001Good evening and welcome to the special board meeting on May 6th, 2026. The time is 5:00 p.m. and we're calling the meeting to order. If we can please call the roll. Mrs. Asif? Here. Mrs. Hostler? Here. Mrs. Lewinsky? Here. Mr. Bresnihan? Here. Mrs. Troutman? Dr. Henry? Mrs. Arvanitidis? Here. Five board members present, two absent. If we can please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the United States of America and to the republic for one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice >> Kelly, I don't think there's any public comments, but you didn't receive anything, right? Anyone wanting to address the board? Okay, we'll move on. Uh we have one action item today under um sorry, the title of it is York interim co-principals the 2026-2027 school year and I'll turn
002that over to Dr. Campbell. Thank you. With the transition of current uh principal leader, recruiting and hiring a new high school principal ideally takes place earlier in the school year to attract the highest quality candidate that are searching for new opportunity. Therefore, the administration developed a plan to secure interim leadership for the 2026-2027 school year so that we can conduct a full search for a permanent principal who will officially start on July 1st, 2027. Tonight, I am pleased and proud to recommend Dr. Linda Yanke and Mr. Steven Bildt, both retired administrators with a lengthy educational leadership focus, specifically also with it the high school level. For these two individuals to serve as interim co-principals at York High School for the 2026-2027 school year. Now, let me share just briefly about the two candidates. Dr. Linda
003Yanke is a highly respected educational leader who has served as a superintendent, a principal, and district consultant across several high-performing school systems. Most notably, she served as principal of York Community High School from 1998 to 2004. She later [snorts] served as superintendent of New Trier Township High School District 203. Since her retirement, Dr. Yanke has continued to serve as interim superintendent roles and and as a mentor to district leaders, including prior work supporting Elmhurst District 205. Mr. Steven Build brings more than 50 years of experience in education, including serving as high school principal, district leader, and mentor to emerging administrators. During his tenure as principal in Downers Grove Community High School District 99, Mr. Build led a school of more than 3,000 students and 400 staff members, overseeing all aspects of school operations, curriculum, and
004student services. His background has also includes extensive experience in special education leadership. In their interim roles as co-interim principals, Dr. Yanke and Mr. Build will work collaboratively with district and school leadership to maintain the strong momentum that is already in place. So, on tonight, I recommend to the Board of Education to approve Dr. Linda Yanke and Mr. Steven Build for the position of interim co-principals at York High School effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. As well as additional transitional days that is outlined in the memo. Employment, obviously, is contingent on the successful background and faith loss check. Thank you, Dr. Campbell. Courtney, I see you snuck in. If we can also take note that Ms. Chapman is in attendance and now we have six board members present, that'd be great. Can we please
005call a motion? I move that the Board of Education to approve Dr. Linda Yanke and Dr. Steven Bild for the position of interim co-principals at York High School effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027, as well as the additional transition days outlined above. Employment is contingent on successful background and faith loss checks. The recommendation is $1,300 per day for Dr. Linda Yanke and $1,100 per day for Dr. for Mr. Bild. Second. Motion made by Mrs. Hasler, second by Ms. Assef. I just wanted to take a second to open up for comments from the board. Sure, I'll comment. Um so, as mentioned by Dr. Campbell, I understand and appreciate the April uh resignation creates kind of a challenging timeline to hire somebody else, and I fully acknowledge these two wonderful uh interim principals that are
006proposed. They're really experienced, highly respected, and I do believe that we are very fortunate to have uh leaders like Dr. Yanke and Mr. Bild's caliber willing to step in during this time. But, I also want to express some reservations about the full year interim process and the model itself. Um as we go into uh my primary concern, which is really uh student stability, as we have freshmen and sophomores that are going to experience three leadership teams in four years. Um, and with those transitions they kind of, uh, come with some shifts in momentum, some shifts in priorities, kind of create some uncertainty during that time as well. Um, and I think that's a lot to put on the backs of our students. Um, I also think that this can provide a real strong opportunity for
007our district to, um, strengthen our internal candidate process and um, >> [clears throat] >> maybe we have some really talented assistant principals that maybe we can develop so that these transitions can go seamlessly from one to the other in the future. Um, so we don't have this kind of challenge again. Um, but I will say in spite of that I really appreciate the district leadership and Dr. Campbell's um, direction that they're headed and I think they have the, um, they're prepared enough to bridge that gap through the interim process and I think maybe moving forward we, um, just make sure that um, we we have those opportunities to create those that stability in the future and and choose strong leadership for that consistency moving forward. Thank you. Anything else? I I'll chime in a little.
