends and loving family.”
