Former Du Quoin educator honored on national stage

Former Du Quoin school superintendent Gary Kelly has had an impact on education locally, statewide and nationally, which his most recent award illustrates.

Kelly, the 2019 Illinois Superintendent of the Year, has now been honored with a Distinguished Service Award from the American Association of School Administrators, one of three bestowed in 2020. The other two honorees are retired superintendents of the Woburn, Massachusetts and Brown Deer, Wisconsin school districts.

"The AASA family owes a debt of gratitude to our 2021 Distinguished Service honorees for the outstanding work they've done on behalf of public education," said Executive Director Daniel A. Domenech in a tribute posted on the agency's website.

The award, Kelly said, is a service-based honor that looks at an educator's career, their engagement at the state and national level, "and your work with kids."

That frequently means digging into policy, like Kelly's involvement with the eventual change to Illinois' public school funding formula.

"When I became a superintendent in 1997 we were talking then about the challenges of state funding and how the formula wasn't working to benefit the schools most in need," he recalled Monday.

A lot of hard work by a lot of people got the system reformed in 2017. "The first two years we saw really good things happen in districts that didn't rely on property taxes," he said. Funding has flattened out this year, but he expects a bump soon.

Of all the work he's done leading the Illinois Association of School Administrators as president and board member; and at the national level on both the AASA Governing Board and Executive Committee, being part of the project that created the Evidenced Based Funding system for Illinois schools was probably the most satisfying.

"The old formula created winners and losers," Kelly said, noting that southern Illinois tended to be more of a loser in terms of getting adequate educational funding. Still, the system needs constant vigilance, he added, especially given that Illinois is still in a financial crisis.

Kelly was nominated for the Distinguished Service Award by two suburban Chicago superintendents, Brian Harris of Barrington Unit District 220 and Art Fessler, leader of the K-8 schools in Elk Grove Township District 59.

"I served with them on the national governing board," Kelly said. "Brian took my spot on the executive committee when I retired."

Kelly never really retired, of course. At 58, he may no longer be leading a school district, but he's still in the thick of it. He teaches part-time in SIU's department of education administration and is a field service director for the IASA, where he mentors young superintendents in school districts south of I-70.

One piece of advice he gives them? "Never give up on kids," said the 35-year educator. "That's a key. Never give up on kids even when they give up on themselves."

His love for his adopted hometown is real. Kelly grew up in Sesser but he moved to Du Quoin 28 years ago. He says his success in the field is largely due to the support he got from students, teachers, local school boards and the community at large - a Du Quoin community that trusted him enough with their money to OK four tax hikes via referendum and build two new schools.

"Everything we did was to benefit the kids," he says.