More than a decade after leaving the social studies classroom, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Peter Tragos, New Trier High School’s next superintendent, continues to share historical tidbits with students. 

“If you go back and look in the archives, before Superintendent [F.E.] Clerk, there was a long-standing interim superintendent,” Tragos said. “Her name was Elizabeth Packer, and she doesn’t necessarily get recognized as being the superintendent, but she served, for all intents and purposes, as the superintendent of the district for many, many years before Clerk.” 

“She should be known in our own history,” Tragos said. 

In New Trier’s nearly 124 years, the suburban high school has undergone so much change, and now Tragos has the chance to make his mark on the institution. The New Trier Board of Education on Nov. 18 named Tragos as the district’s seventh superintendent since 1931, and will succeed Dr. Paul Sally on July 1, 2025.

Starting at Kenwood Academy High School in Chicago, Tragos came to New Trier in 1998 as a social studies teacher. He said he gained a deeper understanding of New Trier through developing collegial relationships, mentorships, and friendships. He is also a resident of the district, raising his three daughters in Northfield with his wife, Karen, a 1988 New Trier graduate.  

Before joining the administrative team in 2013 as assistant principal at the Northfield Campus, he served as an adviser and union president. In 2017, he became assistant superintendent, focusing on speaking with stakeholders in the building about curriculum and instruction. 

After 13 years as an administrator, Tragos said his work has been an affirming and rewarding experience. Through it, he discovered he wanted to lead a school district like New Trier on behalf of its students, staff, and community.

“As I look towards the back half of my career, it’s been an opportunity I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Tragos said. 

As superintendent, he wants to move New Trier forward and achieve the goals in the comprehensive, long-term strategic plan: New Trier 2030. He is also looking beyond 2030, but is not sure yet what that would look like as stakeholders need to be consulted. 

“A district without a strategic plan is actually really rudderless,” Tragos said. “We need some sort of mission alignment or north star that we’re working towards.”  

He said under his leadership the school community should not expect radical change. Right now, though, he is preparing for his new role while continuing his job as assistant superintendent. One aspect is shifting his mindset to looking outward towards the community, rather than inward. This includes learning to work with sender schools and community and civic leaders. 

“Dr. Sally does an amazing job representing the district outside the walls of New Trier. That will be a new experience [for me], and one I’m looking forward to,” Tragos said. “I have a lot to learn there because I haven’t done it, but I’m comfortable with those kinds of developing relationships with people and groups.” 

He is working with Sally during the next eight months to ensure a smooth transition.

“My focus now is working on this transition plan to prepare to hit the ground running on July 1,” Tragos said. 

As a self-described “insider who thinks like an outsider,” Tragos said he understands and respects the school’s cultures and traditions, but also wants to promote continuous improvement by looking at what other school districts are doing, both nearby and across the country. 

“I think it’s important to keeping the institution fresh and relevant, and it’s really an approach to leadership and thinking,” Tragos said.

He also engages in professional networks in the area and across the country. He is a part of the Carnegie Foundation, a center focused on education policy and research, and the Aspen Institute, where he served as an ambassador to the Better Arguments Project at the end of 2022.

Looking at the state of education, Tragos said he has seen an increase in improving flexibility in student schedules to boost their access to opportunities. At the New Trier Board of Education meeting on Nov. 18, he shared that starting in the 2026-2027 school year, students could participate in the New Trier Internship Program across any field. They would need to complete at least 60 hours a semester of an internship and would do so during part of the school day or outside of school. 

“These are important opportunities for students to develop a whole new set of skills and dispositions that I would consider applied learning,” Tragos said. 

Tragos said to make room in schedules for new programming, science courses will be taught 200 minutes a week, rather than the current 280 minutes starting in the 2026-2027 school year. Minutes for Advanced Placement science courses will not change, however. 

He said he also wants to work on further implementing the Characteristics of a New Trier Graduate, which started during the 2023-2024 school year. A subject he wrote his dissertation on, the concept’s mission centers around helping students develop the skills and disposition the school feels they need as graduates. Tragos wants to incorporate ways to measure and monitor students’ progress toward these characteristics.

“How can a student tell a fuller story of who they are as a student?” Tragos said, emphasizing how that means looking beyond a student’s transcript. 

He sees continuing the school’s work with civil discourse and critical thinking as vital. 

“Right now, nothing is more important than students thinking critically, engaging with each other, being prepared to live in a diverse democracy,” Tragos said. “It’s going to require us to listen and think critically on a host of issues, because we are just bombarded by misinformation, disinformation.”

Tragos said student belonging—ensuring students feel seen, heard, and valued, and have at least one trusted adult they can speak with—is the cornerstone of the school’s work. 

He said his first priority as superintendent will be to essentially restart at an institution he has given 27 years to. 

“While I’m familiar with the people of New Trier, this is a new role for me,” Tragos said. “I’ll have to reestablish my relationships with people with this new role and build trust in a new way because of this role.”