A press release from School District 300:
HHS principal returns to operations position
Hampshire High School Principal Chuck Bumbales has accepted the request of the Superintendent to return to his former position as Assistant Superintendent of Operations.
Bumbales was emotional as he shared the news with his staff today (Friday, Jan. 18). During his previous tenure as D300 operations chief from 2004 to 2008, he personally oversaw the construction of the new high school in Hampshire from its groundbreaking through the grand opening. When he became principal of the school in 2007-08 (which had him working two jobs that year), he hired the school staff and shaped the culture of the school’s new home.
“This was an incredibly difficult decision, as everyone at this school means so much to me,” Bumbales said. “After serious consideration of Superintendent Bregy’s request that I assist his team with some major district-wide projects over the next few years, I decided that I could best serve the students and community of D300 in the area of operations.”
A graduate of D300, Bumbales began his career in the district in 1985 as an English teacher at Jacobs High School. He went on to become an administrator at Jacobs and then Algonquin Middle School before joining the Central Office in 1998. He held leadership roles in the areas of accountability, curriculum and instruction before shifting to operations in 2004.
Chuck Bumbales
“We have some very heavy lifting ahead of us in the near future when it comes to short- and long-term facility planning, and we could think of no better fit than Chuck,” Dr. Bregy said. “He knows our community. He knows our schools. He knows our systems. We wish we did not have to ask him to leave Hampshire, but he is quite literally the perfect person for this difficult job.”
Bumbales officially takes his new position on July 1, 2013, but will begin working right away on some major multi-year projects, including boundary changes. The district is now in the early, preliminary phase of researching the likely adjustment of attendance boundaries for some schools. These adjustments will occur as early as the 2014-2015 school year; the affected schools have not yet been determined. The changes will be necessary for a variety of reasons, such as needing to make the best use of classroom space across the district in light of smaller class sizes, addressing enrollment surges and crowded conditions at some schools, and determining what grade-level configuration is in the best interest of students.
Bumbales will also be charged with developing a 10-year preventative maintenance plan for the district, overseeing the enrollment projections process, supporting the staffing process, and rewriting the district’s capital improvement plan (last updated in 2005) under a variety of possible funding scenarios.
He will not receive a salary increase to take the operations position, and he will continue with his plans to retire in summer 2016. His shift to the Central Office will occur as Assistant Superintendent for Teaching & Learning Instructional Services Tom Hay retires this summer. Hay’s position will not be refilled, and his job duties will be dispersed among members of the Teaching & Learning Leadership Team.
The district will begin accepting applications next week for the Hampshire High School Principal position, with the goal of selecting the new principal before the end of this school year. Mirroring the process that was successfully used in recent years to select new principals for other D300 schools, the selection process for the new HHS principal will be collaborative and rigorous including the input of school and district staff, students, and parents.