Illinois Board May Hire Caldarelli : Education: Ventura Unified head is a finalist in a suburban Chicago district. His contract here was not renewed.

Cesare Caldarelli Jr., the controversial head of the 15,000-student Ventura Unified School District, is a finalist for the superintendent’s job in a small school district in suburban Chicago.

During the past week, board members from the 2,005-student Bensenville Elementary School District have been questioning past and present Ventura board members about the Ventura superintendent’s qualifications.

“They said that they were looking for a new superintendent, he was one of the finalists,” said Vincent Ruiz, a former board member of 21 years.

Caldarelli, who earns $93,000 in his current job, was not available for comment Friday.

Caldarelli’s job prospect comes three months after the board voted 3 to 2 not to renew his so-called evergreen contract, a three-year pact that comes up for renewal annually. However, the board’s vote left Caldarelli with only two years remaining in the contract.

Ruiz said he and board members Terence Kilbride and May Lee Berry met for lunch a week ago with two Bensenville board members in Ventura.

“They said that they had this one program that they were getting funded and they were looking for a superintendent who was progressive,” Ruiz said. “They had interviewed Dr. Caldarelli and had seen a couple of our programs. They were very impressed.”

Bensenville is one of 11 communities chosen to participate in a privately funded program based on President Bush’s America 2000 plan to improve public education.

The district, along with other local agencies, has applied for a $1.5-million grant, but Bensenville officials said they do not know how much they will receive.

“The reason they are interested in Mr. Caldarelli is, in the educational circles, he has the reputation of being a futurist, a visionary,” said board member Diane Harriman, who was interviewed by telephone this week by a Bensenville board member.

“My evaluation to her was very positive because Cesare does really have many strong areas,” Harriman said.

In 1989, Caldarelli presented a proposal called Vision 2000 to revamp the school district. But the proposal died after being roundly criticized by teachers. Ruiz said the America 2000 program has some of the same goals as Caldarelli’s program.

The Bensenville board hired a recruiting firm in Glenview, Ill., which recommended five candidates, said Bensenville board member Kathleen Bossier. Bossier said the board will make a choice within the next two weeks, with the starting date left negotiable.

Caldarelli was hired in Ventura in 1988 to do what Harriman called “a very dirty job” of paring down the district’s top management. He cut two of four assistant superintendents’ positions and angered teachers, 93% of whom took a vote of no confidence against him two years ago.

Harriman said that when she voted along with John Walker and Jim Wells not to extend the contract, “I was listening to people who said, ‘Let’s have a change.’ ”

Walker, who said he opposed extending the contract for financial reasons, was surprised to hear that Caldarelli was looking for a new job.

“We certainly haven’t pressured him to leave,” Walker said. “From his perspective, he may feel that, because we’re not willing to have a new contract every year for him.”

John Gennaro, president of the 650-teacher Ventura Unified Education Assn., described the Bensenville job as a good match for Caldarelli. Many teachers, he added, still harbor ill feelings toward Caldarelli.

“I think basically, the teachers probably (feel) some tension still exists, there’s no doubt about it,” Gennaro said. “So from that standpoint, it could be a good thing.”

Although Walker said no complaints have been voiced in recent months, “I think people anticipated that he would be moving on.”

Bensenville, a town of 18,000 near O’Hare International Airport, received a grant from the nonprofit New American Schools Development Corp., formed last July by American business leaders to develop a new model for the nation’s schools.