Community Corner

Outgoing Principal Leaves Legacy of Love

This week's Patch Portraits also features Wilmette's oldest graveyard.

This week's Patch Portraits also features .

When Jann Greenberg’s son was 11, he struggled with making the transition to junior high school. Specifically, he didn’t want to get out of bed and go at all.

Sitting in a meeting with special education service providers from Northbrook’s , Greenberg was at a loss. But then-Director of Special Education Programs Cory Hehn had an idea: Greenberg’s son needed a home-school connection. What if someone called him each morning to encourage him to go?

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Hehn offered to be the one, promising she would call him every day on her car phone as she was on her way to work. And she did. To this day, Greenberg is still grateful.

“She didn’t delegate that—she took that responsibility on herself,” Greenberg says. “She does those things regularly.”

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Greenberg would know, since she was a board member at District 27 for eight years and has worked as secretary at for the last seven. She says the school—and Greenberg, personally—will greatly miss Hehn when she retires in June 2012, after 16 years as principal of Hickory Point and three decades with the district.

“She has remarkable leadership skills,” Greenberg says. “The culture is set by the principal, and it’s the best building ever.”

Four Decades In Teaching

Hehn, who grew up in Lakeview and was the first in her family to go to college, says she knew she wanted to be a teacher as early as seventh grade at Saint Andrew School in Chicago.  

“My seventh grade teacher was a cute, young single girl,” Hehn recalls.  “She was that person that makes you see you can make such a difference to people.”

After college, Hehn took a job teaching elementary school back at Saint Andrew, where she spent the next nine years. She became interested in special education while teaching there, when a colleague suggested she had a knack for working with kids with special needs.

So Hehn got a masters in special education, then taught in Arkansas and Cicero, IL, before taking a job with District 27 teaching a transitional program for kids who had completed kindergarten but weren’t yet ready for first grade. Eventually, she moved up in the district to become director of special Education programs.

“I came to Northbrook for the job, but I really found a family,” Hehn says. “Everybody here is so supportive, no matter what.”

When it comes to family, staff members say Hehn has been instrumental in making Hickory Point students, staff, and parents feel like a community.

Take the concept of filling your bucket, says first grade teacher Nancy Dailey, who retired this June after 40 years with the district.

One summer, Hehn had the whole staff read a book called How Full Is Your Bucket? The authors use the idea of a bucket to argue that positive psychology—i.e., praise and support—is the basis of a happy life and good relations with others. “Filling someone’s bucket” is code for making them feel better with positive interactions, while “dipping into someone’s bucket” is code for negative interactions.

Hehn took the concept beyond the staff, however. She came into each classroom to read a children’s version to the students, then sent a copy of the book home to parents to read with their kids.

“Now we’re all filling buckets,” says Dailey. “We could put out a fire!”

Kids Come First

Positive psychology—and putting kids first—is the basis of her management style,  Hehn explains.

“I think I lead with my heart first and then maybe my brain,” she says.

Her philosophy is reflected in the plaque she gave to incoming Hickory Point Principal Sheila Streets, who Hehn will mentor for the next year.

“They don’t care how much you know until they know that you care,” it reads.

Working for Hehn, it’s obvious how much she cares, says Dailey. Her support comes through in big ways and in small.

When it’s time for report cards, Hehn leaves heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies for teachers after they’re finished. And she also reads all 300-plus report cards for the students in the building before they’re sent to parents.

“It’s for our benefit. She catches us if there’s an error,” says Dailey. “She’s got our back.”

When there is an issue with a staff member, however, Hehn can “give you the hard line,” says Greenberg.

“We’re of a million different personalities and she knows how to handle each of us in the best way.”

And always, she adds, Hehn puts the kids first.

“She’s a person who always has children first, in every decision she makes,” adds Superintendent David Kroeze, who has worked with Hehn for the past 19 years he’s been with the district.

“She has a team of staff members there who also think that way now, and that just doesn’t come over night,” he adds.

Legacy Includes Two Construction Projects, Transition To Primary Center

In her tenure as principal, Hehn oversaw two construction projects—a major renovation in 2002 and a second, smaller renovation in 2009—as well as the school’s transition from a traditional elementary school to a primary center. When the district closed Grove Elementary School at the end of the 2009-2010 school year, due to the costs of keeping up three elementary schools despite falling enrollment, the district shuffled around grade levels. Hickory Point took over all kindergarteners through second graders, while Shabonee School took over third through fifth graders.

That presented two challenges for Hehn: bringing together all of the primary grade teachers and creating a new identity for the school. But, Kroeze says, she was the right person for the job.

“Cory’s just a phenomenal leader,” he says. “I can always depend that Hickory Point will be moving along in a positive direction.”

While Hehn says she does miss some aspects of a traditional elementary school—like having older kids to pair with younger kids—she’s focused on the upside of a move that was primarily made for economic reasons.

“You can really be young-centered,” she says. “I really love the little ones.”

The Last Year Will Be Her ‘Best Year Yet’

For her last year as principal, Hehn says she wants to make it “the best year yet.” While she won’t miss 9:30 p.m. e-mails or shoveling her driveway first thing in the morning when it snows, she says she will miss the day-to-day interactions with children.

She’ll especially miss working with kids in the school garden, a feature she suggested during one of the recent renovations. The small enclosure within the school includes a sensory garden for kindergarteners, a statue in memory of students who passed away and a tree the PTA dedicated to Hehn’s father, who was a regular fixture at the school in the last years of his life.

In retirement, Hehn plans on spending time with her new grandson, who was born June 1. She might volunteer or become a state mentor for principals. And she’ll be weeding her own garden for once, instead of the one at the school.

The decision to leave was a tough one, however, says Hehn, who will be 61 when she retires.

“I wanted to go while I was still at the top of my game,” she explains. “I wanted to go while I still had time to enjoy life.”

But for now, she’s looking forward to her last year at Hickory Point.

“Every day is different,” Hehn says. “Who’d want to work in a cubicle?”

Click the video at left to on three decades at Hickory Point.

Editor's Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly listed the grade levels at Shabonee School. The school actually enrolls third through fifth graders, while sixth through eigth graders go to Wood Oaks Junior High.


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