SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS
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See the directory of all former and current principals and directors of Uni High (with pictures)
Early School Administrators
The helm of Uni High has been held by some 21 administrators over the past three-quarters of a century. The first two lasted eleven years each. The third served the longest, enduring fourteen years. Since that time, administrations of shorter duration have led the school.
The first Principal in Uni High’s relatively short line of “chief executives” was Lewis W. Williams, who served as Principal from 1921 to 1932. In the 1921 yearbook, he stated the purpose of the school as being threefold:
• First, to serve as a laboratory for the College of Education;
• Second, to offer opportunities for observation and training to University seniors expecting to teach;
• Third, to offer high school training to young people.
Williams’ 11-year administration contributed much to the building of solid foundations and meaningful traditions. The legend of the school seal selected by the first graduating class was “Unity of Spirit,” a goal that describes the Williams’ administration at its best.
The fall of 1932 saw a new administration led by Charles W. Sanford who served as Principal from 1932 to 1943. His administration had an auspicious beginning due to the addition of the subfreshman class in September 1932 and was characterized by an enormous amount of extracurricular activity.
In fact, the demand and interest became so great that in 1938 one hour was set aside each week for participation in activities such as the radio, industrial arts, handiwork, typing, checkers, and book clubs. This period also was characterized by the reputedly marvelous marionette shows for which Uni High became well known. Sanford reportedly encouraged students to buy war stamps and join the First Aid Club, War Discussion, Camouflage Club, and Red Cross. In 1943, Sanford left Uni to become Associate Dean in the College of Education.
Uni’s third administration was its longest, lasting from 1943 to 1957 under the direction of Charles M. Allen. During this period, Uni not only continued the programs of the preceding years but undertook a systematic and steady modernization and improvement in preparation for the big leap forward of the late 1950s. Many more extracurricular activities and academic projects were available, and the administration cooperated in establishing a football team while presiding over the most successful period of competitive athletics in Uni’s history. These years were characterized by a period of innovations designed to meet the challenges of postwar society head-on and set the stage for the advent of Uni’s most impressive years.
The period of 1957 to 1966 has been dubbed Uni’s “Golden Era” by many. The school was under the direction of Dr. David M. Jackson and the entire curriculum laboratory project directed by Dr. Max Beberman came into full swing with Math, English, and Social Studies projects leading the way.
At this time, Uni students were well aware of the history that they were helping to create. In fact, the 1964 yearbook stated: “Uni High has long been known as one of the two national demonstration centers of experimental projects in Illinois and the spearhead of the program.”
The Jackson administration was receptive to changing views in regard to national priorities and interests and the expanding world. This resulted in curriculum revisions to reflect these changes, including the addition of Russian to the program of instruction and the development of the cultural areas curriculum to include Japan, the Soviet Union, and Africa.
Also, in the period during which science and mathematics reigned supreme, Jackson presided over the birth of “The New Math,” product of the genius of Beberman and cradled at Uni. At the time, contemporary sources referred to Uni as “the center of the most exciting experimentation in education today.”
Succeeding Jackson, who became Associate Dean of the College of Education, was Dr. Wilfred L. Shoemaker who for many years had been Director of Guidance at Uni. Shoemaker served as Acting Principal from 1964 to 1966 and was named Principal from 1966-67, when he resigned for reasons of health.
Shoemaker was followed by Robert Carlier from 1967-68. This year was a period of consolidation and assessment of goals, perhaps in anticipation of the national changes at the end of the 1960s.
In 1968, Uni’s sixth administration took hold under the direction of Dr. Anthony F. Gregorc. In the presence of the past failures to secure new quarters, Gregorc undertook a face-lifting building program from which today’s students continue to profit. In addition to building improvements, his five-year plan included changes in staffing and curriculum. The naming of executive teachers in each of the major programs of study is one of his most successful innovative ideas that continues today.
Dr. Robert E. Boyd assumed the reins of the school in 1971, assisted by Principal Russell Zwoyer. Dr. Robert B. Davis served as both Principal and Director in 1975-76, followed by Dr. James Raths who was Principal in 1976.
Next, former Uni journalism teacher Warren Royer became Principal and Dr. Alan C. Purves assumed the duties of Director in 1977. Their tenure was marked by a financial crisis that almost resulted in the closing of the school when the U of I College of Education withdrew financial support. In early 1983, the Illinois State Board of Education approved funding guidelines for laboratory schools and opened the door to state support for Uni as a public laboratory school. It previously had been funded as a research unit of the College of Education.
In spring 1983, a committee studying University Laboratory High School recommended “fundamental changes” in the organizational structure of the school so that it could function as “an active center for research and curriculum development,” as “an outstanding college preparatory school” and as “a resource for the secondary school teachers of our state and nation.”
The committee recommended that Uni report jointly to the U of I Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the Vice-Chancellor of Research as of July 1, 1983. The school was later reassigned solely to the auspices of the office of the Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs, who also holds the title of Provost, in 1995.
Recent Administrators and Notable Teachers
More recent administrators at Uni’s helm have included:
• Royer, who became Assistant Director in 1984 until his retirement in 1986.
• Dr. Anthony Peressini, who became Acting Director for one year in 1984.
• Dr. Joel Crames, who had served as Assistant Principal from 1981 to 1985 and became Assistant Director in 1986, a post he held until he resigned in 1996.
• Dr. Russell Ames, who was named Director of the school in 1985. He took a one-year leave of absence in 1990 and his resignation was effective in May 1992.
• Dr. Steven Epperson, who was named Acting Director of the school in 1991.