008So, um, having been here for quite a bit, Beth and I have seen this over the years happen. Um, and I I think that, um, the point about our assistant principals at York and the strength that they bring, um, I think that Dr. Young I don't know Mr. Bill but I'm sure I will. Um, we have seen the stability that she brings to this district during transitional periods. Um, and it is I I am personally grateful that they are available to be here during this position during this transition so that we can take the time to find the best leader moving forward. Um everyone in education knows and I learned this quickly when I became on the board is that finding a leader in April is not a good time to do that. Um so
009I love the idea that we have the ability to to lean on Linda and um and Stephen to bridge this gap and I have confidence in them extreme confidence in them and and like I said we have amazing assistant principals and there's great building leadership over there that I think will just be incredibly supportive in the transition. Yeah. Beth. Just one other thing I know that we have all valued the process that Dr. Campbell and her team have put in place when we've made when we've hired leaders in our different um buildings um for our entire district and how important it is that we are able to take the time to engage with the community to engage with um stakeholders staff members in the building the leadership that we already have at York High School
010and and really have the time to go through that process um and and work through that same process we've used when we hired Dr. Campbell when we hired other um district leadership. So I think these two experienced leaders are going to give us a time to do that and help us go through that process. Just wanted to note that. Okay. Can we call the vote? Yes, Hassler. Mrs. Hassler? Yes. Mrs. Troutman? Yes. Mr. Bresnihan? Yes. Mrs. Lewinsky? Yes. Dr. Henry? Mrs. Irvinitis? >> Yes. Six eyes, zero nays, one absent. Motion passes. I'd like to clap. >> [applause] >> Just a sincere appreciation to both of you for your willingness to come and and step in in a time of transition just like board members have already outlined and moving a little bit slow in the
011hiring process for the district. I believe will help us move faster in the near future. And so we we're looking forward to your onboarding. We're looking forward to seeing you more in the near future. So thank you again for your your commitment and for for coming back to D205 for Dr. Yonke specifically. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Thank you and we are ecstatic. I just wanted to all off offer you the opportunity if there were just some very brief comments that Dr. Yonke and Mr. Beal would like to share with our board and community. >> [clears throat] >> It's very brief. >> [laughter] >> Let me see if I can get this in the right place. Well, good evening and I would like to first of all thank you for giving me the opportunity to return
012to one of my very favorite places in the world, York High School. I have a deep connection to York in in many ways. I was principal when it was when we passed the referendum and it was rebuilt and I left in the summer of 2004 when it had been finished in January of 2004. So I didn't get to live in it for very long and I'm looking forward to that. I also love the spirit of York. I've I've I've worked in a number of different districts and since I retired doing consulting work in a number of districts and there's nothing like the spirit of York where this is York and it was that way when I was here and it appears to still be that way today. I also have you know we have a
013deep emotional connection to the school. Our son graduated from York in 2003 and we lived in Elmhurst for 8 years. If I hadn't gotten the job at New Trier, we probably still would live here and talk about returning here. So it was it was a great experience. I also am happy after 22 years in central office, superintendent for 11 years and then several three interim superintendent positions to be returning to the actual high school and to be at the forefront right on the front lines of educating teenagers and seeing teenagers again and the joy and despair of being a teenager and and then working with them. Think about ninth grader and how much they change by the time they graduate from here. And it's an exciting thing to see and to witness and to be
014challenged to help kids through through that time. I'm very I've already met with some of the leadership team at York and look forward to getting to hearing from the leaders and teachers, support staff, everyone there. But I'm most excited about connecting with students and I appreciate your comments about thinking about students in this experience. Having three principals in three years is certainly a challenge and I want to let you know that I feel committed to enhancing that student experience as much as possible and really connecting to that joy of of high school life. We have kind of a framework when we think about high schools that high school is preparation for life. That you have to get ready for college. You have to think about a job. What's your career going to be? We're preparing
015for life. But in my view, high school is life. This is the life that these kids are living right now. It's very important to them. It's an important part of their lives as they're transitioning really from childhood to adulthood and I'm ready to live independently. So, I'm looking forward to being part of that process again. Um and most importantly, you know, being helping everyone that we can in preparing for the next year and the new principal, the new permanent principal that will come in that following year. So, thank you again for the opportunity. I promise to do my best to help in this in this process in any way that I can. So, thank you. Well, thank you for the opportunity. I I love being in a high school. I've been part of a high
016school for a long period of time and probably wasn't ready to retire when I did so 12 years ago. I'll I'll say that I was a member of the conference Downers Grove South and have great respect for the work that's done at York High School. I I mentioned to the leadership team yesterday that in those 12 years I've been in many many schools assisting them in a process similar to this and I've learned how to be a temp and how to reassure people that I simply serve as a bridge to what's coming and and that I I I I don't come into a building to make it mine. I come in to find out what's sacred and what people would like to change and then help support that in any way I can in the
017brief time that I'm there. That's my role and I look forward to the partnership with Linda. She brings quite a bit quite a bit to the table and hope that I can do the same. So, I'm looking forward to being a Duke. Thank you and welcome. Certainly your experience the both of you and expertise is one that we will greatly benefit from while you're here. So, thank you again. We appreciate it. We will move on to the next item, which is board communications. I haven't heard of any board communications, but does anybody have a communication for the board? Okay, we'll skip that. We have upcoming meetings May 19th, 2026, we have a Board of Education meeting at 7:00 p.m. here at District 205 Center in rooms 215, 16, and 17. And with that, it is
0185:16 and this meeting is adjourned.