Bridget Belcastro can’t forget the conversation.
She was majoring in English at NIU, eager to become a teacher, and heard something thoroughly laughable as she and some classmates carpooled to Jefferson High School in Rockford.
“I was a junior or a senior in college, and we had to do these practicum hours where you go into different settings, and you teach, or you observe, and there was a group of us. I think there were four, and we weren’t even all English majors, but this was through one of our education classes,” Belcastro says.
“We would drive together and talk on our way, and this one girl – I don’t even remember how this came up – but she looked at me and she goes, ‘Well, you’re going to be a principal,’ ” she adds.
“And I was shocked and appalled. I was like, ‘Absolutely not. There’s no way.’ I looked at the role of a principal and thought, ‘That does not look fun. It doesn’t look interesting or engaging in any way.’ ”
More than 30 years later, “I think about that moment in my life all the time. I wish I remembered who that was, because look at me now.”
Now? Belcastro, who indeed has spent most of her career in education as a principal and has led Johnsburg Elementary School for nine years, is the 2024 Illinois Elementary School Principal of the Year.
The annual recognition from Horace Mann and the Illinois Principals Association (IPA) honors elementary school principals who have demonstrated a positive impact on, and advocacy for, their students and learning community.
Criteria include active implementation of the goals and objectives of the school; collaboration with teachers and other staff to improve the educational program and student achievement; and outreach to involve the community and its resources in the life of the school.
Principal Belcastro is a longtime member of the IPA, where she finds ideas and inspiration from her colleagues in school districts of all sizes throughout the state as well as valuable resources and opportunities for partnership.
“When they came to school that day,” Belcastro says of her unexpected visitors bearing good news, “I did not know. I was truly surprised, and so what I said was off the cuff, but it truly did come from my heart. I said, ‘This award is really a reflection of all of you.’ ”
Yet the credit belongs to the educator in the mirror, a school parent says.
“Dr. Belcastro has helped foster an environment where students feel safe, cared for, supported
and challenged,” says Lindsey Nothnagel, a parent in Johnsburg School District 12. “Not only does Dr. Belcastro have a strong desire for her students to obtain academic success, but she is also an avid supporter of their social and emotional growth.”
HER OWN GROWTH is ongoing, thanks to the NIU College of Education.
Belcastro enrolled in the Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundation’s Ed.S. in Educational Administration superintendent preparation program in Fall 2022 and is expected to graduate in August.
“Like I said that I’d never want to be a principal,” says Belcastro, who also has led Capron Elementary School, North Boone Upper Elementary/Middle School and Alden-Hebron Middle/High School, “I have also said that I really would never want to be a superintendent.”
That began to change in recent years, however.
“First, it was because my current superintendent retires at the end of next year,” she says, “and a couple people were like, ‘You should apply,’ and I said, ‘I don’t have that certification.’ That put the little bug in my mind.”
Soon after, Belcastro attended a conference for women where she heard some powerful messages.
One, she says, “was that you have to got to have the tools in your toolbox, because if you don’t, and an opportunity presents itself, then how do you know if you could have had that opportunity?”
Another: “Women need to be more confident in their skills and abilities.”
“When a job presents itself, and you’re looking at the requirements, and there are, let’s say, 10 qualifications, a woman looks at the list and says, ‘Aw, I don’t have No. 8, so I really can’t apply.’ A man looks at the list and says, ‘Well, I’ve got two of those. I’m going to apply.’ ”
Belcastro is enjoying her NIU coursework and already finding ways to apply what she’s learning.
During one of her recent classes, she recently read an article about truancy that piqued her interest and motivated her to action.
“Chronic absenteeism is a problem that’s facing schools all over the country. It’s an urgent issue, and there are a lot of reasons why absenteeism is happening at a higher rate now,” she says.
“COVID certainly has something to do with it. It’s changed our mindset in a lot of ways,” she adds. “Are parents keeping kids home more because they’re sensitive to illnesses, or do they just have a different viewpoint of the importance of school or the need for school?”
The article reported on a marketing campaign to combat truancy in one California county, launched before the pandemic, that Belcastro thought could work in McHenry County.
“I reached out to our regional superintendent and said, ‘Maybe you and I can get together and try to put something like this together for our whole county and run it through the Regional Office of Education. I’d be happy to help get it off the ground,’ ” Belcastro says. “She was on board because our county only has two truancy officers, so this is something that could help fill the gap.”
Meanwhile, she is appreciating the chance to build her professional network.
“Because it’s a cohort model, I now have all these amazing friends and access to their ideas,” she says. “We’re spread out, but we have a group within the group, and we’ve made connections. Some of us get together at a local library and do some of our work together just for fun. Sometimes, we’ve gotten together to Zoom the classes together, and then we’ll go out a get a bite to eat.”
CLEARLY, A LIFETIME IN education continues to fulfill her.
Growing up in DuPage County, Belcastro loved going to school, learning at school and staying involved at school. When she graduated from St. Francis High School in Wheaton, her intent was to teach psychology.
A second thought, however, pushed her toward English.
“I had always been a voracious reader, and I was a pretty good writer,” she says. “My high school English teacher – I happened to have him my freshman and junior years – was an outstanding teacher, so I said, ‘You know what? I should be an English teacher.’ ”
Teaching at Marian Central Catholic High School in Woodstock, she eventually earned master’s and doctoral degrees in Curriculum and Instruction from North Central College and Loyola University, respectively.
While those degrees (and her Type 75 certification) helped to verify that prediction made years earlier by that now-forgotten Huskie classmate, they were set in motion by a comment Belcastro heard during a job interview for a teaching job: English teachers are a dime a dozen.
“At that point, I knew the only way I could get into public education was to move into administration,” she says, adding that it was during her second year at Capron “that I really felt like I found what I was meant to do as a principal.”
“I still have a role working with kids, and I love working with the adults, too, so I really get the best of both worlds,” she says. “I can pick and choose how I work with the kids, so I can go in and read with students, or if they need a sub and I have the time in my schedule, I can go in and be a sub for a period or even a whole day. Then I get to work on projects with teachers and do some really cool things. I’ve always loved being in school – it’s been fun – and I’m one of those people who finds fun in my daily job.”
