Jennifer Gill’s 12-year tenure as Springfield School District 186 superintendent will come to a close when she retires at the end of the current school year in June 2026. Meanwhile, the District 186 School Board has been hard at work finding Gill’s replacement, and announced an updated interview and hiring schedule at the Nov. 3 school board meeting.
Prospective candidates for the position have until Dec. 5 to apply. Candidates will be presented to the school board at the Dec. 15 meeting, with candidates being interviewed from late December through mid-January. The new superintendent will be appointed Jan. 27 and begin work on July 1, 2026.
The District 186 board asked the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) to convene a total of 18 focus groups involving 166 people over two days to discuss what qualities the ideal new superintendent should embody. The focus groups included administrators, teachers, staff, parents, community members, students and union leaders.
The IASB’s Carmen Ayala, the former Illinois State Superintendent of Education and the leader of the District 186 superintendent search effort, made a presentation during the District 186 board meeting about the focus group results. Ayala reported that all of the focus groups felt District 186 is comprised of dedicated and passionate educators with deep community roots and that a new district leader should reflect those qualities.
Based on focus group input, the new superintendent should be ready to address fiscal challenges, teacher retention, post-pandemic academic recovery, equity and consistency across programs, and rebuilding community trust with a unity of purpose.
Ayala proposed wording for the published job description, which the District 186 board unanimously approved, that states the ideal candidate will be ”a supportive leader who values and uplifts staff, prioritizes student safety and discipline, and drives academic rigor, equity and community engagement. Expectations center on integrity, visibility and communication. We are seeking a long-term, authentic leader who connects deeply with the Springfield community and is a visionary leader who can bring fresh ideas and innovative practices while building trust across all stakeholders.”
Jordan Robinson is a Springfield High School student and was part of a superintendent search focus group. He was pleased to bring a student perspective to the process.
“A lot of students find value in District 186 but also can recognize some inequities between the schools, and maybe we can work on a way to solve that,” Robinson said. “Students have a very significant viewpoint because they give you something that’s unique that not every other focus group can give you. The process is very interesting, and I think we can really help with it a lot.”
District 186 Board member Buffy Lael-Wolf is heading the board’s superintendent search effort, and said this painstaking approach to hiring a new leader is the best way to proceed.
“The Board of Education very much wants to get this right because we know how important a superintendent is to our community,” Lael-Wolf said. “Getting this right is super important, and we want to hear all the voices and get all perspectives before making a decision.”
Lael-Wolf added that the outgoing superintendent will be a tough act to follow.
“We’ve been blessed with a good one for many years and those are big shoes to fill,” Lael-Wolf said.
Gill has been superintendent of Springfield Public School District 186, which serves more than 14,000 students, since 2014.
Gill is a lifelong resident of Springfield and graduate of Springfield Public Schools, attending Dubois Elementary, Grant Middle and Springfield High schools. She began her teaching career in the Jacksonville Public Schools as a fifth-grade teacher, then served in the Springfield Public Schools as a teacher, district office administrator, and building principal at both Vachel Lindsay and McClernand Elementary. Gill was director of teaching and learning at McLean County Unit 5 School District in Bloomington-Normal prior to being hired as District 186 superintendent.
Gill comes from a family of educators. Her grandmother taught in a one-room schoolhouse in rural McLean County. Gill’s mother was an orchestra teacher in Springfield Public Schools, and her father taught reading and English in the Tri-City School District in Buffalo.
“It’s been a joy to work and serve in the district in which I grew up,” Gill said. “Springfield is a great place to grow up, raise a family and work.”
Gill observed that “we’ve weathered a few storms” during her 12 years at the District 186 helm, but “we’ve done so in a way that allows us to come out on the right side of things in the end.”
According to the IASB, the average length of service for an Illinois public schools’ superintendent is less than three years. When she started her education career, Gill said she never dreamed of being a superintendent, much less the leader of District 186.
“I was very content being a teacher, but I always wanted to see if I could help the school district on different levels throughout my tenure,” Gill recalled. “I credit my mentors for the opportunities I have had along the way, including (former Superintendents) Diane Rutledge and Bob Hill, and all the people that have given me a chance and said, ‘Hey, we see something in you, and we want you to be in this committee or take this opportunity.’”
Gill said the passage of the one-cent, countywide sales tax in 2018 to fund District 186 capital improvements is one of the highlights of her career.
“When I started, the community told us we needed to do something to our facilities, to make them spaces where our students can learn and grow for the next 100 years,” Gill said. “That was a huge community endeavor, and I never will stop saying thank you to the taxpayers for allowing that to happen so we could create the schools that we wanted to see our students learn and thrive in.”
Gill has advice for the new superintendent when that person walks in the door on July 1.
“Get to know the community leaders, work alongside them, reach out to them, have coffee or lunch with them,” Gill said. “Do the things that you need to do to learn what’s going on that will help Springfield to be better, not just District 186, but the entire community. Also listen to the teachers, principals, students, families and the community.”
“I want to thank all of those colleagues, teachers, principals and my family who have worked alongside me all of those years to make sure that growth and a growth mindset have always been our focus,” Gill added. “It’s been an honor to do this job but it still scares me every day because it’s big, and it’s something that I don’t take lightly.”
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This article appears in December 4-10, 2025.
There has been no accountability for Adman Lopez in the embezzlement case that bankrupted many individuals, nor has there been an audit.
This has been followed by substantial property and sales tax increases that have displaced many residents into homelessness.
Years of overspending and unbalanced budgets, now wants to raise taxes AGAIN! coupled with record-low test scores, have now led to a proposal to allocate millions of taxpayer dollars to the UIS university for a school it would never own, on land reserved for future expansion.
Meanwhile, neighborhood schools are being closed instead of rebuilt and reinvested in, and the closure of local facilities has diminished the tax base and increased blight, crime, and demand for social services, ultimately raising costs rather than saving money.
She can leave NOW!
Probably a nice 200k/year job. Maybe I should apply.