Q&A with Patrick Broncato, New District 68 Assistant Superintendent

Patrick Broncato is the new assistant superintendent of personnel and administration for . He joins the district from Elgin where he was the chief legal officer for School District U-46 for eight years.

He lives in Wheaton with his wife Lori and three children.

Q: What did the job of Chief Legal Officer entail?

A: As chief legal officer, I actually did several different things. My background is in school law. When I graduated from law school in 1992, I went to work for a private sector law firm that specialized in school law. From there I went into private sector for a little bit and then I joined School District U-46 as their chief legal officer. My main duties were negotiations, employee relations and grievances, and I was also responsible for disciplinary hearings - students and teachers.  I was also responsible for board policy review and giving advice to the board on matters such as litigation, negotiations, if we bought and sold land, anything to do with personnel.

Q: What made you come here to Woodridge? What was the attraction of this job?

A: The attraction was the opportunity to become the assistant superintendent. I was really excited about that. Certainly to work with Dr. Skinner. I had worked with her at School District U-46. She was the director of human resources there when I was the chief legal officer. This is an excellent district. I looked at the test scores, the financial stability, the people, having the chance to work again with Dr. Skinner. Putting all those things into context, I thought this was a great opportunity. That's why I applied for the job.

Q: Both your parents were school superintendents. Did that have an influence on your career choice or was this always something that interested you?

A: Even when I was younger, I was always interested in law. I graduated from Northern Illinois University. I took about a year and a half off and then went to law school. When I graduated in 1992, there was an opportunity in a school law firm. I had some other opportunities, but this really seemed to fit for me. Maybe it was because of my background, my parents' background. I enjoyed it - the negotiations, the collective bargaining aspect. That's what I got into originally, and I kind of just expanded from there into employment law.

Q: What do you like about handling negotiations?

A: What appeals to me is you're always looking for a way to create an effective agreement that creates opportunities for student achievement. I'm a big proponent of collaboration in putting those types of agreements together. I've had the opportunity over the years to have those conversations, not about just U-46 but in other school districts throughout the years, and I really enjoyed that piece. And even when negotiations get tough, if everybody keeps in mind in the end what we're striving for, then ultimately people come to an agreement.

Q: Did you grow up in this area?

A: Yes, I grew up in Plainfield for the first 14 years of my life. Then I moved across the street into Joliet. I grew up right on the corner of 55 and 30 in a little neighborhood right across from a truck stop. I moved up to Wheaton in 1993, so I've always lived in the Chicagoland area.

Q: What do you like about living here?

A: The opportunities. I love that you're near everything. When we moved into Wheaton, we moved there because I was working in downtown Chicago and we were looking for a community where it was easy access to the city but at the same time had a suburban feel because we were raising kids. We had a child two years later, so that's what we were looking for. So we always really loved this area. The schools are great, the places to go, the things to do, the experiences, there's great opportunities here. And anytime you want, you can go straight into Chicago.

Q: What are your main job duties as assistant superintendent for personnel and adminstration?

A: The main job duties here are staffing, hiring, working again with employee relations, working with the union groups. It is more a traditional personnel type of function - making sure people know what their benefits are, making sure people understand what their contracts are, looking through job descriptions and ensuring that the personnel functions run smoothly because personnel in school districts is really about 80 percent of your total dollars spent. It's a big department to make sure that everything is efficient, to make sure that we have proper staffing levels, that we're not overstaffed. That's really the main function of the personnel department here.

Q: How is the district doing right now? Is it in good shape?

A: As far as staffing, we're filling our last remaining positions. We're pretty fortunate in that we have a great teaching staff here, so we don't have a lot of turnover. We have some retirements. But because of the quality of the district, we get a lot of applicants for positions. There are very few times that we're short for positions, whether they're internal or external in the district. It's just a great place to work.

Q: Do you have particular goals for the fall and the coming school year?

A: The first thing I want to do is get out and listen to the principals  and talk with them about what they think are areas for improvement in the personnel department or the district, what they think are the strengths of the school district and really get some input from them as to where we should go in the future, at least in the personnel department.

There are goals that the board of education has set with the superintendent around communication, around personnel with regard to staffing and recruiting, that I'll be working on this year as part of my goals.

So those goals have been set and my job is then to ensure that those goals are met for the 2011-2012 school year. So that's really going to be my main focus - really learning as much as I can about the position and then achieving the goals that have been set for this current school year.

Q: What do you like most about working in education?

A: I've liked that ultimately everybody is here to help kids grow academically, that's really whether you're in the technology department, whether you're the superintendent, whether you're the teaching aide, whether you're the custodian, everybody is here to help students. 

I really like the collaborative nature of it, even with the increasing pressures that school districts find themselves in today. Whether it's financially, whether it's accountability, everybody is working towards the common goal of academic achievement for students and I really like that. My hope is that I can add to that piece to help kids grow academically.

Q: What are the hardest things to deal with working in education?

A: I think the hardest things to deal with are really the things that don't attach themselves necessarily to the day-to-day classroom instruction. For instance, are we going to get proper funding? Then based on what funding you have, how do you utilize your resources in the most effective manner?

My philosophy has always been if I have a dollar, I'd like to have it in the classroom. If that means that somewhere somebody is affected because they are not directly instructional to the classroom, we have to allocate our resources.

We're fortunate in Woodridge that our funding for the most part does not come from the state. It comes from local property taxes. We're pretty sound financially so we're pretty excited about that. So we can focus more on education as opposed to where's my next dollar coming from? That's a great thing to be able to say.

Q: Favorite activities outside of work? What do you like to do when you're not here?

A: I like to golf - it's one of my favorite activities. I'm involved with my kids. I've got a daughter Mary, who's 16. She goes to Glenbard West. I've got a middle son Jack who is 13. He's going into 8th grade. And I've got a younger son Patrick who just turned 12.

Between family and all their activities, and this job, it keeps me busy.  I teach an online school law course, too. That's currently going on, so that keeps me in the game in terms of keeping up with the latest developments in school law.

Q: Would you eventually like to be a superintendent?

A: I think if that time or opportunity came up, it's something I would consider. Right now, I'm very happy and excited to be a part of Woodridge and to be in this department and getting the opportunity to work for this superintendent and board, which is a fantastic board of education. 

Q: Any other thoughts about the year ahead?   

A: We're looking forward to the 2011-2012 school year and looking forward to helping kids grow and learn and achieve and it will be an exciting year. It's a good school district. It's a good place to be.