Episode 10 - OMG, that's Jason Bourne! ... with Dr. Jeff Schuler

This week on Husky Hotseat, we welcome Dr. Jeff Schuler, District 200's superintendent! On our last episode of the season, join host Eric Elftmann, as we talk about what it takes to be a superintendent, golf, college football, country music, and oh yeah, what does it take to get an E-learning day anyway?!?

Weird St. Louis Pizza

Caldonia Golf

District 200 Middle School Construction Update

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hello everyone and welcome to the Husky Hotsee, the show for students, parents, and staff to get to know the Hubble community. I'm your host, Eric Elfman. Each week on Husky Hotsey, you and I get to sit down with a member of our Hubble community to ask them the answers to the tough questions. This will be our last podcast before we break for the summer, so of course we had to go big. In fact, I'm here with my boss's boss, so depending on how this show goes, it could be our last episode. Husky Hotseat is excited to welcome Dr. Jeff Schuller to the show. Dr. Schuller has been an educator for 33 years and has been District 200's superintendent for the last 12 years. And if you're not sure what a superintendent is, well, we'll get into that a little bit. Dr. Schuller has worn a lot of hats over the years, including working as an elementary teacher, middle school teacher, middle school principal, and as a human resources director before becoming superintendent. Dr. Schuller, thank you so much for joining us on Husky Hot Seat. Can you just tell us a little bit about where you're from originally? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Grew up in St. Louis. So I uh spent actually uh first 18 years in in St. Louis, all the way up through high school, uh, and then uh went uh from there to uh college in in Indiana, Indiana University, and and then made my way up to the Chicago area after I graduated college.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Okay. This is a St. Louis question I just came up with on the spot. What's the deal with emo's pizza?

SPEAKER_01 1:34

St. Louis pizza, it's all about the cheese. They use a very unique cheese that uh if you are not familiar with it, uh you haven't had it, uh it it's generally a little bit uh off-putting for people at first and until you get used to it. Certainly was for my my wife and uh folks that I've taken down to St. Louis for the first time.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Aaron Powell That was my impression as well. That's what made me think of it. All right. I know that you have a real heart for the classroom and that you have a lot of educators in your family. Can you describe a little bit how you got your start in teaching?

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Absolutely. So uh in college, I actually did not go to college uh certain what my major was was gonna be. I I went with uh a lot of thoughts or ideas, uh ended up uh in in education. So uh my mom was a teacher, she she retired as a fourth grade teacher. My sister, my older sister, uh is a teacher, and so there it definitely was in the family. The the thought was I I remember my mom uh taking me to uh her school quite a bit uh when I was a kid, so spent a fair amount of time in her classroom watching the the work that she did. So I think it was just sort of always uh there and uh kind of uh uh in uh in my mind. And and so as I got to college and and started exploring ideas, I pretty quickly settled on education.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Aaron Powell And what subject matter did you start in?

SPEAKER_01 3:02

I was uh uh when I was an elementary major, and then I had a middle school uh endorsement in math and and science. So uh I actually got my first teaching job uh teaching elementary school. So I did uh two things. One, I was uh uh an accelerated teacher, taught kids uh kindergarten through uh fifth grade uh at the time that were in uh in an accelerated or gifted program, uh, and then also taught uh computers. It was uh when like computer was its own special uh at that time at the elementary level, and so I taught kids uh all across in uh the elementary school computers.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Aaron Powell Okay, just to date this a little bit, do you remember what computer it was you were using back then?

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Um I don't remember actually uh which one that it was, but it it was in the very early days. So there were there were a small handful of programs that uh we were using. It was really a lot of typing uh as much as anything else.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

But you got to middle school and you were teaching math?

SPEAKER_01 4:03

I was so yeah, I had an opportunity to join the district where I got my first job, which was up by Arlington Heights. Uh, they were opening a brand new middle school. And so I had an opportunity to join the faculty in the first year uh that the school was uh was open. It was a middle school that actually was uh trying pioneering uh a whole lot of new things. So it was kind of the onset of the the teaming movement in in middle schools. So we were doing a lot of uh interdisciplinary work, some unique things, both with the schedule at the school, kind of the grading processes. So I just kind of from a ground level got to help open a brand new middle school, which uh was unique and spent four years actually at that school teaching largely math and science.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Aaron Powell And from there, what leads someone to go from teaching up the ranks to superintendent?

