On Oct. 5, District 65 Board of Education President Candance Chow and Superintendent Paul Goren sent a message that the District has hired Joshua Seldess as interim principal of Nichols Middle School. The Board held a late-evening executive session followed by a short public session on Oct. 4. The vote was unanimous, 5-0, with Board members Claudia Garrison, Suni Kartha, Tracy Quattrocki and Ms. Chow physically present and Omar Brown casting his vote by speaker phone. Richard Rykhus was not in attendance.
Mr. Seldess began working at Nichols in August, before the Board had approved his contract, and later that month the Board voted not to approve the contract.
At the Sept. 12 School Board meeting, eight former colleagues of Mr. Seldess –from Oak Park River Forest High School and from New Trier – as well as several District residents voiced their support for Mr. Seldess and urged the Board to reconsider its vote.
The District’s announcement read, “As many of you know, we have been working to fill the interim assistant principal’s position at Nichols Middle School. After careful review of our process and deliberations, we have moved forward together with a decision to approve Mr. Seldess as interim assistant principal. Along with [Nichols Principal Adrian] Harries, we are looking forward to working with Mr. Seldess and the Nichols staff to have a successful and productive school year.”
Lisa Clay, Mr. Seldess’s attorney told the RoundTable, “I am thankful to the District and its attorneys for working with me and Josh to formulate a prompt resolution.”