When Jason Dietz started teaching fourth-grade, he immediately thought that he’d found his forever home.
The place was Mundelein, the year was 1998 and Dietz had just completed a fresh-out-of-college stint working in a middle school as a program assistant for special education students.
“It was a great year of learning and growth for me in the situation and that experience, but I couldn’t wait to get my own classroom,” says Dietz, a native of Ingleside and double-alum of the NIU College of Education.
“And once I got my own classroom, I will say that I had a wonderful team of teachers around me. Some experienced people. Some veterans. Some newbies. We just clicked, and the theme was that I loved going to work every day to work with them. They really helped to develop me.”
Meanwhile, he drew abundant affirmation from the 26 young faces in front of him.
“I loved fourth-grade. I never thought I’d move out of fourth-grade and, obviously, there’s a story behind that, but it was an enjoyable group of kids,” he says. “The students still enjoy and love being with you and wanted to learn. They were on the cusp of getting independent. It was an enjoyable age to work with, and it was a really great starting point for me.”
Dietz’s journey is one of moving to a middle school principal’s office – his gig since 2004 at four different buildings – and now adding the co-presidency of the Association for Illinois Middle Grade Schools to his résumé.
So. The story. What happened to fourth-grade?
Her name is Elaine Parks, one of Dietz’s teammates at that school he thought was permanent.
“She was a wonderful teacher on her way to retirement, and her husband was a superintendent in the state of Illinois,” he says.
“As I was finishing up my third year teaching fourth-grade, she said, ‘Have you ever thought about administration?’ I was a fourth-grade teacher. That’s not what I was thinking about,” he adds. “I said, ‘Why would you say that?’ And it was because I work well with everybody, not just kids. I really took that to heart.”
Yet his heart was about to suffer a temporary blow, one that wrote the next chapter.
“On a Friday afternoon in the spring, my principal came around with what you were going to be teaching the next year, and she came to my room and said, ‘I’m moving you to sixth-grade,’ ” Dietz says.
“I was livid. I was mad. I was angry. I didn’t want to do it. I was happy where I was at. I was really frustrated and upset with the principal,” he adds.
“Then I get to the sixth-grade, and instead of 26 kids during the day, I’m now teaching 150. I’m teaching social studies and science, 50/50, and I’m loving the work with the middle school kids. I feel like the middle schoolers got my personality and my humor a little better. I really, really enjoyed working with the sixth-grade.”
DIETZ EARNED HIS NIU master’s degree in Educational Administration in 2004, when he became the associate principal of Fremont Middle School – and surprised himself again.
Fremont, a fourth- through eighth-grade building, was where Dietz taught. Fremont was also where he completed his internship.
“I didn’t think in a million years that I would go into administration, even at the middle school level. I thought elementary was my jam,” he says.
“But the associate principal was leaving, and I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to put my name in the hat.’ I ended up getting the job at the same school where I taught two different grade levels,” he adds.
“It was a learning experience. I worked with some of the same colleagues I taught side by side with, and it was very humbling. It was a great opportunity for me to grow. I learned a lot from the people around me that I had trust relationships with. I made a lot of mistakes. Pam Motsenbocker, the principal I worked with, was a great mentor for me and really helped develop my skills.”
Two years later, Dietz became associate principal of Thomas Middle School in Arlington Heights School District 25.
Three years after that, in 2009, he joined North Shore School District 112 as principal of Edgewood Middle School.
Commuting that far proved hard, though, and the father of three worried that he was missing out on family time with his young daughters. He was struggling at work. So, when he heard of a job opening at Walter R. Sundling Junior High School in Palatine, he knew what he needed to do.
Nearly 14 years later, he’s still there – “an anomaly as an administrator in education.”
“I interviewed in Palatine,” he says, “and from the first time I came to the door was for this job, I was hearing about the community, I was hearing about the teachers, and I interviewed the teachers, and I thought, ‘This is like where I grew up. I have commonalities with these people.’ I really enjoyed the community and the parent involvement, and I took the position.”
Sundling, recipient of a 2021 National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Award and now a middle school with sixth- through eighth-grades, has become that lifetime home he once thought was inside a fourth-grade classroom.