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Yeah, so it's uh that's not an immediate jump uh from from classroom to uh to that. I uh actually spent uh about a year in that district as an instructional coach. So I had uh an opportunity to spend time working with teachers across the the district and and then uh found my way into uh an administrative position actually as an assistant principal uh at a middle school and and kind of uh moved from there. So uh spent uh really about seven years between assistant principal and principal uh at the middle school level and then uh moved to a district level position uh as an assistant superintendent overseeing a human resource uh office and and then moved into a superintendent role from there.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Once you kind of started down that road, did you always see superintendent as like the ending of the path, or was that just kind of how it happened?

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Yeah, ne never. I I don't uh there was never a point in my career where I said, boy, my uh my end goal is uh superintendent. Uh truth be told, uh I think uh early on when I was a principal, uh I did go to to get my superintendent endorsement and uh and doctor at the same time. And I really did that uh just under the belief that I'm kind of a believer that um I didn't ever want uh a certificate or an endorsement to hold me back. I wanted to make sure I had uh whatever I needed to be uh available if an opportunity came, and that's really how it happened. It you know, in in the district where I was the assistant superintendent, an opportunity opened up as the superintendent retired, and uh I I happened to be there and had the right uh right credentials.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Right circumstances, right credentials, perfect. Okay, Dr. Schuler, this show is called Husky Hot Seat for a reason. So I'm gonna ask a question. I assume most of my listeners, students, really want to know. Heck, I guess many teachers probably want to know too. How do you decide when to have an e-learning day? Is there secret formula, cabal of superintendents texting each other at two in the morning? What's going on?

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Yeah, l all all of the above. Okay. Probably a question that uh I'm asked most often, certainly when I'm in and around uh uh school. So uh I do certainly have a network of uh superintendents in the area that uh I work closely with when weather is coming in, and and we know that uh we have weather uh coming in. Uh I have a lot of tools uh available to to me to really try to understand uh weather prediction. It's certainly not an exact science. And so uh you can't can't rely uh solely on that. But uh bottom line is that we look at, we watch conditions, really two different things. If it's snow that's coming, uh almost always uh on a day where we're concerned about snow, I'm actually up and out driving uh roads with the rest of our team at about 4 a.m. to actually really see what conditions look like. The bot bottom line is uh I like to see firsthand uh what uh what road conditions look like and I'll ultimately make a decision if I think it's safe for us to put both buses uh on the roads, cars on the roads. We certainly also work closely with uh the villages, cities to understand uh what their public works department uh is seeing uh in the morning, and that's ultimately the decision point. Working with uh a network of superintendents, uh we we trade share information and uh kind of arrive at what we think is the best decision for our district. Cold, a little different. Usually if uh if the concern is around cold, we have a pretty clear formula that we follow uh through the National Weather Service, and that typically corresponds with the type of warning that they're issuing, which uh makes that one a little cleaner decision than snow.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Aaron Powell I like the firsthand knowledge, though. That's pretty smart of you guys to do that. I appreciate that. Can you give just a basic description for our student listeners who might not have even known you existed until this podcast, like what the superintendent oversees, which I assume is a lot.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Yeah, so uh always explain it really in in this way. The way that education works in Illinois is that a local community elects a board of education. The board of education is responsible for uh uh setting priorities, setting, setting policy based on uh on the community. My job, I'm actually their only employee. So the the board of education hires one person, and that's the superintendent who's responsible for overseeing the district, administering the the district, align with the the priorities that the the board has set. So uh my job is to hire uh all of the administrators or the principals in the district to to one oversee all of our schools, two to oversee kind of the key areas of work within the district. So the business office, the human resource office, um, all of our student support uh programs. So uh my my job is to really kind of serve as the like the the chief executive for the school district and uh have a little bit of a hand in everything.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

I read an interview where you said that you didn't think there was an average day for a superintendent. So if that's the case, can you tell us about the craziest day you remember on the job?

