In response to Superintendent George Fornero’s impending retirement, District 113 composed a 20 member committee including various members of the community. In the committee were two Deerfield students, sophomore Dani Gottstein and junior Michael Warren.

To assist in their quest to make the best decision possible, the administration hired Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, a search firm that “assists organizations by ensuring that the right executives are in place to realize their vision.” Marty Esgar, a DHS biology teacher and president of the District 113 Education Association (DEA) stressed that their job as a committee was strictly to evaluate the candidates as individuals, not to compare or rate them. “We didn’t rank them, we didn’t say hire this one or anything like that. What we did is, we went through sort of lists of strengths, or areas of concern, or areas that we need more follow up,” Esgar said. The committee was also made to represent every facet of the District 113 community, consisting of parents, students, and various administrators.

“Everyone was truly represented in this committee,” said Gottstein. Two students from each District high school, DHS and HPHS, were selected to serve on the committee.“They looked at both high schools and then they wanted to select two students from each high school, and then from there they went into student council and looked for reps there,” Warren said. Notified of their involvement in October, Gottstein and Warren were extremely prepared by the administration to be contributing members of the process.

“The search itself was actually in December, so we had to sign a confidentiality contract before that, and we got constant emails about when it was actually going to be leading up to the event,” Warren said. Both active members of student council, Gottstein and Warren serve as Operation HOME canned food drive co-chair and Run for Change co-chair respectively. With their combined leadership experience, they knew what to look for in a potential District 113 superintendent. Each member of the interview team was instructed to ask questions pertaining to them.

“They really valued the voice of the students involved. I focused on diversity in the classroom,” Gottstein said. Thoroughly pleased with their experiences with the entire process, Gottstein and Warren felt empowered. Not just as members of the committee, but as students that were given the chance to have a say on who runs the district.

“It definitely made me more confident in the administrative process because being in that committee made me realize that they actually care about kids, sometimes a lot more than they let on,” Warren said. After each interview, there was a two hour debriefing, where the committee discussed pros and cons of each candidate.

“We did a T-chart, strengths and weaknesses,” Gottstein said. According to Gottstein and Warren, every candidate they met had outstanding credentials and undeniable potential to be a great superintendent. After the departure of formerly chosen candidate Laurie Kimbrel, Warren and Gottstein were notified that they will be participating in the interview process for a second time amidst a second search attempt for superintendent. However, District 113 has since decided to elect an interim superintendent for the 2015-2016 school year, who is yet to be chosen.