The Thornton Fractional High School District 215 Board of Education named a replacement Tuesday for outgoing Superintendent Creg Williams, who is retiring after 11 years of running the district.
Board members approved a three-year contract for Teresa Lance, an assistant superintendent at a sprawling 12,000-student district in Colorado Springs, Colo. She will start July 1 as superintendent of District 215, which draws students from Calumet City, Lansing, Burnham and Lynwood.
Lance, a native New Yorker who made career stops in Baltimore and Houston before landing in Colorado Springs in 2013, will be paid $180,000 to lead District 215, Board President Richard Dust said. It will be her first job as a superintendent.
“We’re looking for a strong candidate to lead us academically into the future. She had a lot of good ideas, a lot of innovations for that area,” Dust said. “Our schools are in great shape as far as the facilities and the morale and the attendance, and we would just like to focus more on academics for everyone, and she has some ideas on doing that.”
Lance, who did not attend Tuesday’s meeting, said in a phone conversation Wednesday that she believes her experience in Colorado the past five years, where she supervised 20 principals and oversaw multiple district departments, will translate well to her new role as superintendent.
“The experiences and the work that I’ve been involved in here in Colorado will help me to really learn some of the current system in Thornton Fractional and really to just build off of the current successes that are already in place in District 215,” she said.
Lance described her leadership style as “collaborative,” and said she seeks input from those around her, but does not hesitate to act decisively, if the situation requires it.
She began her career as a middle school health and physical education teacher before ascending to assistant principal and then principal in both middle and high schools, according to a district news release.
She also worked briefly as an educational specialist at a cancer treatment center in Houston and as a turnaround consultant at the Naperville office of the nonprofit American Institutes for Research before taking her current job in Colorado, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Sheryl Black, the lone school board member who voted against Lance’s appointment, cited her lack of prior superintendent experience, lack of a doctorate degree and apparent lack of familiarity with area schools as concerns.
“We had a finalist that had 20 years experience in education in Illinois, which included teaching administration as well as seven years experience as a superintendent, doctorate in educational leadership, astute knowledge of Illinois School Code and Illinois policies and its impact on our district, and a strong network of resources in Illinois,” she said. “Yet, we are going to offer the superintendent position to a person who has no superintendent experience, no teaching or administration experience in Illinois, no working knowledge of Illinois school code, no doctorate and not likely to have a strong network of Illinois resources.”
Despite her misgivings about Lance’s lack of experience in Illinois, Black said Wednesday that she would support the incoming superintendent and hopes she can reduce the number of District 215 graduates who require remedial classes when they get to college.
She also said she hoped Lance would promote culturally relevant professional development and would be willing to initiate “courageous conversations” to bridge the gap between teachers and students in the district, where faculty is more than 80 percent white, but students are more than 90 percent minority.
“My hope is that she is a culturally competent leader that’s equipped to help our district,” said Black, District 215’s lone black school board member.
According to the district’s news release, Lance earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the State University of New York College at Cortland and is pursuing a doctorate in educational leadership.
Lance said she expects to complete her doctorate of education from the University of Phoenix by summer’s end. Her dissertation is a case study on the efficacy of ninth grade academies, specifically as they relate to black males, she said.
Dust said the board selected Lance from among three finalists — two of whom were from out of state — and was not troubled by her lack of superintendent experience.
“We just came to the conclusion she was the best candidate for this job and her personality would fit the situation and she’d carry on the successes that Dr. Williams has started,” he said. “We weren’t looking for somebody out of state, we were just looking for the best candidate.”
Before taking over for Williams in July, Lance will spend some time with the veteran superintendent to acclimate herself to the district.
“She will have a transition period where she’ll be coming in and working with Dr. Williams and finding the ropes, what’s happening, what’s taking place,” Dust said.
Williams, a Chicago native who had worked in Philadelphia, St. Louis and Prince George’s County, Md., before returning to Illinois in 2007 to take the reins at District 215, said he was still pondering his next career step.
“The options are open,” he said. “I may help some other school districts that need help.”
Williams said his proudest achievements at District 215 involved ramping up graduation rates and student test scores, closing the black student achievement gap and upgrading school facilities while holding taxes steady.
“Being here for a full 11 years, being the leader for 11 years, gave me the opportunity to start some things and to see them through,” he said. “You know, you can come up with a lot of ideas, but having an opportunity to have a vision, get people to buy into it and make it come to fruition … I think that’s an accomplishment.”
Lance, who is planning to fly into Illinois this weekend and secure housing for her eventual move to the area, said that being able to follow in Williams’ footsteps was one of the elements that attracted her to the job.
“I’m not going into a district that’s sort of upside down,” she said. “(District 215) has got a great system in place, great staff, great students and a great community that’s evidenced in a balanced budget, high graduation rate and an increase in student enrollment.”
Twitter @ZakKoeske
