The Park Ridge-Niles School District 64 Board of Education at its August 11 meeting confirmed the appointment of Emily Lech as assistant principal to be shared between Carpenter and Franklin schools. Lech is replacing Stephanie Daly, who has been named principal of Washington School.
Lech comes to District 64 from Dawes Elementary School in Evanston/Skokie School District 65. Over the past five years, she was a fourth and fifth grade teacher and served as a team leader. At Dawes, she led a parent-teacher school improvement committee that surveyed families and identified goals to improve communication, school climate, and facilities. She also worked collaboratively to design a school math night, career day, and year-end recognition assembly among other community events. At Dawes, she also was one of five instructional leaders selected to support teacher-learning communities specially focused on the Common Core State Standards. In addition, Lech led professional development on a district-wide basis that focused on differentiation and instructional planning for other fourth grade teachers.
Previously, Lech taught fourth grade at Galapagos Charter School in Chicago for a year, where she helped organize the school’s first family block party and middle school social. Before moving to the Chicago area, she also taught third and fourth grade for three years in Washington, D.C., where she analyzed and revised the local school plan and budget to help improve student academic achievement in math and organized an after school club with a local community partner.
“Emily’s experience working cooperatively with peers to strengthen teaching skills, utilize data to improve instruction, and implement the Common Core standards, combined with her focus on communication and forging strong relationships with families especially impressed our interview team,” according to Superintendent Laurie Heinz.
“We believe she will be immediately effective in working with both our Carpenter and Franklin communities as we move ahead with technology integration as part of our 21st Century Learning Plan and as we enter the second year of our Common Core-aligned math curriculum,” she added.
Lech completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Iowa and also holds a master’s degree from Lewis University.
To select the new assistant principal, a team of administrators conducted initial screening interviews of eight candidates identified from a pool of more than 100 applicants. A combined group of teachers and administrators interviewed two finalists. Using information gathered from the interview process and reference checks along with her own final interview, Dr. Heinz made the decision to offer the position to Lech.