A ‘legend’: Superintendent reflects on 13 years leading Glenbard high schools

David Larson’s office looks more like that of an anthropological museum director than one belonging to a suburban educator.

There’s what “a war chief would wear on the battlefield,” Larson said of one object in a glass display case.

“I grew up with a primitive Stone Age tribe,” he said on a recent morning, almost matter-of-factly.

Larson is a self-described restless spirit. And yet he finds himself calling it a career after a long time in one place. Among the ranks of superintendents, his 13-year tenure leading Glenbard High School District 87 is a bit of an anomaly, he said, and a privilege.

It also reflects what his father instilled in him.

His parents were missionaries among the Dani people in West Papua, New Guinea, beginning in the early 1950s. Gordon Larson was an anthropologist who studied the ritualistic cycle of tribal warfare and worked for years on his dissertation. As a linguist, he translated Bible stories so the Dani people could read them in their own language.

“The purpose and meaning that you achieve by staying someplace and seeing deep change, effective change, I think there’s a little bit of that, probably,” David Larson said, drawing a parallel between his father’s work and his own in District 87.

“I’ve told him he needs to write a book, but I’m sure everybody tells him that,” said Jeff Feucht, superintendent of Antioch Community High School District 117.

Ask him about when he first saw Larson’s office, and he uses words like “jaw-dropping” and “amazing.” And then Feucht goes deeper.

“Part of his background is so unique, and I think it’s part of what makes his leadership so compelling, because he can have that moral clarity,” Feucht said, “because he’s gone through tougher experiences than any of us that grew up in the United States 12 months a year when we were little kids.”

‘Engines of opportunity’

Larson has been at the helm of District 87 since 2012. Within a community of public school administrators, he’s “definitely a legend,” said Feucht, who previously served as a Glenbard assistant superintendent.

In fact, Feucht is part of a group of educators who advanced in their careers and became superintendents in other districts after working with Larson in Glenbard. And that’s no coincidence.

“He really led with a passion that was infectious and really set an example for other leaders to work tirelessly with moral purpose,” Feucht said.

The list of Larson’s accomplishments is long. Voters last year approved plans for building repairs and improvements to all four Glenbard high schools. In 2016, the oldest campus, Glenbard West, unveiled a new wing with chemistry and physics classrooms. The district has instituted a new school day schedule. Students are empowered to take advantage of the “Glenbard Hour” and get support from their teachers during the school day.

“It’s very gratifying to talk about, to have worked here as a superintendent this long and to be able to do this great work and then see the results, and believe and have systems in place,” Larson said.

Feucht said Larson made it clear that high schools should be “engines of opportunity.”

“He did a great job of aligning the curriculum and the courses to make sure students weren’t sorted and that students that were previously underrepresented achieved equity in the most challenging coursework and followed their passions so they could succeed after high school,” Feucht said.

Larson, for instance, has worked to broaden access to Advanced Placement classes — the kind that award college credit if students earn passing scores on AP exams.

As part of that effort, the district has partnered with nonprofit Equal Opportunity Schools and expanded summer school programming to help “newcomers to AP courses learn the mindset and skills they will need to be successful in these classes,” Larson wrote in a Daily Herald column.

“The research shows that if you take that challenging coursework in areas of interest in high school, that you’re more likely to succeed at the next level when you’re in college,” Feucht said.

Since 2016, District 87 has had nearly 11,500 AP enrollments by historically underrepresented students of color and students from low-income households, Larson wrote in a summer 2025 magazine article for the Illinois Association of School Business Officials.

The next chapter

Larson’s retirement isn’t exactly the end of an era. Glenbard South High School Principal Jessica Santee will take over as superintendent on July 1. She understands the district and has the same values, Larson said.

He would like to continue advising and supporting school district leaders. Larson also plans to work on a Dani Bible reprint initiative.

He knows retirement will be an adjustment after almost 45 years in public education.

“I feel very thankful, very blessed to be able to do this work and sustain it.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/20250615/news/a-legend-superintendent-reflects-on-13-years-leading-glenbard-high-schools/