Principal admits copying speech

[title1parent]

Supporters plan party for embattled principal
Gathering scheduled for tonight at VFW

June 10, 2008

By MIKE MITCHELL [e-mail]

Supporters of embattled Naperville Central High School Principal Jim Caudill are planning a show of support tonight.

A petition will be circulated there, too, to reinstate the principal who Naperville School District 203 officials plan to reassign for admitted plagiarism during a speech he made to graduates May 20.

One former student is particularly upset with the situation.


» Click to enlarge image Caudill

Jared Currie fondly remembers when Jim Caudill helped guide him through tough times at Naperville Central High School.
"Jim's help and support continued all the way through my high school years," Currie wrote in a letter that is being distributed to Naperville residents who want to support the longtime principal after he had been reassigned due to a plagiarism incident in May.

Naperville School District 203 officials say they are negotiating to reassign Caudill, who admitted to reading a former student's 1997 speech during a ceremony for graduates May 20. He also said he did not first obtain the author's permission, nor did he credit the author. In admitting his mistake, Caudill said "there's no excuse" for what he did.

Since the announcement that Caudill would be reassigned, many supporters have been rallying to his defense.

"Today I consider myself an accomplished business owner and an active member in my community. All of what I have now I can trace back to Jim Caudill in one way or another," Currie wrote.

Now Currie is trying to return the favor to Caudill by organizing a party to ramp up support for Caudill at 7 tonight at the Judd Kendall Post No. 3873 at 908 Jackson Ave. in downtown Naperville.

Currie, whom was contacted Monday by The Sun, said the media had run a "smear campaign" against Caudill that included a front-page editorial in The Sun, among other reports.

"I'd say you all did a ... poor job of covering this; you publicly raked him across the coals," he said by phone.

The event will take place in the banquet hall at the VFW

[title1parent]

Naperville Central principal reassigned over plagiarized speech

By Melissa Jenco | Daily Herald Staff
Published: 6/17/2008 12:38 AM

Naperville Central Principal Jim Caudill will be reassigned to the district's central office next year as a result of plagiarizing a speech he gave to students last month.

His new duties will include helping with Central's renovation project and overseeing new programs to help struggling junior high and high school students, Superintendent Alan Leis announced at Monday's school board meeting before a capacity crowd showing its support of the principal.

Assistant Principal Bill Wiesbrook will take over as interim principal for the upcoming school year.

Caudill, who has been a district employee for 34 years, has spent 27 years at Central, including the past five as the school's principal. He came under fire for a speech he gave at a May 20 senior commemorative program. The speech was actually written more than a decade by then-student Megan Plackett, who now teaches at the school.

On May 29, Leis announced Caudill would likely be reassigned. But two dozen people asked the board Monday to let Caudill remain as principal for two more years until his retirement. They talked about how Caudill has touched their lives, said he is a man of integrity and asked the board to give him a second chance.

Among those speaking were actor David Eigenberg, who lives in California but is a Central alumnus, and Jared Currie, another alumnus, who presented a petition with 466 signatures supporting the principal

"Anyone here I think that knows Jim would say he was never anything less than honorable," Eigenberg said.

Counselor Linda Gross has known Caudill as both a colleague and principal to her children.

"I think there's a warmth and a caring in the hallways of that school, and I think there's a direct relationship to the leadership of Naperville Central that impacts the students and the staff, and because Jim is such an open and caring person that has an impact," Gross said.

Leis said he appreciates the input from the community but feels reassigning Caudill is the right thing to do. He said it is time to stop pointing fingers and talking about "what ifs."

"No matter how much you or even I like and respect Jim, the rules cannot differ for people we like, from people we might not like as much" Leis said. "And students have to know that we believe what we say, that academic integrity really is important. Our actions must match our words.

"Naperville Central is a premier academic institution because of the people in this room. It's an amazing place to work and to go to school. As such, it simply must stand for the very best in education."

Caudill was at Monday's meeting but did not address the board.

In an interview with the Daily Herald earlier in the day, he repeated that he was indeed in error but said other area newspapers calling for his resignation may have increased the magnitude of the situation.

Caudill has said he had a speech of his own written the night before the event but was looking through old speeches for more inspiration. He came across Plackett's speech and decided to tweak it for the event.

Because of the late hour, he did not call the teacher for her permission but decided to talk to her the next day. But the day became busy and that conversation never took place. He has since apologized to Plackett.

Regardless, he said he can't help but think back to the work he's done over the past 34 years and his clean record during that time.

"You look at all those things you struggle with and all the things you've worked with kids on and it comes down to one three-minute speech," he said.

Caudill's new position with the district's administrative office will include working on Central's $87.7 million renovation project. He will also help start an alternative program for junior high and high school students who are struggling as well as continuing to work on a mentoring program he started at Central.

