IASA Podcast

Round Lake Area Schools CUSD #116 was among 10 school districts in Illinois chosen last year to participate in ISBE's competency-based learning pilot. Dr. Donn Mendoza, deputy superintendent, discusses how the effort is going and what it took for his school district to implement the change.

Dr. Heidi Podjasek, director of professional development at Oswego Community Unit School District 308, discusses why and how her district switched to a trauma-informed care approach to better understand student behavior and help students stay on track.

School safety security expert, Ken Trump, joins IASA podcast to discuss ways school superintendents can keep their buildings safer. Trump encourages superintendents to focus most on peoples and procedures rather than products and hardware.

Former IASA Communications Director Mike Chamness, who is now chairman of the Illinois Terrorism Task Force, discusses the 13 recommendations the School Safety Working Group sent to the governor. Among ideas is to expand uses of countywide sales tax and more information sharing between schools and law enforcement.

In this episode, Township High School District 214 Superintendent David Schuler discusses how his district is addressing the teacher shortage problem by growing their own educators. Over three years, the initiative has placed just over 300 students in the teacher pipeline.

Lemont School District 113A Superintendent Dr. Courtney Orzel discusses why she wanted to become a superintendent, why more women are entering administration, finding a balance between work and home life and how her district crawled out of financial ruin.

IASA Executive Director Dr. Brent Clark discusses why it was important two bills on administrative caps and debt structuring were defeated, as well concerns IASA has with the so-called "shared superintendent" bill. Also, Clark discusses the budget, pension shift and more.

Dr. Ehren Jarrett, superintendent of Rockford Public Schools, discusses how new EMB funding is helping his district and details short and long-term plans for RPS moving forward.

Mark Doan, superintendent of Effingham School District, joins IASA podcast to discuss "Leadership, Creativity and Innovation," a new teaching model deployed in the district that is adapted to the 21st century.

Illini West High School District 307 Superintendent Kim Schilson discusses how the teacher shortage in Illinois has affected her district.

Ralph Grimm, director of Vision 20/20, discusses how the public policy platform came together, the passage of the evidence-based model and goals moving forward.

Mark Jontry, president of the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, speaks to IASA about findings from the group's survey on Illinois' teacher shortage, as well as provides recommendations to fix the problem.

Dr. Jim Rosborg, director of Master of Education Programs at McKendree University, speaks about various factors that have caused Illinois' teacher shortage.

The very first episode of IASA!