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Yeah, so I think one uh fair, right? Like the the the bottom line is that I think I go into most days probably uh with about 70% of the day scheduled, like that I know what's uh what's in in front of uh of me and and then the other 30% usually is based on what's happening that day. So cer certainly if we have any type of crisis in any of our schools that uh we have to attend to or just something uh unplanned. Uh gosh, I'm trying to think back to the the the craziest of uh of days. And um I guess what I would say was was probably I'm gonna take people back to maybe uh sort of a little bit of an unpleasant time. Probably the craziest uh day that I can remember is the day right in front of the pandemic where we kind of figured out that schools are gonna be shutting down uh for a window of time, and and we knew that we had probably uh about 48 hours and uh and a weekend to try to figure out how we were gonna transform a school system and and figure out how we were gonna be prepared to try to continue to provide some education uh in a time and a circumstance where we just didn't know a whole lot.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah, I that was pretty surreal. I can't imagine being on the other end trying to make all the decisions, let alone just I can remember sitting in the auditorium hearing that announcement. Make sure you grab all your stuff, because we are not coming back on Monday. It was pretty wild times. Um I know that you and your team have spent a good amount of time and effort working on morale in the district, especially after COVID. Can you take a moment and just first tell us why this is so important to you? And secondly, what sort of things have you noticed from the feedback that you've received?

SPEAKER_01 12:26

So I think uh the why it's important, uh plain and simple, education is a people business, right? Everything that happens happens through human interaction, right? The interaction of uh of a teacher and a student, the interaction of staff uh and students, and and so um, we can put any improvement plan that we want in in place. We can introduce any new program that we want to ultimately uh it's our staff that are carrying out those opportunities. I say every every time we meet with the staff over at the school service center or the district office that in District 200, you either teach or you make teaching happen. It's one of those two. What I know is that uh I I am not one of, nor are any of our staff. We are not uh directly in the classroom doing the work with our students. And so uh the best of idea is not a good idea if staff are not uh in a place where they're feeling most effective and impactful in the work that they're doing, and that starts, that centers with honestly how they feel about the work that they're doing, how they feel about the support that they're getting. And so uh when we came especially out of the pandemic, uh, there were a lot of uh discussion points at the time about the need to get kids back on track in terms of learning progressions, learning acceleration, attendance concerns, uh students that uh needed to be reconnected to school. And again, at the end of the day, that was not gonna happen unless staff felt good about the the work that they were doing. And uh, I guess uh at its at its core to the second part of the question of what have we learned? Uh what we've learned is that sometimes uh what we think uh it means to have a staff member like feel good about, feel connected to the work. Um, it it may not match kind of where our teachers are at. And so I think the the process of focusing on morale has just helped us collectively make sure that that's always in our our forefront, that culture and relationships are gonna guide everything we do. And uh that that's actually never changed, right, in my time in education.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Yeah. I know your job is not exactly nine to five. There's lots of other community events and things you do. Uh what are some of the favorite things you get to do as superintendent? I mean, if it were me, I'd love like flipping the coin at the Wheaton North, Wheat and South game or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Yeah, I think anything that I get to do that involves uh watching our students uh in our schools uh certainly love it. Uh anytime I get an opportunity to uh sit down and talk to uh a group of students, uh I I love it. Right at the end of the day, the work that we do centers ultimately on uh an outcome, and that outcome is usually uh a student succeeding in something, performing in something. And so uh those those are by far the my my favorite days and opportunities you mentioned. I I do spend a fair amount of time out in the community at community events, kind of community uh network opportunities, and and really uh for me, that is a lot about just understanding how the community feels about the schools and the work that uh we're doing. Um, I love those opportunities because uh what what I generally hear uh and actually most often hear as I'm out in the community is that uh the community feels good about the work that schools are doing. We're not perfect. We have opportunities to get better every year, but as I ask uh our our community and ask our parents about the the work that we're doing, they feel good about our schools.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Aaron Powell Do you have people like in line at Starbucks ever come up to and want to start talking community stuff? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

I do. It's a it's impossible to be out in the community and and most of that uh generally comes from from a good place. I I again I've uh had the pleasure of getting to know, getting to meet a lot of people in the community, and and so uh it's it's pretty rare that I'm out uh out and about that I don't see somebody uh that has a connection back to the schools. And uh I I don't mind that. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

So we're gonna have one more question before we go to a quick break here. Uh people haven't heard you have announced you'll be retiring after the next school year. So on your way out the door, what would you say is the biggest lesson you've taken away from your time here as superintendent?

