As students in the south suburbs prepare to head back to school, things will look different for those walking the halls of high schools in Blue Island, Oak Lawn and Palos Heights.
New principals at Harold L. Richards High School and Alan B. Shepard High School are part of District 218 Superintendent Josh Barron’s plan of restructuring the district to build on academic improvements seen in recent years.
These include establishing more post-secondary opportunities for students to learn about and shifting the responsibility of curriculum development to individual teacher department heads. Three new executive directors tasked with supporting that work will divide responsibilities into STEAM (science, tech, engineering, art and math), humanities, and student, family and community engagement.
“I believe we have the greatest teaching staff in the state of Illinois,” Barron said. “Our teachers work hard. They collaborate well together. They really care about our kids, and we just want to support them more at the building level.”
Both MaLinda Majoch, who will lead Richards High School, and Tim Baker, who will be Shepard High School principal, have more than two decades of experience within the district. They succeed Mike Jacobson and Jen Pollack, respectively, who will be executive directors for student, family and community engagement and STEAM.
Majoch began her career at Richards in 2003 as a social worker and oversaw the school’s small learning community before moving to administration as assistant principal of attendance, discipline and special education in 2009. She was also director of community and grants until she was promoted to associate principal, a position held most recently at Dwight D. Eisenhower High School.
“It’s full circle for me to come back to the place where I first started,” Majoch said. “It’s wild seeing some of your former students now serve as your colleagues.”
The returning Bulldog said she is also excited for the opportunity to be a role model, especially to Black female students who might not expect someone who looks like her to hold the school’s top job.
“We have an incredibly diverse school district, and I think it’s super important that students are able to see a wide variety of individuals in roles, because I want them to know they can do anything,” Majoch said. “I feel very privileged that I get to be that face that maybe someone else says ‘whoa, wait, I didn’t think that lady was the principal’ and have a great experience.”
At Shepard, Baker rose to a principal position after beginning as a science teacher at Richards in 2002, coaching basketball and track on the side. His passion for high school sports led him to become Eisenhower’s athletic director, and in 2015, he became assistant principal of discipline and activities before moving to Shepard as associate principal.
Baker said the first principal he worked under at Richards, Ross Cucio, was his mentor and “put the bug in his ear” to work toward school leadership.
“He used to always say that the teachers are the ones taking care of the kids and the administrators are the ones taking care of the caretakers, and so I kind of always embody that as a leader,” Baker said.
“That’s generally my focus, creating a positive school culture and climate for the students and the staff, so that we’re all there to serve as kids. As long as we keep the teachers happy, they’re keeping the kids happy, then hopefully everything’s going smoothly.”
Of course, Baker said another top priority is to “start filling that trophy case.”
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