New D41 Superintendent on Portables, Vision and the ‘Mountain’

As the school year draws nigh, Paul Gordon is settling into his new role as superintendent of Glen Ellyn School District 41, penning a letter to the Suburban Life outlining his experience during his first month and emphasizing to the Chicago Tribune his intent the fix the “pressing” issue of the District’s aging portable classrooms.

According to the paper, the 32 portables were purchased used in 2001, and some are now more than a half-century old. A proposal earlier this year to help the problem by using eminent domain to turn Wheaton College land into a new junior high school was savaged by residents, the paper said, and the District Board is now considering other solutions.

“We have 500 elementary students in portables and that concerns me, it concerns our board and it concerns parents,” Gordon told the Tribune. “Whatever the solution is, we'd need to put it to a referendum. … We can't allow students to be in that type of environment." 

Gordon, 46, a father of two, previously worked for 23 years at a school district outside Denver, rising from reading teacher to executive director of schools. He recently moved to Wheaton began as D41 superintendent on July 1, replacing outgoing super Ann Riebock.

He published a greeting letter on Glen Ellyn Patch earlier in July. 

Writing to the Suburban Life, he compared the mountains of Colorado to the metaphorical mountains that a school district must face in times of change—for instance, the coming implementation of both the Common Core Standards Initiative and the Think Tank program of multiage classrooms and teacher specialization. 

“In a few years, our kindergarteners will be confronting problems and holding jobs we can’t even imagine today,” he wrote to the paper. “If our students can become critical thinkers, productive collaborators and problem solvers, innovators and confident learners across disciplines, they will thrive in the 21st century. 

“Preparing them to climb that mountain is the commitment District 41 has made. It’s my commitment too, and it’s why I’m so excited to be here.” 

He further outlined his approach in an interview with the Daily Herald, saying that with implementing new standards, “I want to ensure we're very thoughtful, and we have been. 

"It's about the thinking: allowing kids opportunities to solve problems, to be in situations that are unique and more challenging and rigorous," he added to the paper. "That's what Glen Ellyn (District 41) is pushing each and every one of its kids (toward), to ensure they have an individualized education. Many districts say that, but not all follow the actions." 

According to the Tribune, Gordon has a three-year contract at $195,000 salary, plus benefits; he was also paid $21,500 in moving-expense reimbursement, contingent on his not quitting in the first two years of the job.

Read more at the Chicago Tribune, Suburban Life and Daily Herald websites.