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Mr. Gary Depatis, Board Member

 

Began his teaching career in 1988 at Beardstown as a high school math teacher where he also coached baseball and volleyball before moving north on Route 67 to what was then Schuyler County District #1 in Rushville, (currently Schuyler-Industry).  He spent 5 years at Rushville High School teaching junior high and high school math.  During that time he began work on his master's degree in educational leadership at Western Illinois University and in 1997 moved to Havana CUSD 126 as the elementary principal.  As a former math teacher Gary learned more about reading during his time at New Central Elementary than he ever thought he would know.  During his time at Havana elementary the teachers moved to a leveled reading program beginning in 1st grade and moving all the way through the building to 4th grade.  At one time during this process, Mr. DePatis had a 1st grade teacher tell him that she never had so much knowledge about her students' reading ability in over 15 years of teaching as she did under the new program.

 

After Havana, Mr. DePatis took the position as superintendent in Greenview CUSD #200, a small rural district with approximately 275 students when he got there in 2004.  It was during this time at Greenview that he began working with Dr. Mary Parker and Dr. Tami Roskamp on research of small and rural districts.  This research led to presentations at the III Chicago School Board Conference (2011, 2012 & 2013) as well as the National Rural Education Association Research Symposium in Hilton Head, SC, 2011 and Branson, MO, 2013.

 

Gary is also a past president of AIRSS during his time at Greenview when the association made it first presence in the exhibit hall in 2011.

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