A special board meeting was held on April 21, 2022, to announce the unanimous decision to name Dr. Marcus Campbell as the next superintendent of ETHS District 202 beginning July 1, 2022.  View the Board meeting video on the ETHS Wildkits YouTube channel to hear statements and comments regarding the historic moment that celebrates Dr. Campbell, who will be the first African American male superintendent in the 139-year history of ETHS.

News story: Marcus Campbell Selected as the Next Superintendent of ETHS District 202 

Special event: April 26, 2022 at 5:00-7:00pm

Join us in congratulating Dr. Marcus Campbell on being selected as the next ETHS superintendent! Stop by to meet Dr. Campbell and share your good wishes on Tuesday, April 26 in the ETHS main lobby from 5:00-7:00pm. Light refreshments will be served. Parking is available in Lot 1 (off of Dodge Avenue) or Lot 2 (off of Wildkit Drive). Enter through Door 1 or Door 2.

Evanston is a truly great community! 

The ETHS/D202 Board asked for the community to engage in the important process of selecting the next superintendent and the response has been tremendous.   

In addition to the great response to the survey and focus groups, students, families, staff, and community members: 

• Provided questions to support panel interviews 
• Volunteered to conduct panel interviews 
• Watched videos of the student and family/community interviews and provided feedback 

The Board would especially like to thank those who volunteered for the panel interviews.  The five stakeholder groups – students, families/community members, ETHS non-teaching staff, ETHS teachers, and ETHS administrators – conducted extensive and informative interviews.  And in addition to the interviews, each panel also attended two pre-meetings to agree on the questions they would ask and participated in anti-bias training to support the interviews.  The Board is so grateful to all who volunteered for the panel interviews.  Their investment of time and their commitment to the continued success of ETHS says a great deal about these people and our community as a whole. 

The wealth of information received through this extensive community engagement process is currently being reviewed and analyzed by the Board and will support their decision about where to go from here.  Additionally, this information will be of great interest and help to the next superintendent. 

Thank you to all who have engaged in the superintendent search process to date.  The Board values your input and we look forward to making an announcement within the next couple of weeks! 

The commitment, participation, and input from the ETHS community have been so critical to the superintendent search process! Stakeholders are invited to provide feedback on the interviews held with Dr. Marcus Campbell. The video recordings are available online:

Student Interview Panel with Dr. Campbell (3/31/2022)

Parent/Community Panel with Dr. Campbell (3/31/2022)

The feedback form is open until April 4, 2022:

ETHS Superintendent Search: Broader Community Feedback Form

Formulario de comentarios sobre el candidato finalista a superintendente de ETHS

Feedback will be reviewed by the Board to inform its final decision. Responses are received by a third party and will remain anonymous.

What we learned from the community

During the special board meeting on March 3, the school board and the community received a comprehensive report from the Alma Advisory Group on their feedback from the survey and focus groups conducted with our stakeholders.  The more than 2,000 survey respondents and nearly 100 focus group participants provided a clear and consistent vision of what they are looking for in the next superintendent and the issues this new leader should prioritize.

Our students, families, teachers, staff, and community members very clearly told us that the next superintendent should be a visionary leader who has the courage and skill to make bold changes and to “level up” the educational equity and excellence work already in place.  Specifically, we heard that the next superintendent must:

• Be a strong, clear, and transparent communicator
• Have the ability to lead, support, and manage staff
• Put the best interests of all students first in all decisions
• Cultivate a culture of learning

While stakeholders identified many ETHS strengths – including extracurricular programs and opportunities for students, preparing students for college, and academic excellence – they want the next superintendent to prioritize:

• Ensuring a safe school and learning environment
• Supporting the mental and physical health and well-being of students and staff
• Preparing students for non-college pathways

Superintendent profile and job description

The breadth and depth of information we received from the community was incredibly helpful and the school board is grateful to those who took part in this initial community engagement process.  The board used this information to develop a detailed superintendent profile and job description that describes the characteristics and competencies it is seeking and outlines the responsibilities and expectations of the position – find the ETHS Superintendent Job Profile here. 

Next steps

Based on the superintendent profile and job description, the board concluded that it already has an exceptional candidate at ETHS – Dr. Marcus Campbell, ETHS’s current Assistant Superintendent and Principal.  Please find Dr. Campbell’s bio here. 

Dr. Campbell has been at ETHS for more than 21 years and has served in his current leadership position for more than nine years.  He has been an integral part of designing, implementing, supporting, and growing ETHS’s nationally recognized work to ensure educational equity and excellence for all students.  The board believes it would serve the best interests of ETHS to screen Dr. Campbell against the competencies and expectations of the role.  Given his understanding of and exemplary service to the ETHS community, Dr. Campbell should have the opportunity to engage in an authentic dialogue with the community and to have the board to assess his alignment with the superintendent profile and job description.  

Community engagement

The board continues to be committed to the authentic engagement of our community in the superintendent search process and is calling for nominations of stakeholders to take part in a series of panel interviews. 

• The panel interview groups will be organized by role – students, families, community members, teachers and staff, and representatives from community-based organizations.
• Interview panel participants can nominate themselves or others by completing the nomination form:

ETHS Superintendent Interview Panel Nominations    

Español Nominaciones del Panel de Entrevistas del Superintendente de ETHS 

• Each panel will be made up of 10-12 people and will be demographically representative
• If more than 12 people are nominated for a panel, members will be randomly selected though still ensuring demographic representation
• All members of the community can submit questions for the interview panels to consider:

ETHS Interview Question Submission 

Preguntas de la entrevista para ETHS

• Each panel will have the support of the Alma Advisory Group to engage in anti-bias training and to identify interview questions (each panel will ask six to eight questions)
• The panels will meet with Dr. Campbell over the course of a few days with the board holding the final panel interview

Upon completion of the panel interviews, the board will analyze all conversations and then determine and announce next steps.

Timeline

• Week of March 7: Post the Superintendent Profile and Job Description on the ETHS website. 

  Begin the Community Interview Panel nomination process Tuesday, March 8th – process closes Monday, March 14th at 6:00pm

  ETHS Superintendent Interview Panel Nominations

  Español Nominaciones del Panel de Entrevistas del Superintendente de ETHS 

• Week of March 14: Board will engage in anti-bias training (March 14th)

Selected Community Interview Panel nominees will be notified, as will those beyond the 12 panelists who were not selected. Interview panels will receive anti-bias training.

• Week of March 21: ETHS Spring Break

• Week of March 28: Interview Panel interviews with Dr. Campbell. All sessions are held in room N112 at ETHS.
  • Student Panel: Thursday, March 31, 3:45pm; this session will be livestreamed on the ETHS Wildkits YouTube Live Stream channel
  • Parent and Community: Thursday, March 31, 6:00pm; this session will be livestreamed on the ETHS Wildkits YouTube Live Stream channel
  • ETHS Administrators: Friday, April 1, 10:00am
  • Teachers/Teachers Council: Friday, April 1, 12:00pm
  • Non-Instructional Staff: Friday, April 1, 3:00pm

• Week of April 4: Board interviews Dr. Campbell

Board determines and announces next steps.

UPDATE: February 28, 2022