McHenry County Regional Supt. of Education Leslie Schermerhorn and Amy Weiss Narea pose for the camera.

An email from Regional Superintendent of Schools Leslie Schermerhorn explaining how she is staffing her new office:

“There are two new people in the Regional Office of Education (ROE).

“Dr. Amy Weiss Narea has come on as a 100-day Assistant Superintendent. (She can only be employed 100 days as she is retired) Dr. Narea is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, Northwestern University, M.ED, Chicago-Kent Law School, J.D. and DePaul University D.Ed.

“She served as principal in a Chicago Public School for 24 years and most recently coached new CPS Principals and student teachers at DePaul University.

“She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the office.

“She and I are working on

• grant writing,
• the truancy policy for the County and
• improving relations between the schools and the diverse populations in McHenry County.

“Dr. Narea is fluent in Spanish and French. We are currently working on the Drug Free Community Grant.

“In addition to the temporary appointment of Dr. Narea, Bob Diviacchi has come on board as the ROE truancy officer.

“A former police officer in Franklin Park, Bob is also fluent in Spanish and Italian.

“He is certainly a man on the go, visiting the schools where chronic truants have been referred to the ROE and knocking on the doors of the student’s homes to get the children back in school.

“The new law effective July 1, 2012 reduced the number of unexcused absences for a ‘chronic truant’ from 18 to 9.

“There is great urgency when a child is missing school to get him/her back in as soon as possible.

“As Dr. Narea has said, we either pay now to get these students in school or pay later when they are unemployed adults or in jail.”