The Park Ridge-Niles School District 64 Board of Education at its July 13 meeting confirmed the appointment of Amanda Spychalski as assistant principal of Field School effective July 27. Spychalski is a native of Park Ridge, and attended Field for grades K-6.
“We are so pleased to welcome home one of our own students to become the Assistant Principal at her former school,” according to Superintendent Laurie Heinz.
Spychalski comes to District 64 from Oriole Park Elementary School in Chicago, where she taught grades 5 and 3 for eight years. Previously, she was lead writing teacher for grades 4-8 at Chicago’s Trumbull Elementary School for a year. She began her educational career as a sixth grade Language Arts and reading teacher at Blackhawk Middle School in Bensenville.
“Ms. Spychalski impressed us with her enthusiasm and passion for education, and her strong grasp of the curriculum, including a deep background in writing and reading,” Dr. Heinz noted. “She is a team player with a collaborative focus, who is well-versed in integrating technology and using data to guide differentiated instruction to meet the individual needs of each student,” she said.
“Ms. Spychalski also is an effective communicator and understands the importance of building home-school partnerships,” Dr. Heinz added. “I know Field students, staff and families will find her warm and approachable, and that she and Principal Katie Kelly will form a strong partnership,” she stated.
During her career in the classroom, Ms. Spychalski sought out and created many opportunities to exercise teacher leadership. She initiated and coordinated “Pulitzer Prize” ceremonies to recognize young author writers, created Community Literacy Nights, and presented parent workshops focusing on preparing students for benchmark assessments. At Oriole Park, she oversaw the student teacher program and represented teaching staff on the Local School Council. She also coached cross country teams, leading one group to the City championship for grades 5-6 girls.
Spychalski is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and holds master’s degrees in reading from Northeastern Illinois University and in school leadership from Concordia University.
Dr. Heinz selected Spychalski from an initial pool of 73 external candidates. The multi-step process concluded with interviews of four finalists by a team of Field School teachers and staff joined by District 64 administrators before Dr. Heinz made the final selection.