In Mascoutah, Illinois, a small city with a quietly remarkable school district, Dr. Dave Deets, Superintendent of Mascoutah Community Unit School District 19, carries a particular kind of weight into his office each morning. Not the weight of burden, but the weight of inheritance. His father is a retired superintendent. His uncle is, too. His aunts are retired teachers. His mother-in-law spent her career in a classroom. And his wife walks into a fifth-grade classroom at a neighboring school district every single day.
For Dr. Deets, education was never simply a career choice. It was the family business.
He knew it early, back in his college years, when the shape of his future was already forming clearly in his mind: teacher, then principal, then superintendent. What makes that trajectory notable is not the ambition behind it, but the patience and intentionality with which he pursued it, district by district, role by role, learning from every leader he encountered along the way.
“I’ve been incredibly fortunate to not only have wonderful role models in my family but also to have the leaders I’ve worked for in the past and those I still work with today, all helped shape the leader I am today,” he reflects.
A Record Earned, Not Inherited
The professional recognition that followed tells a story of someone who translated that inherited calling into genuine excellence. In 2013, Dr. Deets was named Elementary Principal of the Year for the Illinois Principal Association’s Southwest Region. Then, in 2018, he was recognized as the statewide winner of the Illinois Principals Association’s Herman Graves Award, the highest distinction a principal can receive in the state. That is not a footnote. That is the kind of honor that defines what a career can be.
And yet, when the conversation turns to accomplishments, Dr. Deets pivots quickly away from the individual awards and toward the community around him.
“I fully understand those awards are not because of me,” he says. “It’s a great source of pride that I’m fortunate to serve such a special school community.”
Beyond Mascoutah, his contributions to the profession extend further. He served three years as Region President for the Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA) Southwest Region and currently holds the position of Region 2 Representative on the Executive Board of the Military Impacted Schools Association (MISA), a role that reflects both his district’s community character and his broader investment in the field.
From Vision to Practice
As superintendent, Dr. Deets describes his core work as translating the school board’s goals and the community’s values into concrete practices and policies that give every student access to quality learning, every single day. He does this through close collaboration with his district and building-level administrative team, while also taking direct ownership of school board communication and public engagement. He is also a visible presence in Mascoutah’s civic life, active in organizations including the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary.
The initiatives he has prioritized since stepping into the superintendent role are substantial in scope. A sustained focus on Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) runs alongside a major emphasis on CTE and vocational education, long-term facilities planning, and deliberate work on district culture. That culture work has included strengthened collaboration with union leadership, meaningful improvements to staff pay and benefits, and expanded social-emotional supports for students.
All of this, notably, has been accomplished while Mascoutah maintains the lowest tax rate in the county.
This year, Dr. Deets introduced a District Professional Learning Team (PLT), bringing together cabinet members and school-level administrators for monthly meetings focused on reviewing data from multiple sources, including surveys and assessments, to identify strengths and address areas for growth.
“We also believe it’s important to model what you lead,” he explains. “If we are going to ask our teachers to collaborate and share data with each other, then our building and district leadership must hold the same values.”
All Means All
When Dr. Deets talks about who the district’s work is truly for, he uses a phrase he means with full conviction: all means all. Students in CTE and vocational pathways. Students in special education. Students pursuing fine arts, athletics, and academics. Students navigating social-emotional challenges. No group is an afterthought.
Making that a reality, he says, begins with listening broadly. Good decisions about budget and resource allocation require multiple voices and multiple sources of input, not a single perspective filtered through administration.
The most urgent expression of that commitment, looking ahead, is ensuring that every Mascoutah student can receive the programming and services they need without relying on cooperatives or outside districts. The Board of Education has already committed to multiple facility additions and improvements to make that possible, encompassing both CTE and vocational education and expanded special education services.
If given unlimited resources, Dr. Deets says he would direct funding toward a sweeping revitalization of Career and Technical Education (CTE) and vocational training. He notes that the past few decades have seen a significant decline in the number of skilled trade workers across the country. During the No Child Left Behind era, tightening school budgets and a heightened emphasis on English Language Arts and mathematics led many districts to scale back or eliminate vocational programs.
With unlimited resources, he would restore those programs and make them even stronger through modern facilities, industry-grade equipment, and enhanced training opportunities. For Dr. Deets, recognizing that not every student is college-bound is essential, and that is perfectly okay. The role of educators, he believes, is to provide every student with the opportunities, resources, and career pathways needed to reach their fullest potential, whatever path they choose. Strong CTE and vocational education programs are central to that mission. Alongside this commitment, he would continue investing deeply in early childhood and pre-K education, which he considers foundational to long-term student success.
Staying Centered
Dr. Deets is candid about the particular kind of pressure that comes with the superintendent’s chair. Leadership at this level, he acknowledges, can become isolating if leaders allow it to. He has made a deliberate choice not to.
His philosophy when facing difficulty is not to dwell, not to spiral, and not to let the hardest moments define the posture he brings to everything else. He reflects. He learns. He moves forward.
“When great things happen, I celebrate and appreciate them, but don’t get too high and lose that growth mindset. In the same token, I do not let the hurdles and obstacles get me too low,” he says.
The anchor beneath every decision he makes is student welfare. When choices become difficult and agreement is impossible to achieve across all stakeholders, he returns to that single question: what is best for the students and the school community as a whole? That clarity, he says, is what keeps him steady.
He has also built something invaluable outside his own walls: a network of peer superintendents across the Illinois Southwestern Region who operate not as rivals but as genuine colleagues. They call on each other during good stretches and difficult ones alike.
Outside the professional world entirely, Dr. Deets finds equilibrium in time with his family. He makes space for his sons and wife, whether that means afternoons by the pool, attending games and concerts, or taking trips when schedules allow. He takes his wife on a date night at least once a month, typically to a restaurant neither of them has visited before. The greater St. Louis area, he notes, makes that particular tradition easier to sustain than one might expect.
He also cooks, grills, plays golf when time permits, and tends to his yard with the kind of focused attention he attributes, good-naturedly, to being “a bit OCD in many areas.”
It is a full life. And it is, in the most genuine sense, the life he always planned to have.
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“The more school districts can invest in children at an early age, the greater their long-term success rates become.”
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