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Biggest lesson is that it is all about relationships. Uh again, uh nothing happens uh without uh genuine and authentic relationships in our schools. And uh I remember being struck by that twelve years ago when I started in District 200 and just kind of made my first tour of the community and our schools. What I heard most often as I asked people, what are you most proud of uh in District 200? There were deep and true authentic relationships. Kids that love their teachers, teachers that loved their students, parents that had a deep appreciation for uh our staff, our teachers, our staff that had a deep appreciation for the community. And that hasn't changed. That I think has been uh what I would call the secret sauce, kind of the uh secret weapon of uh what's made this community great, and and it's it's never changed. It's been foundational.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

All right, we're gonna take a short break and we'll be right back with portrait of a middle schooler. Hey Huskies, we are back with our guest, Dr. Schuler, and I hope you're ready for one of our favorite segments Portrait of a Middle Schooler. Strange fashion choices, absolutely weird hobbies, oh yeah. Old nicknames you forgot about until this moment. Well, let's see what we can come up with. Okay, Dr. Shuler, I want you to describe your middle school self, maybe what you looked like, what activities you did. This would be a great time to drop any embarrassing stories you have if you'd like.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Yeah, uh certainly I wish I could remember a lot of those uh embarrassing stories. I'm not sure that I can. Uh I as a middle school kid uh won uh loved soccer. Uh what I remember was uh spending as much time as possible with uh a soccer ball on uh on my foot. It just uh was was what uh I remember doing uh a whole lot of uh in and around that time. Um I think I was just sort of that your your um probably typical, maybe awkward at times uh middle school kid that uh I did okay uh in school, but uh I I don't remember my middle school years necessarily being uh super memorable for any one thing other than uh kind of my transition between elementary school and high school.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Did you have any teachers that stuck out to you that you recall from that time?

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Um I I do. I I remember uh one, I remember uh having a math teacher. So uh from uh I guess a learning perspective, uh I I always thought that uh I enjoyed math. I was decent at math, but uh I remember in middle school having a math teacher. Uh I actually don't truly remember his name, but I remember his face and uh the experience. And uh it it really helped me to to build even more confidence in myself as uh as a learner. That was probably the area even through high school where I excelled the the most, and I think it was based on uh that middle school experience in a teacher that unlocked that for me. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Okay, well, knowing what you know now as an adult, what piece of advice would you give your middle school self?

SPEAKER_01 20:44

I would have told myself to uh enjoy the moment. I think I I hear often now, right, this lens that uh sometimes when you're you're in a moment, the the days feel incredibly long, but in the end the years are gonna be incredibly short. So um I would have told myself just to enjoy the moment that I was in and uh not worry a whole lot about you know what's to to come that's gonna work itself out.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

All right, that is great advice. We're gonna take another break and we will be right back. Welcome back, Pac. We are still hanging with our guest, Dr. Schuler. We've heard a lot about your work as superintendent, a little bit about your middle school self, but I'd love to dig into some of the things you like to do in your free time, what little it seems that you have. I know you and your wife have two college-age kids, probably coming back home any minute, I'd imagine. So, what sort of things do you like to do with your kids when they're back at home?

SPEAKER_01 21:44

One, we uh we love to just spend time with them uh at at home. So uh su surprisingly, I think uh as your kids grow and uh they they go to college, that just having them back in the house uh is is an absolute uh uh blessing. So when they're home and when we uh we're lucky enough to have them home together, uh we we love to just cook, uh have uh have some family uh meals again, uh hang out, talk, watch movies, uh, just be around each other.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Now I know that you are a Hoosier, an IU alum. Do either of your kids attend Indiana?

SPEAKER_01 22:21

I could not get either of them to go to Indiana. I tried and uh it just didn't happen.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

Now I assume that you were pretty pumped this year when Indiana won the national championship, but how do you feel about Indiana having a better football team than basketball team? That must feel a little strange.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

I tell people all the time that Indiana's a football school it's not a basketball school. But uh that's weird because uh when I went to school there, it was definitely a basketball program. That was uh and end of that era the the highlight of uh kind of their basketball years. So uh it it's uh it's strange but uh to be honest I'm I'm just happy to kind of see them uh in in the headlines and uh certainly what I I know for the university is a successful football program has brought a lot of attention back to the school and uh I think that's good for the university.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Do you get back to the campus very often?

SPEAKER_01 23:14

I I've gotten back uh a couple of times. Uh I I try to go now. I've gone to a football game uh at least once a a year had the the great uh fortune luck of uh going to the national championship game this year so that's awesome uh I got to got to see him win it.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

That's amazing. Now I heard from some inside sources that you're a pretty big country music fan. Let's pretend you're going back to your car today after this interview. Who are you turning on?

