This summer was like no other for school officials who had to prepare to reopen schools in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Rich Decman had to oversee that personally as the superintendent of Herscher School District near Kankakee, Illinois.

Decman played in Harlem’s baseball program before earning a master’s degree in education from Eastern Illinois and a doctorate from Northern Illinois. He’s been in school management since 2002 when he became a principal at Bismarck Henning High School in southern Illinois.

Rich took his first superintendent job in 2007 when he took over the Gardner-South Wilmington High School District in Illinois in 2007. He has been superintendent of Herscher since 2011. The Herscher district is made up of four schools and about 1,700 students.