Rock Island teachers call on school board to leave new deputy superintendent position vacant

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (KWQC) - Community members packed Tuesday night’s school board meeting to call on the Rock Island-Milan School District 41 Board of Education to leave a newly created deputy superintendent position vacant.

The Rock Island Education Association said it wants the board immediately be transparent, especially when it comes to administrative hiring, and will call on the board to abide by the school board oath.

In a media release RIEA president Andrew Hains said, “We are in the middle of a teacher and support staff shortage. We have more than 20 open educator positions in our district right now. Instead of focusing on filling the positions that work directly with our students and are critical to their day-to-day development and success, the board wants to add more administrators to an already full roster.”

The Board of Education approved hiring a new superintendent, Sharon William in January. Her start date is July 1.

The district has had three interim superintendents since former Superintendent Reginald Lawrence and the board parted ways in April 2023.

At the meeting, BOE President Terell Williams responded that the deputy superintendent’s job is not the board’s idea. It is the superintendent that wants the administrative position.

“Dr. Williams provides her recommendation to the board of education,” he said. “And so for me, personally, I can’t speak for everyone else, I don’t want to get ahead of her. Right. It’s her decision. This is her recommendation that she wants to bring to us. We will go through the process, we will fill that position, and we will support her or we wont as a board, but in her wisdom, based off of her knowledge and her skills and expertise. This is a position that she feels she needs. I’m sure that when she gets in full time, she will come she was discuss.”

There are currently 14 open support staff positions and nine open teacher positions within District 41, according to the RIMSD website.

Meanwhile, the district has added more than $1 million in new administrative positions, which means RIMSD now has a lower student/administrator ratio than other comparable districts, like Moline, RIEA said in the media release.

“We want Williams to be successful here, but hiring a deputy superintendent is not the answer,” Hains said. “We’ve seen no evidence as to why this position is needed. We believe success comes with a board and superintendent who work closely with our teachers and staff. The teachers, certified staff, paraprofessionals and support staff are the people who work most closely with our students every day. There is no way to provide a high-quality public education to all 6,000-plus Rock Island students without open, honest collaboration with our educators.”

RIEA represents 439 teachers and other certified professionals working in District 41, officials said. The district serves the nearly 6,125 students who attend the 14 schools in the district.

“We hope the school board members who pledged to put students first when they took office, remember our 6,000-plus students when making future decisions,” Hains said. “We also look forward to having an open dialogue with the board about what our students, our schools and our communities’ needs are. Our students benefit when all of our stakeholders work together with their best interests at heart.”

This story has been updated since first published.

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