June 11--Community Unit School District 308 Board members recently moved to fill seven administrator positions in schools and the district office.
They also approved hiring teachers, including bilingual educators, to fill more than a dozen new positions at schools throughout the district, among other employment changes for the 2015-2016 school year.
The Oswego-based school board on Monday approved naming John Sparlin to the number two leadership position in the district, according to district officials. Sparlin, currently an assistant superintendent for administrative services, will become an associate superintendent and oversee the human resources, student services and communications departments.
Sparlin's annual salary will increase by $10,000 to $170,000 in his new role, said district spokesman Brian Graves.
School Board members also approved hiring Ali Mehanti as assistant superintendent for business services and operations and chief financial officer. Mehanti, the chief financial officer in a Cicero school district, will oversee the finance, maintenance, operations, food service and transportation departments.
He was one of 26 candidates for the position, and will make $150,000 a year, Graves said..
The two will replace Associate Superintendent Paul O'Malley, who is leaving School District 308 to serve as superintendent in Norridge School District 80, according to the Oswego district
The board also approved naming Susan McDougall, a former "academically talented" teacher in the district, the assistant director for gifted education.
New assistant principals will be coming next school year to Murphy Junior High, Bednarcik Junior High and Southbury Elementary, according to a personnel report approved by the board.
At Murphy -- where board members unanimously rejected adding an assistant principal in May -- the new assistant principal will be Laura Bingham, a former assistant principal at Bednarcik, according to the report.
John Francis, an assistant principal at Long Beach Elementary, will become an assistant principal at Bednarcik. And at Southbury, Cara Chase, a learning behavior specialist at the school, will take over as assistant principal.
At Oswego High School, a dean and assistant principal have resigned, according to the report approved by the board. Dean Adele Dalesandro left Tuesday, and Assistant Principal Dan Durbin will leave June 23, according to the report.
The school will also have a new athletic director, after teacher and assistant athletic director Robert Kaminski was approved to fill the position.
The board also approved filling 17 new teaching positions at schools throughout the district, including four additional bilingual teachers, according to the personnel report.
The School Board had voted to scrap the dual-language program in February. The decision upset some parents of students in the program, and a board that included several newly-elected members voted to reinstate the program in May.
sfreishtat@tribpub.com
