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Superintendent Dr. Matthew Montgomery talks to The Forest Scout about what it is like to be a leader of Lake Forest schools, an active member in our community, and a parent of a LFHS freshman.
What is your job as Superintendent?
“I am the CEO of the district. In public organizations for schools, they don’t call them CEOs or Chief Executive Officers, they call them the Superintendent of Schools. My responsibility is to oversee the organization and be governed by the Board of Education.”
What was it like becoming the new Superintendent?
“It’s a juxtaposition between two extremes, the excitement as well as the challenges of coming into a new environment. This is the third time in my career I have been the new superintendent so I had a little bit of an understanding of how it would be, but this is the first time I have been a superintendent over two districts simultaneously so that system took a bit for me to understand the inner workings of. It’s always a joy to learn a new system and to learn about the caring people that make up an organization and getting to know them as a professional. It is a gift and it’s one of the best parts about leadership, figuring out how each person plays a critical role in the overall health of the organization. There are 700 employees and there’s 3,200 students, and then you have the families and you have the Board of Education members and the community, so there’s just this huge influx of people that you need to partner with and learn about in a short period of time to get up and running.”
Is that something that you take into account when you’re doing your work? The large number of students and their families?
“I would say that the thing that I use as my guiding force for decision making, especially difficult ones, is a technique that one of my mentors taught me, which is that in every big decision in schools you should imagine that there is a chair in the room with you and a student is sitting in it. So you should be envisioning how this decision you’re wrestling with is going to impact the students we serve, because the students’ well-being should be at the center of all of our decision-making process, and I think sometimes when you’re dealing with parents and adults and community members and council members and Boards, it’s easy to get lost in the needs of the of the adults in the system and it helps to stay grounded to realize that we’re here for the students.”
How important is it to you to meet those who live in our community?
“I would say it is of the utmost importance for me to get in the community with the members that make up Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, and Knollwood because those relationships help me see what they are looking for in a public education. So if you’re looking at when we created our Portrait of a Learner, that vision for the future was created through 150 members from the community, so there were students, involved community members, their parents, there were people from Lake Forest College. We tried to get a cross-section of the community to come together to say what their dreams and aspirations were for Lake Forest Community High School as well as District 67 and District 65. So when you ask me how important it is, I think it is one of the primary jobs for me because I view myself as the ambassador to the community for Districts 67 and 115.”
What is it like to have your daughter here, and seeing the high school from a new vantage point as a parent?
“I have four children, and they have always gone to the schools in the districts in which I have been superintendent. I view it as a gift to be able to see them and be that close to them. But this is my first time having a high-school student, so it’s very new and I am trying very hard to glean as much as I can from her through her eyes. I think I have a good idea of what’s happening in the building, but having the perspective of what experience my daughter’s having, just provides more robust colors in the palette. So where you may be one color of red you’re seeing multiple shades of red because she’s able to tell richer stories through her lived experiences. I consider it a gift to be able to have my children going through 67 and 115, and there’s no other place that I want them to be right now. This is their place, and when we look at the focus for this year, A Place for Everyone, I truly believe that statement. And my daughter is one example of many, where she is finding her way, and this faculty and staff are ensuring that her experience is similar to everybody’s experience. They’re working really hard to make it a great experience for our family.”
What are your main goals for this school year?
“The first year I got here we did Portrait of a Learner, and last year we created two strategic plans. What’s happening this year is that we’re starting the work on the Strategic Plan so it’s a 5-year strategic plan we’re starting to work on, so we’re looking at how we integrate the six competencies that are on the Portrait. If you look at the Portrait of a Learner, we are looking at how we are really going to integrate those six competencies into the student experience on the foundation of academic excellence, that’s what we’re doing right now and I’m excited that we’re actually starting that work. The other thing I would say that I’m most excited about for a goal this year, is that we’re beginning architecture and design for the referendum work. In April there was a $105.7 million dollar referendum, and now we are beginning architecture and engineering work for that project. Getting that project up and running is a major goal, and getting the Strategic Plan work started is a second major goal.”
What do you look forward to about the referendum?
“If I would distill it down to one sentence, the referendum allows this building, the East Campus, to be operational for years into the future. Keeping this building open is the most important thing that we’re doing. So whether it be HVAC, electrical, mechanical, the historical windows, the infrastructure within the classroom, a modernized learning experience, all of those things came together from a lot of voices that said this is what this building needs. That’s what I’m most excited about, engaging in that work. And it’ll be a long road, but when the journey is over this building will be vibrant for years to come.”
