Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a comment from District 65 officials and a link to an essay written in tribute to Jerry Succes by his colleagues at Willard Elementary School.
Jerry Succes immigrated to the United States from Haiti with his family in 1977, when he was just 8, and they settled in Evanston, a city thousands of miles away from where he and his brothers were born in the Caribbean.
His parents moved to Chicago a few months before he and his brothers did, and they ended up in Evanston because they had friends and relatives already living there.
He was a bright-eyed elementary schooler eager to make friends at Lincolnwood Elementary, but he did not yet know a word of English when he arrived.
Luckily, Evanston had a relatively large Haitian and Jamaican population at the time, so he and his brothers started hanging out with other immigrants, who helped them learn English. He still remembers watching Sesame Street after school as a kid to learn new words.
To this day, the experience of arriving in Evanston as a young child shapes how he does his job as an educator and administrator in District 65, Succes said.
In a public education career spanning more than three decades, Succes has worked in every single public school in Evanston, including Evanston Township High School, in roles from summer camp coach to lunchroom supervisor to reading specialist.
He became an assistant principal at Oakton Elementary School 13 years ago, and he spent the last nine years in the same position at Willard Elementary, where he has made connections with hundreds of students, staff members, teachers and parents.
“Even when I was coaching at schools in the summertime, I would make sure I knew the custodians,” Succes told the RoundTable in a phone interview this week.
“I would make sure I knew whatever teacher was there. I would make sure I knew the principal. Even the superintendent would come by the school, and I would be like ‘Hey, this is who I am. I’m going to be a teacher here one day.’”
But this school year, District 65 announced a restructuring of the assistant principal role and required all assistant principals in the district to reapply for their positions. At Willard, a hiring committee made up of educators and staff recommended Succes for the same job he has had for nine years, but the principal ultimately decided against rehiring him, according to teachers and parents at the school.
Willard Principal Charmekia McCoy did not respond to an email and a phone call from the RoundTable asking for more information about why Succes was not rehired.
“We cannot share any information related to personnel decisions,” District 65 Executive Director of Communications Melissa Messinger told the RoundTable in an email.
After the school community first heard about Succes not returning to Willard for this upcoming academic year, parents circulated a petition asking the district to reinstate him as assistant principal and attended school board meetings wearing buttons to support him.
“The fact that he is not being rehired as AP at Willard has had a ripple effect on our community, causing much pain and heartbreak,” said Puamuh Ghogomu, the father of two Willard students, during the public comment section of the April 18 school board meeting. “He cares deeply for Willard students, deeply about building relationships and has done so with teachers, staff, students and parents.”
Just weeks ago, toward the end of the District 65 school year, many Willard teachers gathered to brainstorm ways to honor Succes and his devotion to the community. In the end, they decided to write a letter together about his career at Willard and what he has meant to educators, students and parents over the years.
“We wanted to do a tribute to him, just because it’s very important for us that the community and everyone knows that this was not him walking away,” one of the teachers, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid backlash from other district employees, told the RoundTable. “We didn’t want anyone to think that Jerry left because he no longer wanted to be part of the district.”
According to that teacher, Success is one of the only administrators she has ever known who would volunteer to substitute teach himself during the day if a teacher was out sick, and he would also always dress up with the kids for Halloween or the celebration of the 100th day of school.
He made it a point to hang out in classrooms with the students and teachers beyond the mandatory evaluation time periods, and even this year, decades after he was a lunchroom supervisor, he still would wipe down the cafeteria tables and vacuum the floors whenever they got dirty.
Succes is a self-described extrovert and a “people person,” and he would begin every morning at Willard by writing his own “joke of the day” on a whiteboard. He has a collaborative, team-player leadership style, he said.
“I relate to the kids a lot. They look at me, and I’m not just an assistant principal or an adult or an educator,” he said. “I’m more or less one of them. Not only did I have to learn the English language and master it – and I’m still learning the English language – I’m still learning new things every day.”
According to Willard teachers, Succes offers the perfect combination of playfulness and seriousness. He cares about the staff both professionally and personally, one teacher said, and he shows students how to be goofy when it’s appropriate and how to get to work when it comes time to focus.
This coming school year, he will be an interventionist at Haven Middle School, where he will offer extra reading and math support to students who need the help.
At the end of the current year, the Willard PTA Council raised the money to name a buddy bench outside the school in his honor. He, his wife, Lori, and his son Jerry, Jr., were on hand for the dedication.
“Jerry is a man who is loved and respected by the Willard community,” teachers wrote in their tribute letter to him. “He was always there to offer support, guidance, and even a joke to make you smile. His compassion and understanding has made him an ideal boss.”
Succes has been an Evanston resident and an active member of the community for 45 years at this point, and he does not plan on going anywhere anytime soon, he said. One of the special parts of living in the community that you serve, he told the RoundTable, is running into former students and parents at the grocery store or the pharmacy.
“I hope I made a positive impact and was an influence on our students. I hope they look back and say, ‘I learned this from Mr. Succes,’ or, ‘I appreciated him doing this because it helped me to do this,’” he said. “I hope in my role and in my time there that I was a positive influence with the teachers, staff, students – as well as the parents and the community.”
I hope it’s obvious and clear on what the DSI is doing. He’s placing his own people in order to control them. Mr Succes is well known and loved and knows everyone. So he’s considered a threat. The board members that allowed this man to destroy our community must be removed along with him.
Mr Succes was AP when my kids started at Oakton. He was fantastic! Parents, students and staff loved him. If you’re in education you know how absolutely rare it is for those 3 groups to have the same opinion of an administrator. Mr Succes was kind, friendly, always willing to help with whatever needed doing. He was a fantastic role model and we were so sad to see him go. I’m not a bit surprised to hear the Willard community valued him just as much. Sadly, I’m also not surprised D65 overrode popular opinion and took him out of a role where he clearly excelled. I have no doubt he’ll also excel as an interventionist, but pulling him from a position where he can have such a positive impact on a whole community seems incredibly short-sighted.
I have been listening to the Jan 6 Committee hearings, and I am seeing parallels to the way Dist 65 is now being run.
This is so disappointing but not surprising with the direction the district has been going.
I worked under Mr. Success at Oakton and he was the best. Always there for the teachers and he really cared about the students.
It is scary to think that district 65 doesn’t value staff that have poured their hearts into the community.
I retired last year from teaching 4th grade at Willard for 20 years and have many fond memories of Jerry’s kindness, sense of humor and easy rapport with children. He was a huge help to his colleagues, and I’m glad he found a place to land in District 65.
This is a real disgrace to our community. Mr. Succes was the best thing about Willard. I subbed often at Willard, and Mr. Succes always made me feel safe, welcome, appreciated, and respected, an unusual institutional experience for me, and I have decades of teaching under my belt!
Is there really no public comment from the principal at Willard as to why Mr. Succes was not reinstated? It seems like parents have a right to know this about such a beloved educator.
What an excellent role model. Glad he is still in the system.
I was a teacher in the district, and until
the Pandemic hit, a substitute teacher. I think of Mr. Success so fondly. Being a sub is not always easy, but Mr. Succes always made me feel like a professional. He was always welcoming, helpful, and collaborative.
Jerry Succes is a skilled and compassionate leader. The disrespect he has been shown by the District 65 administration and school board is unconscionable.