By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – The leader of Illinois’ second-largest school district is a school board vote away from becoming superintendent of the Illinois State Board of Education.

Elgin U-46 superintendent Tony Sanders would succeed the retired Carmen Ayala. Not surprisingly, coronavirus has colored the last few years for his district. And, in his new position, “We have to continue to focus on helping districts coping with children’s behaviors with the learning loss – I hate that term, “learning loss” – but learning loss as children experinced during covid,” said Sanders.

“(We will) certainly continue to invest in early childhood education.”

And Sanders got a close-up look at the school finance story with the new “evidence-based” model, saying of Elgin U-46, “We’re a Tier One district. We’re the furthest away from adequacy of all the large-unit districts in the state,” “Honestly, we would not have survived covid if it weren’t for passage of the evidence-based formula.”

Sanders is scheduled to begin his new job the last week of February.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]