Person	Ext	VM	HH	E-Mail
Cheryl Flinn Business Manager	235	235		cflinn@ridgenet.org
Jennifer Kelsall Principal	237	237		jkelsall@ridgenet.org
Dr. Robert Lupo Superintendent, District 234	233	233		dr.lupo@ridgenet.org
Robert McCarthy Dean of Students	242	242		rmccarthy@ridgenet.org
Jennifer Snyder Director of Student Services, Homeless Liaison	284	284		jsnyder@ridgenet.org
Patrick Woods Athletic Director	240	240		pwoods@ridgenet.org

Principal Jennifer Kelsall
(Eric Davis/for Pioneer Press)

Additionally, our faculty and staff are dedicated to supporting individual student needs through various learning opportunities. We pride ourselves on educating the whole child. We look forward to a continued effort between home, school, and community to promote success and desire for lifelong learning. Our success is linked to the support we receive from parents and other family members, community, and our fine staff.

Thank you for your interest and support.

Jennifer Kelsall
Principal

Jennifer Kelsall has been with Ridgewood High School for nine years, including two as principal and five as assistant principal.

Jennifer Kelsall is the principal at Ridgewood High School.
(Brian O'Mahoney/Staff Photographer)

Before arriving at Ridgewood, she spent seven years at Lockport Township High School as science teacher and athletic trainer.

Kelsall said her strength as an educational leader is the ability to see long term and to have a plan on getting to that long term vision. She said her biggest weakness is impatience.

"So often an education change takes a long time," she said, "I don't like to see change taking a long time because we want to impact the lives of the kids that we have right there and not have to wait two more years."

The strength of Ridgewood High School academically is "the commitment from our staff to do whatever is necessary to help kids learn," Kelsall said. "I think that's a piece that people don't see when we look at each individual child and find out how can we help each one show improvement as they progress through their four years."

The school's weakness is the inability to convey that message to the community, she said.

"We do really good things in here, and I don't think everyone understands the commitment to helping every kid," she said. "We really look for ways to get that message out that we're doing all of these things which are typically steps ahead of other schools in the newest technologies or the newest instructional delivery method.

"When I send teachers to professional development experiences, they come back and say, 'We're already doing it,' or 'We already know this,'" she continued. "So trying to convey that we are all committed professionals who are working ahead of the continuum of what most schools are. That's what we're doing to help their child. I think that message gets lost."

Kelsall said the school has to find a better way to communicate what is being done and the result.

Ever since Kelsall has been at Ridgewood, the biggest goal has been improving reading scores.

"That's always been our main initiative and we've made huge strides in that area," she said. "From the 10 percent increase from one year to the next, the plan that we have in place to support movement in that direction."

The second goal would be to improve math scores, she said.

Outside of the school office, Kelsall said she has a true passion for cars. She helped her fiance, Mike Kelsall restore his 1978 Z28 Camaro and is now restoring a 1970 pickup truck. In the summertime, Kelsall said she spends a lot of nights at car shows.

She is also finishing her doctorate at Illinois State University, and enjoys hiking and kayaking.

Article written by Craig A. Whitney on Monday, December 28, 2009 for the Pioneer Press Norridge and Harwood Heights News and online at http://www.pioneerlocal.com/norridge/news/1961956,norridge-buteyn-12310 9-s1.article.