When Hardy Murphy took over as the superintendent of Evanston School District 65 almost a year ago, he pledged to shake up the status quo and challenge teachers to improve their instruction within the system’s 16 schools.
This week, Murphy was forced to defend his management amid claims by some instructors and their union that the superintendent’s “love it or leave it” approach has left some teachers cold.
Matters reached a head last week when an anonymous letter circulated at Chute Middle School asking teachers to take a no-confidence vote in Murphy. Teachers union president John Lalley played down the letter as “a list of concerns” but said frustration among some of the district’s 630 teachers with the administration has been brewing in recent months. “There’s a lot of chaos and confusion regarding improving instruction in the district,” Lalley said. “It’s not just with the superintendent, it’s with the School Board in general.”
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Murphy said he will work to improve communication with teachers. But he also pointed to a list of accomplishments that includes his instructional-improvement initiative launched this year, a first-time partnership with Northwestern University and a project to improve instruction at Oakton School.
“Leadership is not a popularity contest,” Murphy said. “Hopefully there’s enough support out there to change things for the better.”
Meanwhile, Murphy appears to enjoy the support of parents. Mary Ann Kountoures, with a group called United Parents for Excellence in Schools, said the group embraces Murphy’s shake-it-up approach to change.
“Hardy Murphy has focused this community’s attention on the fact many kids are sent to high school without the skills for survival,” Kountoures said. “People recognize he has the ability to take this district to a higher level.”
A first-class honor: Within days of graduating from Loyola Academy, Steven C. Gross, 18, of Wilmette is on his way to the White House to be honored as a 2000 Presidential Scholar. Gross and his parents on Monday will head to Washington, where he willreceive a medallion at a ceremony sponsored by the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars. Gross, who earned a perfect score on his ACT and is a National Merit Scholar, wrote an essay for the presidential award on why more leadership is needed to help the homeless and other less fortunate.
This summer, he is working at Good Shepherd Hospital, Barrington, where he moves people before and after surgery. “I’m the first person from the operating room staff that sees the patients,” said Gross, who plans to attend Duke University in the fall, majoring in pre-med. “I talk to them as I’m wheeling them down the hall. Some patients are very nervous, and I’m the first one to reassure them. There’s a responsibility in that too.”
A better beetle battle: An unlikely ground war is being waged at the former Glenview Naval Air Station, and so far the enemy is winning. The village is deploying Galerucella beetles in hopes they’ll gobble purple loosestrife, which is choking out native plants at the 31-acre Air Station Prairie, part of the 1,100-acre residential/commercial development called The Glen.
Last August, the village released 10,000 of the little brown beetles, but in early June a survey revealed the beetles had bugged out. The Illinois Natural History Survey, or INHS, attributed the disappearance to bad timing, suggesting the beetles were released too late last summer, when it was already dry.
Since the mid-90s, millions of these ladybug-size beetles have been used elsewhere, but the Air Station Prairie’s beetle battle is the only mitigation project where they failed to get established, said INHS official Robert Wiedenmann.
Last week, the village released another 10,000 beetles provided free by INHS. On Tuesday, the Village Board voted to spend another $10,000–or a buck a beetle–to launch another attack before mid-July, while the area is still wet.