Schools

The Call of Home Takes District 65 Superintendent to Downstate School District

Lake Bluff's Asplund resigns for Farmington job.

There really is no place like home.

Just ask Lake Bluff School District 65 Superintendent John Asplund, who will return to his roots in July after accepting the same position with Farmington Central District 265 in central Illinois. The Farmington School Board voted 5-2 in favor of hiring Asplund last Friday night, according to an article in the Peoria Journal Star.

His last day with District 65 will be June 30. His new position starts July 1.

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Asplund is about to finish his second year in Lake Bluff, and didn't foresee this chain of events happening.

"You definitely have mixed emotions," Asplund said. "The key for me was the kids (Isaac, Eli and Clara) were excited."

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Asplund said he knew Farmington Superintendent Mark Doan, who spent seven years there prior to recently accepting the same position with Effingham Unit 40 School District, which is close to where he grew up.

Asplund felt the same pull when he decided to apply for the Farmington post. He grew up in Oneida, which is about an hour from Farmington. Much of his family and his wife Julie's family still reside in that area.

"The pull of home became too great," he said.

Asplund's early career as a teacher and principal were spent in central Illinois near Galesburg to Champaign. His first superintendent position was with Villa Grove School District 302 just outside of Urbana, and then moved to Reed Custer School District 255 in Braidwood.

He hopes his familiarity with the Farmington area will lessen the transition before him.

"It will still be a transition, but less so because I am familiar with the history of the area and the challenges because I grew up with them," he said.


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