District 214 Board Names New Finance Leader and Elk Grove Principal

                  The Township High School District 214 Board of Education has named Cathy Johnson, chief financial officer at J. Sterling Morton High School District 201, to associate superintendent for finance and operations; and Paul Kelly, social science/world language division head at John Hersey High School, to Elk Grove High School principal. They will succeed Deb Parenti and Dr. Nancy Holman, respectively, when they retire at the end of the school year.

            Johnson brings a combination of business knowledge and education experience to her new role in District 214. She began her education career as a benefits specialist at Arlington Heights School District 25 in 2001. Five years later, she assumed the role of director of business services at LaGrange School District 105, and in 2010, chief financial officer at J. Sterling Morton High School District 201.

            Johnson has a bachelor's degree in business administration from Robert Morris College (now University) and master degrees in human resources from the Keller Graduate School of Management and educational administration from Northern Illinois University. She is a member of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials, Association of School Business Officials International, and Society for Human Resources Management.

            As a Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award recipient, Kelly joined District 214 as a social science/world language division head at John Hersey High School in 2007. Prior to that he served as a teacher leadership coach at the University of Illinois-Chicago for two years where he led instructional reform in the UIC Urban Leadership Department's Curriculum Framework Project. Working closely with teachers, he oversaw the implementation of structural and instructional change in 20 Chicago public high schools. Kelly began his career as a social science teacher at Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park in 1998, and four years later taught at Hinsdale South High School in Darien.

            In addition to the Milken Award, Kelly has received numerous honors, including Hersey's 2010 Instructional Leadership award and the 2004 Hinsdale South High School Professional of the Year award. He also has presented at local, state, and national conferences. Kelly received a bachelor's degree in secondary education-social science from the University of Illinois and master degrees in curriculum and instruction from Benedictine University in Lisle and educational organizational and leadership from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.