SPEAKER_01 23:41

I uh I I like uh I I like uh Kenny Chesney I like a little bit of uh uh Luke Combs I'll listen to really anybody that's uh on the radio I think uh for me at least uh music in general is a good kind of relaxer when I'm in the car. I think uh especially as I'm uh leaving work headed home uh it generally just sort of helps me transition from work brain to you have a lot of talking heads all day long yeah you need something else I need sometimes to just uh kind of listen and uh and and sort of bring my bring myself down a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

As a music teacher sometimes I'm the exact opposite I've I've done music all day I throw a podcast on let someone just talk at me for that car ride home. I know that you're a big golfer and you try to get out when you get a chance.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Can you tell us a little about what's the nicest course that you've played I love to play at a a course called Mistwood which is uh uh down a little bit uh uh south of of here um probably the nicest course that I've ever played uh I've played a few uh fun courses out in South Carolina we like to spend a lot of time in uh in South Carolina and uh there's a a course out there called uh Caldonia that uh is one of our favorites to play when we're out that direction okay I want you to release your humility for a moment here can you tell us about the best shot you've ever had every golfer can tell the story right yeah uh most memorable is that uh I've had the good fortune of one hole in one in uh in my golf time and uh remember vividly uh watching that go in the hole.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Do you have that ball like up on the wall somewhere?

SPEAKER_01 25:23

I certainly do.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Okay. All right one more question before we take another break. True confession I've been pressured to ask this by some of my colleagues here at Hubble so I cannot disappoint. Has anyone ever told you that you bear a passing resemblance to actor Matt Damon?

SPEAKER_01 25:37

I have heard that.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Okay we have a running joke here when when you come to meeting oh my God that's Jason Bourne. Yeah that's our standard okay you have heard it so it's not just us.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

I I have heard it but when I come to the meeting next time I actually want to hear it.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

You want to hear it okay I can make that happen. We are going to take one more break and then it's time for throw a dog a bone okay huskies before we go it's time for throw the dog a bone each episode we like to sign off by answering one completely random question. Dr. Schuler does not know the question I'm about to ask and I have no idea what he's going to say so it could get interesting. So if you were in charge of the school district oh wait you are what holiday would you want to give a day off for all students staff for the district? I'll give you a moment to think about it. I was just thinking about this in March, the first day of March Madness when it hits 11 a pretty much every seventh eighth grade boy I have is useless for the next four hours. So I wouldn't mind that first Thursday of March Madness being a day off and just let them go crazy with it. What do you think, Dr. Schuler?

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Yeah well uh so we've we've spent a little time uh covering one of my favorite hobbies uh which would be golf so uh I can think of a couple of uh golf tournaments where uh I wouldn't mind uh that first day uh not being here in school so I could watch it like uh if uh if I could find my way down to the uh the masters uh ever uh I think that'd be a good holiday.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

I agree. All right before we head out I do want to give you a chance if you're willing or available to update on some of the different middle school facilities constructions going on.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Aaron Ross Powell Yeah so we're uh big uh projects that are uh underway so uh at uh Monroe Edison Franklin uh we've got some new additions that are uh underway performing arts editions at Monroe and Franklin and expansion of the gym at Edison and then over the next two summers uh really the entire interior of uh those buildings uh is getting a renovation and an upgrade science labs library learning centers uh offices all classrooms uh are getting updated there's really not uh much of the building that's not uh getting a uh a makeover and they're just they're buildings that uh were in need they've been around for a little while and uh needed both some functional improvement as well as uh some cosmetic mechanical improvement.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

Well I think our community is excited that is going to take place and we appreciate you being on the show. Husky Hot Seat listeners, thank you for listening. We want to thank our guest Dr. Schuller for his time. If you see him around the Hubble community say hello maybe ask him about something you heard on the show. I bet we talk about IU football or his whole in one. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at HuskyHotseat Podcast for updates about the show. And if you liked what you heard on the Husky Hot Seat remember to subscribe to the show. We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and pretty much anywhere else you like to listen to podcast. If you really want to help the show grow please leave a review on your podcast app of choice. And finally spread the news about the show to people you know. The internet is great but the goal of Husky Hot Seat is to build connection within our Hubble community. So the more staff parents and students that listen the tighter we become and remember Huskies none of us are lone wolves we work best in a pack. See you after the summer