District 68 Building Assistant Named Assistant Principal in Elmhurst

Gina Pogue Reeder was named assistant principal of Churchville Middle School in Elmhurst after a unanimous vote by the Elmhurst District 205 School Board Tuesday.
 
Pogue Reeder is a licensed clinical social worker. She is leaving her position as building assistant to the principal of John Sipley Elementary School in , where she was also the social worker. In addition, she functioned as the department chairperson of psychologists and social workers for the entire district.

Employed there for 10 years, Pogue Reeder coordinated positive behavior supports, tracked data, worked with staff to increase social/emotional competencies and established supports for the neediest students through the Response to Instruction model. She served on both the school and district improvement teams that established SMART goals and tracked data toward those goals. She also served on the Woodridge Wellness Council and worked with community agencies to coordinate services for students and their families.

Superintendent David Pruneau said the district was "lucky to get Gina" to come to Elmhurst.

"The thing we really liked about Gina is she has a wealth of experience … a great background," Superintendent David Pruneau said.

"Gina was at the administrative retreat with us for four brutal days. I really appreciate her coming in and being a part of the team right away."
 
Pogue Reeder also worked with Robert Marzano on the state committee tasked with studying social emotional learning standards, and participated in creating the rubric that was presented to the General Assembly. In 2009, she was asked to create and open a self-contained classroom for emotionally disturbed students that focused on Randy Sprick’s CHAMPS model.  CHAMPs is a proactive approach to classroom management that is used by all three District 205 middle schools to establish behavior expectations for all students.
 
She also was a correctional counselor and parole agent for the Illinois Department of Corrections, a case manager for the Illinois Department of Human Services and a social worker at Lake View High School in Chicago.
 
She holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Illinois (1995), a masters of social work from Loyola University (2002), and a master's of educational administration from Concordia University (2012).

The former Churchville assistant principal, Melissa Couch, is taking the same position at Bryan Middle School in Elmhurst.