At a press conference this morning, Unit 4 Superintendent Judy Wiegand announced that Chief Operations Officer Gene Logas has passed away at 56. Logas was invaluable in designing Unit 4’s current financial strategy while serving as its chief fiduciary for over 6 years. Logas was recently promoted from Chief Financial Officer to COO in a move that reflected how important he was to the district.
Beyond the personal loss that his family, friends and colleagues are currently experiencing, the district as a whole will be forced to recover from his sudden absence. This is all the more complicated given how involved he was in guiding Unit 4 through the state of transition it’s experiencing with the beginning of Wiegand’s tenure as superintendent, the current contract negotiations with the Champaign Federation of Teachers, and the most recent passage of SB7, the ramifications of which are, in several legally and financially complicated cases, largely undefined.
Logas was a consistent, reliable executive in a district that, for a time, had very few constants. He will most certainly be missed. Our condolences go out to his family.