“I’ve had opportunities to move into different realms, but I wanted to stay here because I really, truly feel like we have a great thing going. I have people around the table who want to do what’s best for kids. We’re doing some great work, and I think we can get better every year,” Dietz says.
“When you’re in a position like this for so long, you start to evaluate. Is it time for me to move on? Is it time for the staff to have a new principal?” he adds.
“Over the last few years following COVID, I feel like we’re still a group. I’ve seen this middle school transition come to fruition. It’s been an amazing journey. I have about six or seven years left in my career, but I don’t want to level. I enjoy this building and the people here. The teachers. The kids. The families. I’ve had generations of kids, and I also have teachers now working for me who I had as students in my first or second year of teaching. It’s neat to see that happen, although it shows my age and how old I’m getting.”
MOVING UP IS A POSSIBILITY if Dietz chooses to do so.
He returned to the NIU College of Education in 2017 to earn his Ed.S. in Educational Administration, which he completed in 2019, and is qualified for central offices roles including the superintendency.
Some of his fellow students in that cohort now are superintendents, he says, and while he hasn’t sought a district-level position, the curriculum of that degree has benefited him at Sundling.
Courses in finance and budget, for example, came in handy while he oversaw projects in his building.
Meanwhile, he says, his classes provided “a ground-level understanding” of what it takes to become, and succeed, in a superintendent’s job or cabinet. He appreciates lessons from NIU faculty that emphasized strong communication with stakeholders, building bridges between town and gown and tapping into rich community resources.
And, of course, Dietz forged a network of fellow educators whom he trusts to provide camaraderie and guidance if he needs it.
“I love that I have my educational specialist degree. Working on projects with people from different schools, and learning what they do, has helped me to change some things, and I think I’ve offered that to others as well with things we’ve done in Palatine School District 15. I’ve been able to share, provide information and maybe bring something new to their schools or their district.”
The right opportunity would encompass Human Resources or Curriculum and Instruction, Dietz says.
“I was always good at putting out fires. I was always good at the management piece of my job,” he says, “but I was never really strong in the instructional realm, and that was a goal for me every year Getting my educational specialist degree reminded me how to become a better instructional leader. Building relationships and providing solid instruction for getting teachers to be great teachers are important to me.”
Part of that is something he already accomplishes on a statewide level as co-president of the Association for Illinois Middle Schools (AIMS).
The organization promotes educational excellence through leadership, policy development, collaboration and professional development, believing that every educator across the state deserves support and connection.
Like his band of fellow NIU alumni, AIMS “expanded my resources and network throughout the state of Illinois, not just Cook County or Lake County. I was talking to people in southern Illinois who had completely different ways of looking at education than we do, and it taught me a lot about how things are very different in different places and that what we do here might not work down there.”
When the previous president stepped down, Dietz convinced colleague Scott Loughrige to take on the leadership together as co-presidents. They are proud of events such as Summer Splash and initiatives such as Schools to Watch.
“We’ve taken the bull by the horns,” Dietz says. “We’re constantly looking to improve. We’re constantly looking for resources. We’ve got a great group of people around us in the organization, and I’m enjoying the partnership I have and the opportunities to get out of this building and see a broader picture.”
Despite that wider view, and how it has equipped him to share with his staff the diversity of educational stories he hears about at AIMS events, he remains content where he is.
Sundling, he says, is much like the Big Hollow Elementary School he attended in Ingleside decades ago.
Great teachers who inspire students to want to learn – and to learn more. Classrooms that are inviting and fun. Encouragement and empowerment to follow passions.
“I have an amazing staff here who want to do what’s best for kids, and I love when I can get out and be in the hallways, or in the cafeteria, giving knuckles and high-fives to kids, or talking about shoes, or talking television shows. I just love talking with kids, and I think that’s what helps me come to work every day,” Dietz says.
“We do have challenges ahead of us,” he adds, “and I am really looking forward to being a part of those challenges, working together to make this a great experience for kids. To be able to take what we’re learning about them in sixth-grade and moving them on to eighth-grade and beyond is just an exciting thing.”
