In the principal’s office, business is being conducted per usual, but not by the person you would expect. Sitting in that principal chair for the time being is temporary admin-in-charge Victor Iturralde, a retired and experienced CPS administrator, taking Principal Kerry Dolan’s during her leave of absence.

Iturralde was a principal within CPS for 25 years, helping establish Solorio Academy High School in 2010 and serving as the inaugural principal for the past 15 years until his retirement last year. Despite being retired, he remains connected with CPS through the Department of Principal Quality, which led him to Jones as the admin-in-charge in Dolan’s absence.

“My goal would be that students and teachers can focus on teaching and learning as if nothing had ever changed or without any kind of interruption,” said Iturralde. “Just know that I’m here to support some very strong administrators here that work hard every day, and I’m very excited to support them to be successful and help the school continue to be successful.”

Principal Dolan is taking a leave of absence in order to attend to and recover from a routine medical procedure. Before she left, Dolan and the assistant principal team met to ensure everything around the school would still run smoothly in her absence, including figuring out what roles each of the assistant principals would need to take on during this time.

“We met to review her buckets, responsibilities, departments, staff and to split them up between us,” said Assistant Principal Sean McGuire. “The administrator in charge manages mostly back end stuff and communication with the network, but day to day interactions with adults, students, and families fall to us.”

For Iturralde, coming to Jones is particularly a special opportunity due to his prior connection with the school.

“I’ve been very familiar with Jones for decades. My son graduated from here in 2016, so I’ve known Jones from a parent’s perspective,” said Iturralde. “Now that I’ve been placed here, it’s been very exciting to see the inner workings of Jones now as an administrator in charge.”

Throughout his short time at Jones, Iturralde has been amazed by the work ethic and standard set by Jones students, and has received a warm welcome from those who have chosen to introduce themselves.

“With the diversity of the student body, it’s very apparent that this is a special school environment that has a lot of committed individuals focused on reaching their potential,” said Iturralde. “I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the students here, and just the positive interactions among themselves and the staff members, and the welcoming nature that they’ve shown me.”

Initial collaboration between Iturralde and the assistant principal team has been beneficial for both parties, with Iturralde being able to provide his decades of experience as an administrator to help guide the school through this experience.

“I’ve been able to leverage the 20 years that I’ve been a principal to be able to support these amazing administrators and provide them with my insight, to advise them and to just be a springboard,” said Iturralde. “That’s the thing about what I’ve seen, is that everybody has that growth mentality and they’re willing to just continue to move the school forward. That’s what I’ve been so impressed by this admin team.”

For the assistant principal team, having an experienced voice like Iturralde’s has been great to assist them, while still allowing the team to work like they would do under any other set of circumstances.

“He has given us really good directives coming from what he understands about the process through his experience,” said assistant principal Jimini Ofori-Amoah. “He lets us know when there’s something that he feels is out of his realm of decision making, or his input might not be the best. He tells us who he thinks we should reach out to when it’s not necessarily a question he can field.”

Even with Principal Dolan gone for the next few weeks, the assistant principal team is operating at the same standard, and are working to ensure all students and families feel comfortable during this period.

“It’s great that leaves are there for people to take advantage of, but we absolutely understand that that can lead to some apprehension or anxiety with students and with their families,” said McGuire. “We just want to assure people that they’re in good hands. We’re still here doing all the work that we would normally do, and then we’re striving to make ourselves all the more available.”

As Iturralde continues to serve in the absence of Principal Dolan, he and the rest of administration are committed to functioning the school as if Dolan never left, ensuring that the school continues to progress in the right direction.

“The impact that I hope to leave is one where the school continues to progress and students continue to develop,” said Iturralde. “Even though I might not be sitting in the seat of the principal beyond my time here, I’m still going to be close by and make myself available.”