Following the Aug. 25 separation from the previous superintendent, Dr.Denise Herrmann, the District 128 school board and district administrators have been implementing administrative changes and conducting hirings.

The Amended Employment Agreement was an amendment to the original contract the Board had with Herrmann. It ended Herrmann’s contract early by three years. Herrmann will be on paid administrative leave for the remainder of this school year, and her resignation will be effective on June 30, 2025.

“We have brought in two phenomenal interim superintendents… They have been working really hard with the teachers, with the ESPs, with the DLT, and really to understand how they can support them better,” Sonal Kulkarni, D128 Board Secretary, said.

Kulkarni said that the change has provided a positive atmosphere for the D128 workforce.

“The staff in general is feeling energized in moving forward. So, I think the main goal for us was to provide stability at this point in time, and I think we’ve got a really good start there,” Kulkarni said.

Kulkarni said that when the Board hires a new superintendent, they will look for the “soft skills,” such as how they work with others and collaborate, as well as “hard skills,” the experience, and the credentials for the job.

Additionally, Kulkarni shared that the Board will take measures to involve the teachers, parents and community mem- bers in their search to ensure that they will reach a mutual agreement about who to hire as the next superintendent.

With this in mind, the Board is looking for new candidates for superintendent through search firm services. At the Sep. 9 board meeting, two firms presented their pitches to the board; neither of them were School Exec Connect, the company that was used to find Dr. Herrmann.

After some discussion, The Board’s final decision was to hire BWP Associates to continue the search for the district’s new superintendent.

Separation Agreement

In the 2021-2022 school year, Herrmann took over the role of District 128 Super-intendent, with her three year contract ending in June 2024.

In February of 2023, Libertyville teacher Sarah Greenswag, on behalf of the D128 Federation of Teachers, spoke about collective concerns about district leadership at the Board meeting.The following month, the Board extended Herrmann’s contract through June of 2028.

D128 Board president Lisa Hessel said extending Herrmann’s contract, despite knowing that teachers had expressed concerns about current leadership, made sense because it was congruent with the performance reviews the Board held at the time.

In addition, Kulkarni said superintendents take a year to hire. This means that the decision to hire a new superintendent would’ve needed to be made in spring 2023, one year before the end of her contract.

In hindsight, Kulkarni said that the right thing to do would have been to extend the contract for three more years, rather than five.

In May 2024, the D128 Federation of Teachers issued a vote of no confidence,which was a statement made by the Union that they had no confidence in the superintendent.

During the May 20, 2024 Union address to School Board, Monica Caldicott, D128 Teacher’s Union president, said, “The D128 Union [had] exhausted all avenues to connect with Dr. Herrmann…Dr. Herrmann’s unwillingness to listen is notably apparent.”

The Board announced separation negotiations with Herrmann were underway in July 2024.

The Amended Employment Agreement, obtained by The Scratching Post through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, states, “Dr. Herrmann will be paid on administrative leave during the 2024-2025 school year. We gratefully acknowledge Dr. Herrmann’s many contributions to District 128 and wish her well in her future endeavors.”

According to the Amended Employment Agreement, “During this time, the Board will ensure that Herrmann receives all salary and benefits by regularly scheduled payroll payments as provided for in the Contract.” This includes her salary of $304,290 over the course of the school year, a contribution of $20,700 to her 403(b) retirement plan, $6,000.00 for transportation, as well as other Board paid contributions to her salary.