When Tom Moore took on the role of superintendent at Niles Township High School District 219 in 2022, he said he inherited a district marked by continuous division amid administrative changes and a post-pandemic school landscape.
“For a while, we focused on everything that made us different instead of those things that make us similar,” Moore told Pioneer Press.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time and I think part of that is getting a place ready to take the next steps.”
Now that the community is moving forward with greater stability a little less than four years into his tenure, Moore believes the stage is set for the district’s next chapter, one under a new superintendent.
Moore announced last month he will be stepping down from his leadership role at the end of the 2026 calendar year, with Deputy Superintendent Roszena Haskins assuming the position beginning Jan. 1.
Moore said as the district continues to move forward in the next stages of its five year strategic plan, the time is right for a new leader to take the helm.
“Roszena Haskins was a major driver of that plan,” he added. “She spent the past year on it, and as time goes on, I feel like the person crafting it should be the person that’s running it.”
D219 Board President Amber Wood said at the May 5 Board meeting that Haskins was selected as the next superintendent by direct appointment by the Board, with Haskins confirmed by Board members later that evening.
Illinois School Code does not explicitly require a school board to conduct an external search before hiring a superintendent, giving local school boards statutory authority to bypass a broader search process and directly appoint a superintendent, so long as the candidate meets state administrative certification requirements.
“Section 105 ILCS 5/10-16.7 states that the school board ‘shall make all employment decisions pertaining to the superintendent.’ The statute does not prescribe a specific hiring process, such as requiring a national search or external candidate pool,” said Lindsay Record, press secretary for the Illinois State Board of Education.
“Note that school boards may have adopted individual board policies that dictate a specific process they will follow for superintendent hiring.”
Moore praised Haskins’ “deep connections” to the student body at Niles Township High Schools, home to the more than 4,600 students attending Niles West High School and Niles North High School.
District 219 services students residing in Niles Township, which includes the Villages of Skokie, Golf and Lincolnwood and large portions of Morton Grove and Niles.
Moore has served as superintendent of the district since July 2022, having previously spent more than 12 years as superintendent of West Hartford Public Schools in West Hartford, Connecticut.
After more than 30 years of working in the education field, Moore said he is ready for a change of pace. But what specifically that will look like, he’s not quite sure yet.
“I’m looking for something that’s very challenging, that’s different from what I’ve done [as a superintendent] that will reactivate pieces of excitement,” he said.
“When you’re in the same job for decades, you have the rhythm, you know what’s coming next and I want to find something where I don’t know what tomorrow looks like.”
In response to what his greatest accomplishments were, “I don’t have any,” Moore voiced, “the kids do, the teachers do.”
“My job is to try to make things better for them, so that they can do the things that they need to do, and hopefully provide a level of leadership and stability so that the main thing can be what goes on in the classroom.”
In recognition of his leadership and commitment to expanding academic opportunity for the diverse student body at Niles Township, Moore was recently awarded the College Board’s prestigious 2026 Modelo de la Comunidad Award at the organization’s Prepárate conference.
The award is presented annually by members of Prepárate’s National Advisory Committee, which selects recipients based on their efforts to create equal opportunity for students to excel in a secondary education setting.
Moore also serves as a chair on the Board of Trustees at the College Board.
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The committee credited Moore’s work in eliminating fees for Advanced Placement (AP) enrollment, increasing the Latino student participation in a number of courses at Niles North and West High Schools.
According to D219 data, about 17% of the student population at Niles Township identifies as Latino, with about 60% of families who live in the area identifying as multilingual.
“I’ve always said that if a kid wants to challenge themselves, I’ll be damned if I’m going to be the person that tells a kid what they can’t do, especially as they’re moving towards graduation and moving towards the world overall, and so that I think is changing the mindset about who rigorous coursework is for.”
Board President Wood voiced support for Moore and his next chapter at the May 5 Board meeting, citing the “strong leadership” he embodied while leading the district and his “defined sense of what it means to champion students.”
“Whether breaking down silos of communication or encouraging students to be intellectually courageous, Tom has brought vision to our district when we needed it the most,” Wood said.
In a follow-up letter addressed to the community on May 5, Moore wrote that he began working with incoming superintendent Haskins nearly 20 years ago, when they both led Conrad High School in West Hartford, Connecticut.
“She has become not just a colleague, but a trusted partner and my closest friend,” Moore wrote.
“When Roszena made the decision to come to District 219, I shared with many of you that the most important thing I would do during my time here would be to bring her into this district as Deputy Superintendent. I believed then, and I believe even more strongly now, that she is exactly the leader this community deserves.”
Wood said at the May 5 meeting that Haskins’ appointment comes after “months of succession planning discussions” among Board members and district leadership.
“While we profoundly feel the sense of sadness at Tom’s retirement, we are grateful for the work already done in preparing the ground for D219’s next superintendent. The Board selection process was so easy because the choice was so obvious,” Wood said.
Board Vice President Ken Durr added that “last year, the Board embarked on a journey to establish a five-year strategic plan and Dr. Haskins has led this effort with great transparency and experience during our launch this year,” he said.
Moore will begin “gradually” transitioning responsibilities of the position over to Haskins beginning this summer, Wood added, in preparation for his departure on Dec. 31.