"Obviously I'd much rather stay here (at Central), but I think there's a lot of things we could do from that (mentoring) program over there," he said. "Renovation we're continuing to meet on that and that's just going to continue to grow. The junior high (program) would be a very interesting thing to start talking (about) with different districts."

Caudill's current contract with the district expires in a year. He had previously planned to ask for one more year after that but is now uncertain whether he will.

Leis had the power to make the decision as to Caudill's reassignment himself, but the school board then voted 6-0 to hire Wiesbrook as Central's interim principal. Vice President Susan Crotty abstained from the vote and said while she does not agree with Leis' decision, she feels some good can come of the situation through Caudill's new duties.

Wiesbrook will take the helm July 1. He has been a member of Central's faculty since 1996 including the past three years as assistant principal. The district will begin the process of searching for a permanent replacement for Caudill this fall.

Leis' statement can be read in full at www.naperville203.org.

[gatormom]

"No matter how much you or even I like and respect Jim, the rules cannot differ for people we like, from people we might not like as much" Leis said. "And students have to know that we believe what we say, that academic integrity really is important. Our actions must match our words."

This is the issue in a nutshell. You just can't turn a blind eye to this because he is a good and honorable man. He made a mistake and this is the price.

[specialneedsmom]

I totally agree with Gatormom. We can't have rules and then always have exceptions to them. The punishment appropriately fits the circumstances.

[title1parent]

Right decision to reassign principal

Daily Herald Editorial Board
Published: 6/18/2008 12:07 AM

In his 27 years at Naperville Central High School, including five as its principal, Jim Caudill has made a big difference in the lives of young people.

That can't be overlooked.

But Caudill also made a big mistake that sent a terrible message to young people. He plagiarized a speech he gave at a senior commemorative program last month. A speech that had been written by a then-Naperville Central student, who is now a teacher at the school, more than a decade ago.

Such indifference to honesty in the use of the written word, particularly galling in the case of an educator, can't be lightly dismissed.

But people came to Caudill's defense at Monday's Naperville Unit District 203 school board meeting. A man who cultivated an atmosphere of "warmth" and "caring" at Central should not be removed as principal, was the plea of one Caudill supporter.

So District 203 Superintendent Alan Leis was left to balance all the good work Caudill has done against a very bad lapse in judgment in recommending how best to discipline Caudill.

He made the right call in reassigning Caudill to the district's central office, a decision backed by the school board. And Leis chose the right words in defense of this action.

"No matter how much you or even I like and respect Jim, the rules cannot differ for people we like, from people we might not like as much," Leis said. "And students have to know that we believe what we say, that academic integrity really is important. Our actions must match our words."

Moreover, Caudill will not be moved to a make-work position. The reassignment clearly states what projects Caudill will work on. And rather than rushing to name a new principal, the school board was wise to hire an interim principal to lead the high school next year

And from what we know of the financial details of this decision, Caudill doesn't stand to benefit monetarily from his reassignment. But we wouldn't object to Caudill getting a pay cut, particularly if it offsets any increase in pay for the interim principal, whose salary is yet to be determined.

But Leis made the right decision. It strikes the right balance between recognizing Caudill's contributions while not wrongly banishing him from the schools for a moment of weakness. Yet keep in mind that no one is to blame for this but Caudill. He could have avoided this situation by simply doing what is expected of his students -- give credit where credit is due.

In a statement on the school district's Web site, Leis said, "It has been disturbing to watch some point fingers at the press or individual teachers. The message, laced with anger, is that 'they' caused this to happen. That is too easy."

We have seen some of this in online responses to our story on this issue. We read that it was wrong for some tattletale to expose Caudill. Even Caudill, though regretting what he did, wonders if pressure from newspapers calling for his resignation might have worked against him. Caudill put the pressure on himself when he decided he was just too busy to get around to being honest in using someone else's work.

That should never fly in the classroom, let alone in the principal's office.

[asmodeus]

Jun 17, 2008 6:39:36 GMT -5 gatormom said:

"No matter how much you or even I like and respect Jim, the rules cannot differ for people we like, from people we might not like as much" Leis said. "And students have to know that we believe what we say, that academic integrity really is important. Our actions must match our words."

This is the issue in a nutshell. You just can't turn a blind eye to this because he is a good and honorable man. He made a mistake and this is the price.

I agree 100%. He is fortunate to be reassigned and not terminated.

[chicoryowl]

Jun 18, 2008 22:24:58 GMT -5 asmodeus said:

Jun 17, 2008 6:39:36 GMT -5 gatormom said:

This is the issue in a nutshell. You just can't turn a blind eye to this because he is a good and honorable man. He made a mistake and this is the price.

I agree 100%. He is fortunate to be reassigned and not terminated.

And I agree with you 100%. Perhaps because he is a good and honorable man he wasn't terminated.