D202 Superintendent, Retiring In June, Reflects On Career

Plainfield IL

16 November, 2021

2:00 PM

Description

PLAINFIELD, IL — Superintendent of Schools Lane Abrell penned his final Thanksgiving message to the Plainfield School District 202 community ahead of his June retirement. In the letter, he looked back on his 36 years working in "the most rewarded and fulfilling career." Abrell will retire after eight years at the district's helm. The former Plainfield High School principal began serving as superintendent in July 2014 after he replaced then-Superintendent John Harper. Before taking the top job, he worked as an associate superintendent in July 2013, while Haper was preparing for retirement, Patch reported. "I first came to District 202 at the start of the explosive growth that turned what was once a small community into the fourth-largest district in Illinois, and then returned as that growth and the Great Recession were ending," Abrell wrote. Subscribe to Patch's free Plainfield newsletter and get real-time email alerts. In the almost-decade that has passed, District 202 has become the fifth-largest school district in the state, trailing behind Indian Prairie Community Unit School District 204 by about 800 students, according to Niche.com. He continued: "Then of course there were the many shifts in the 'political sands' of public education, in terms of the myriad list of things educators must now do on top of their 'regular job' of teaching children academics." Though through it all, he said children continued to need adults who showed care and dedication because educating is a "people" business. He wrote that during the pandemic, he learned computers will "never totally replace in-person education." "With that in mind, I am sincerely thankful for the many thousands of professional educators, parents and guardians and Board of Education members everywhere I have been blessed to work who have helped shape the lives of countless thousands of students," Abrell wrote in his November letter. In the educator's stead, current Associate Superintendent Glenn Wood will take over starting in the 2022-23 school year. "I am very confident that my successor, Dr. Glenn Wood, our current associate superintendent, will far exceed any of my accomplishments and lead District 202 to even greater accomplishments," Abrell wrote. RELATED: Abrell Retiring; Glenn Wood Named New Superintendent In D202 Throughout his career, which began in 1986 when he took a job as a high school teacher, Abrell took his first role — a high school assistant principal — in District 202 in 1997. He then became principal at what is now Plainfield Central High School from 1999-2006. He stepped away from the district, a decision he said was "difficult but needed," for a seven-year period to work as superintendent at Leland Community Unit School District 1, a small, rural district in LaSalle County. He said that decision was "the best preparation" for returning to the district for the job he's now retiring from. "I am confident that despite the many challenges we face in and out of our schools," Abrell said, "our children will survive and thrive because of their commitment and hard work." (For more news and information like this, subscribe to the Plainfield Patch for free. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here. Don't forget to like us on Facebook!)