• Dr. Henry Meares, who followed Epperson and held the title of Principal.
• Barbara Wysocki, head of Uni’s Social Studies Department, who served as Acting Principal in 1994 after Meares left following a two-year tenure.
• Dr. Shelley Roberts, who was hired as Principal in July 1994 and made Director/Principal in 1995. She resigned in 1998.
• Dr. Linda Morford, who was hired as Assistant Director on a temporary basis in 1996 and received a permanent appointment in 1997. She resigned in 2002 to become a faculty member at Eastern Illinois University.
• Dr. John Hedeman, who was hired as Director/Principal in 1998 and resigned effective August 2003 to become an Assistant Dean in the College of Business at U of I.
• Dr. Susan Kovacs, who was hired as Acting Assistant Director in 2002 and received a permanent appointment in 2003.
• Ms. Kathleen Patton, who was hired as Director/Principal in 2003.
Ms. Marilyn Upah-Bant was hired as a teaching accociate in 1992, and was promoted to the Director of Development until her resignation in 2007 to advance to coordinator of communications at the Center for Advance BioEnergy research..
The 1996-97 school year brought the resignation due to health reasons of the Uni teacher with the most years of service since it opened: Carol Unzicker Bond retired after 35 years as a French teacher and Foreign Language Department Head.
Other teachers who helped shape the lives of more than two decades of students include the late Pauline Chagnon, who also taught French and who was at the school from 1932 to 1966; Dr. Connie Curtin, who taught Russian from 1966 to 1989; and Dr. Ella Leppert, who taught economics and history and headed up the Social Studies Department from 1954 to 1975.
As of 2007-2008 school year, the following teachers have influenced Uni students for 20 + years: Frances Harris and Pat Morris (20); David Bergandine and David Stone (23);Sally Walker (24); Rick Murphy (25); Elizabeth Jockusch (27); and Chris Butler and Adele Suslick (28).
Shifting Student Profiles, Programs
When Uni High opened its doors in 1921, the Board of Trustees set up three basic admission requirements: graduation from the eighth grade or evidence through examination or other means that the pupil could do satisfactory high school work; residence in the state of Illinois, and age not exceeding 21 years. Transfers were accepted.
Until the last 10 years when some 45 to 50 more students have been admitted to swell the student body to 296 students, the enrollment of the school has traditionally been limited to approximately 250 students. The curriculum reflects the size and, to a certain extent, the changing interests of the student body and the national priorities at a given time.
When the school first opened, it admitted students in a four-year high school program. As early as June 1926, however, a petition for a junior high school in connection with the University High School was signed by 38 citizens of Urbana and submitted to the President of the University.
The University President recommended the proposal be rejected, and the Board of Trustees concurred that summer. However, this early effort set the stage for the admission of Uni’s first subfreshman class — combined seventh and eighth grades — in 1932.
For a long while, the class consisted of only 20 to 25 pupils who had completed the first six grades. They were chosen on the basis of school records, scores on achievement and intelligence tests, and health examinations. In 1934, the U of I Board of Trustees ordered that each accepted subfreshman make a $5 deposit toward the $25 tuition fee to reserve his or her place in the class.
Subfreshmen were required to take English, arithmetic, social studies, industrial arts (boys), home economics (girls), music appreciation, and physical education. Their only elective was instrumental music. Although it may appear that the subfreshman program has remained relatively unchanged over the past 60 years, it actually has undergone radical revisions in content and methods through the years as a result of experimentation.
Occasionally, the subfreshman class has been required to participate in pilot projects such as the mandatory study of Latin in the late 1960s or the short-lived Form One experiment of the 1970s.
And, in 1932, a “Special Freshman Class” was admitted. It consisted of 20 to 25 pupils who had completed seven grades. These students had regular ninth grade subject matter and eighth grade essentials at the same time. They were required to take English, algebra and physical education and were given the choice of two electives from general science, French, Latin, ancient and medieval history, music appreciation, art and design, and home economics. Pupils who completed this course entered the regular sophomore class. The Special Freshman Class was discontinued in 1945.
In 1934, remedial classes in Reading and Arithmetic were established to give students special aid if they were weak in these subjects. The remedial classes were continued until 1940, when a new program called “Directed Study and Learning” was instituted. Directed Study and Learning Program class periods were 70 minutes long, with approximately one-half of the time spent in carefully planned, directed study led by the teacher.
A summer program of studies was offered until 1946. As an aid in oral work, a language laboratory was installed in 1962. Russian was introduced into the curriculum in 1963, followed by Japanese in the mid-’80s and Spanish, which was introduced in 1995.
With the hiring of Beberman as a mathematics teacher and the establishing of the University of Illinois Committee on School Mathematics, Uni moved into national prominence as the proving ground for what came to be known as “The New Math” in the 1960s and 1970s. That tradition continues today as Uni leads the state in a curriculum-design program for bringing Mathematica software into classrooms all over Illinois via “notebooks” or examples developed at Uni and shared over the Internet. Of note is the fact that Uni alum Theodore Gray, Uni Class of 1982, was one of the creators of the now widely used Mathematica software.
In 2000, Chris Butler was awarded the 2000 Beveridge Family Teaching Award for Excellence in teaching history. The award was presented by the American Historical Association, for developing “…an innovative method of incorporating detailed flowcharts to help student mentally “map” history…” This award is the only award the American History Association gives for K-12 teaching. Chris Butler developed a “method for teaching history, using a series of about 200 cross-referenced flowcharts and over 100 powerpoint multimedia lecture outlines to help students see history as a dynamic process of causes and effects, ..” http://www.flowofhistory.com/