Orland School District 135 will be looking for its fifth superintendent in seven years after the school board voted unanimously Monday night to accept the resignation of Janet Stutz, who will depart when her contract ends June 30.
None of the seven School Board members was in office when Stutz was hired, and none commented prior to the vote. They instead issued a joint statement, listing accomplishments of the past three years and noting that they accepted the resignation “with regret.”
The five-sentence statement also said Stutz “played an integral part in rebuilding the relationship between the Administration and the Union, as well as between the District and the Community.”
Tracy Pelini, a longtime parent volunteer, demanded that board members explain why they aren’t retaining Stutz, who took over after a string of three superintendents, two of whom were interim, each lasted only a year.
“She as well as her staff have been, hands down, the most transparent, cooperative and communicative administration I have dealt with in the seven years I have been on the Parents in Education board,” Pelini said. “As a parent of four children in this district, I find myself compelled to ask, what specific reason or reasons do you have for accepting Dr. Stutz’s resignation this evening? … It concerns me that this board is once again putting our school district in the spotlight with this revolving-door mentality.”
Stutz, 52, didn’t shed much light on her departure in an interview Tuesday, declining to say whether there was a rift between her and the board.
“I think I was kind of ready for me to move on,” she said. “I really don’t even know how to explain it to you because I want to keep everything very, very positive.”
With a new School Board majority being voted in after her January 2013 hiring but before she took office that July, Stutz was at the helm while District 135 negotiated new teacher and staff contracts, avoided property tax increases for three years, tapped reserve funds to buy thousands of take-home student computers and approved a full-day kindergarten program.
Stutz and most of the current board also oversaw a chaotic change in bus companies that led to hundreds of parent complaints of missed stops and late routes when school started last fall. Those same board members hired the finance and safety directors who oversaw the switch to the new company and were in charge of making sure it went smoothly.
Board members never openly quarreled with Stutz, though last year they quashed the administration’s $4 million plan to convert Center School to an early education center after some parents complained that it would split siblings between schools. District 135 instead will spend about two-thirds less to prepare its four grade schools to handle full-day kindergarten, beginning next fall.
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Stutz, whose salary is $185,650, was hired from Consolidated District 181 in Hinsdale, where she was assistant superintendent for learning.
Stutz pointed to academic strides in listing her District 135 accomplishments, including new teacher and principal assessment systems, several new principals and other administrators and the take-home computers — one for every student in the third through eighth grades.
The fruits of that initiative was on display at Monday’s board meeting, with Liberty School fourth- and fifth-graders showing off computer coding they wrote to design video games and program robot toys to traverse an obstacle course.
“That was one of the proudest moments I have seen,” Stutz said. “We’re seeing a love for reading, a love for writing, and all of this hard work has paid off.”
Board President Laura Berry was asked whether board members considered extending Stutz’s contract.
“We certainly had those conversations, and we’re very proud of the work we’ve done with Dr. Stutz and the work that she’s done with us,” she said.
Board members, Berry said, will have to discuss whether they want to hire a search firm to help find a new superintendent.
Stutz, it seems, won’t be long in looking for work, though she isn’t ready to share details.
“I have a lot of awesome options that you will soon learn about,” she said. “I love what I do. I just hope I’ve left (District 135) in really, really good shape from where I started.”
Patrick Guinane is a freelance reporter.