Adrian G. Willis

AT CLARK STREET Renee Grant-Mitchell, chief specialized services officer, and Gail D. Ward, chief officer of the Office of Principal Preparation and Development, are retiring. ... Adrian G. Willis, former principal at Earle Elementary, is now the Area 14 instructional officer, replacing José Torres, now superintendent of Elgin School District U-46.

Adrian Willis said he was most intrigued by the possibility of "making a difference" in one of the city's neediest neighborhoods -- Englewood.

Back where he began

So Willis left Mount Greenwood's Keller Gifted Magnet, the seventh-highest-scoring elementary school in the state, for Englewood's Earle School, where only 13 percent of third-graders passed state reading tests in 2005.

"Money was not at the top of my priority list," said Willis.
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As part of the deal, both principals, along with Willis, have been armed with "school turnaround" training from the University of Virginia.
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For one week this summer, newly named Earle School Principal Adrian Willis sat in a college lecture hall in Virginia, learning how to rejuvenate a failing school by applying techniques used to turn around failing businesses.

Using double-decker chalkboards and PowerPoint presentations, professors at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business took Willis through the paces of leadership, team building, setting goals, the art of influence, motivating and sustaining a committed team and data-driven decision making.

Willis learned how to make a 100-day plan common in business; his 100-day school version is on his office wall.He was tutored on bringing out the best in his teachers, as well as discussing and addressing "brutal facts" in his school.

"It was very intense," said Willis, among the first-ever group of Chicago Public Schools principals to receive "school turnaround specialist" training before being dispatched to CPS turnaround sites this year.

"It was almost like working on your doctorate."

The experience left Willis pumped and primed for his new challenge.How would he grade it?

Keith Foley, former principal of Lane Tech High, will mentor a new principal at Marshall Metro High, where principal Gwendolyn Boyd was removed; Adrian Willis of Keller Gifted Magnet is now principal of Earle; Denise Gamble of Herbert is now principal of Medill, replacing Frederic W. Metz, who was removed; Kimberly McNeal of South Chicago is now principal at Mahalia Jackson, replacing Doris Spivey-Tompkins, who was removed.
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Gamble, McNeal and Willis will receive training from the University of Virginia.