Dist. 159 Shake-Up: Perry Out as Mokena Superintendent, Stein In

Superintendent Karen Perry will spend the last 10 months of her three-year contract as an assistant to the new superintendent.

In a unanimous decision Thursday night, the school board reassigned Perry as an assistant to the superintendent until June 30, 2012, when her contract expires. Perry did not attend Thursday's board meeting.

The board named Principal Steve Stein the new interim superintendent.

"Interim is just that: interim," board President John Troy said.

Troy said the board will consider a permanent replacement at some point in the future. Whether that will be Stein, Troy could not say.

"This has all happened one step at a time so we have to go into closed session and discuss these things," Troy said.

Stein's job as principal will be taken over by Assistant Principal Chris Clavenna. Stein said his pay will stay as it was as principal until a permanent contract as superintendent is negotiated.

Clavenna said the district will post a job opening for her position.

Perry wrote the school board on July 21 saying she planned not to return to the district for the 2012-2013 school year. She started with the district July 1, 2009, with a contract running through June 30, 2012.

The Illinois State Board of Education’s Teacher Service Record for the 2009-2010 school year listed Perry’s salary as $140,728.51.

She will keep that salary in her newly created position of assistant to the superintendent. Her new duties include acting as the liaison to the Will County Regional Superintendent of Schools' Truancy Office, assuming an interim principal's duties during absences, coordinating and managing lunchroom supervision and assisting with supervising athletic and extracurricular events.

A full list of Perry's new duties is included in the photographs with this article.

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Under Perry, the district tried for . Each failed.

Stein said one of his goals will be to bring back extracurricular activities.

"I think we need to look at how we can go about working with the community and bring some of those things back," he said, later adding, "(A referendum) is not anything that the board is discussing right now."

Stein said one of his priorities will be to reconnect the district and the larger Mokena community, in part by working with the village board, park district and other local stakeholders.

"I think there's a feeling in the community that there's a disconnect between the school district and the community," he said. "I think through the whole process of the referendum ... it seems that there was kind of an element of misunderstanding."

Read "Dist. 159 Shake Up: New Superintendent, New Principal, 11 Days Until School Starts" to find out how Stein and Clavenna are preparing for their new roles on a tight timeframe.