Elmhurst Schools Hiring Top Facilities Official

ELMHURST, IL – The Elmhurst school board is poised to hire a new top facilities official, replacing the one who has already left.

At its meeting Tuesday, the board is set to vote on Leo Cassidy as the new executive director of operations. The old job title was facilities director.

Since 2019, Cassidy has been the operations director for Oak Lawn-Hometown School District 123, where enrollment is less than half of Elmhurst's.

Before that, Cassidy held several administrative positions at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais. He handled such things as recruitment, development and leadership efforts.

In Elmhurst School District 205, Cassidy is replacing Brent Braski, who started in January 2025.

On June 1, Braski became the director of plant operations for Elgin Area School District 46. With 33,000 students, Elgin's enrollment is more than four times Elmhurst's.

Braski took the Elmhurst job a couple of months after the sudden resignation of Todd Schmidt.

In November 2024, Schmidt was arrested on felony charges in Rockford, accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from his mother. He has yet to go to trial.

A few weeks after Schmidt's arrest, Patch reported he spent $50,000 on his district credit card for such things as booze, cigars, country club outings, restaurant meals, groceries, airfare and sorority payments.

He paid back the money, but public employees are barred from using government resources for private purposes.

The facilities job has become lower profile since last year. Schmidt oversaw $168 million in school building projects that voters approved in a 2018 referendum. He regularly presented to the school board.

The work was wrapping up when Schmidt was arrested.