Chris Forman hired as Atwood-Hammond Grade School Principal
Chris Forman was hired by the Arthur CUSD #305 Board of Education as the next Atwood-Hammond Grade School Principal for 2022-2023 school year.
The following is the information Superintendent Shannon Cheek read at the April 20 board meeting regarding Forman.
Christopher Forman (Chris) was born and raised in West-Central Illinois around the Jacksonville area. He and his wife Gretchen, who is the Associate Director of The Grainger College of Engineering’s First-Year Experience at the University of Illinois, have two children, Emma and Elijah. Emma will be starting High School in Arthur in the Fall and Elijah will be entering into 6th-grade at AHGS. Emma loves to play volleyball and her clarinet. She looks forward to trying out for the volleyball team in the Fall and Elijah loves books and playing his Xbox. They have lived in Mahomet for the past fourteen years but are very excited about relocating to Atwood or the surrounding area, hopefully over the summer. As a family they love to travel to local cities and spend time visiting museums, baseball stadiums and shopping until they drop.
Professionally, Chris did his student teaching in Mt. Zion and worked as s substitute teacher there for one year, before going overseas to live and work in Beijing, China for two years as a 4th-grade teacher at the International Academy of Beijing. Upon returning to the United States, Chris joined the College of Education graduate School at the University of Illinois for his Master’s Degree. Upon graduation, Chris worked in the Mahomet school system for eight years, starting as an aide, then as a 3rd-grade teacher and finally working his way up to the district administrative level. He finished his career in the Mahomet school system in 2018, as the Instructional Technology Coordinator, when he left Mahomet to become the principal of a highly diverse, low-income school in Rantoul, Illinois. He has been principal at Eastlawn Elementary School for the past four years.
He is very excited, humbled and overwhelmed by the hiring committee and the board’s selection to be the new principal at Atwood-Hammond Grade School and looks forward to relocating to the area, meeting the students, teachers, families and community members very soon.
