District 94 recently welcomed a new superintendent, Dr. Kurt Johansen, who is ready to paint a bigger, better picture for WEGO and intends to have a “super” impact on the kids with whom he has the privilege of working.
During a recent conversation with Johansen, he reflected heavily on his past in education and how his own high-school career and family have prepared him for his work in our district today. Though Johansen’s mother and father both worked in the education system (the latter being a superintendent himself), he recalled his biggest influence in deciding to work in education being his high school social studies teacher, Mr. Farlik.
“Mr. Farlik, had a way about him just connecting with the kids and making the content fun,” Johansen said.
It was due to this positive impact that Johansen himself decided to pursue teaching sophomore year of college, originally pursuing a degree in special education.
After working towards his degree in college, Johansen slowly began climbing up the ladder of the education system, beginning as a teacher like his mother before him. Then one day, rather out of the blue, he received a call asking if he’d interview for a position as a dean.
“And I’d never thought about that, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, might as well,’” Johansen said.
Before long, he found himself taking a job as an assistant principal, and later a principal at South Elgin.
“And then I knew, once I got in that far, I wanted to be a superintendent, because at this level you can, you can have a large, large impact, right?” Johansen said, affirming his core desire to make a positive impact as superintendent.
Johansen then went on to detail his love for interacting with others, and how working in-building as a superintendent at WeGo has allowed him to build positive relationships with students and teachers in a way most people in his position are not able to.
However, he also explains that it has been quite the shift when it comes to his primary work regarding the school district.
“I’m more focused on that big picture, setting the direction for the district. As a principal, you focus on that big picture, but the day to day stuff is more interaction with kids and the teachers. In this role, It’s not as much, which can be a hard adjustment,” Johansen said.
Despite those changes, Johansen believes that his own outside experience in other districts, along with a positive school climate and community engagement, is a recipe for success and will help build upon the district’s strengths.
“I am so excited to have Johansen as our Superintendent this year. I have known Johansen as a fellow principal in the Upstate Eight Athletic Conference for the previous four years. He was a great principal and is going to be a great superintendent. I also really value his experience as a high school principal. It is great to work with someone who knows what it is like to lead a large suburban high school,” Dr. Will Dwyer, principal at WCCHS, said.
Johansen also noted that there have been many great initiatives happening isolated or in pockets, and that as superintendent one of his main goals is to bring them together to create a unified voice and focus for the district.
“We’re gonna start the process of developing a strategic plan for our district – something that hasn’t been done in over twenty-five years,” Johansen said.
But most of all, it is clear that Johansen’s true driving passion comes from the community and the kids at our school.
“I’m so excited with this generation of future leaders and what you guys are gonna be able to accomplish. I’m really excited about it,” Johansen said after speaking about the challenges our generation has faced, especially in this day and age with social media making us much more aware of global issues as well as having to go through school during the pandemic.
The superintendent then highlighted his connections with students he has worked with in the past, reminiscing on his time as a football coach and about a student who reached out for lunch five years after they had last seen each other, stating he realized in that moment that “You don’t realize the impact you can have. Yeah, somebody, you don’t even think about it. Yeah, here’s this guy that reaches out six, seven years down the road, saying, ’Hey, I just want to meet you for lunch.’”
Johansen intends to continue that cycle of positive impact that started with his own history teacher when he was a high school student.
“I’ve had the luxury of being in multiple different places, so I think life is all about perspective, right? And when you live in one perspective, that’s all you know, and sometimes you take it for granted. But when you have the luxury of being in different locations and your perspective has shifted, you really can appreciate and value what is happening. [West Chicago is] a place unlike any other I’ve been at, and that’s because of you guys, as students. That’s because the teachers, because the parents and the community members, it really takes a village and a community to make this thing work. And I’m just really, really happy to be here,” Johansen said.
