Dr. Thomas Schneider Named FLISA Executive Director

Dr. Thomas (Tom) Schneider, retired superintendent of Burr Ridge Community Consolidated School District 180 (Illinois), was selected as the Executive Director of the Federal Lands Impacted School Association (FLISA) in 2020.

Schneider served as Superintendent of Burr Ridge CCSD 180 for 16  years and the superintendent of Willow Springs School District in Illinois for five years before that. He has a long history as an educator, having worked as a teacher and in school administration since 1989.

“Impact Aid is vital to our students’ success,” says Schneider. “It provides teachers and programs that I, nor any superintendent, would ever want to eliminate due to a lack of funding. Working to ensure and expand Impact Aid funding ensures that all federally impacted students will not be deprived of these opportunities.”

Schneider has worked closely with the previous FLISA Executive Director Tom Madden.

FLISA is one of the NAFIS subgroups, representing school districts that have lost a portion of their local tax base because of federal ownership of property. These districts receive Impact Aid Section 7002 Federal Property. To be eligible, a school district must demonstrate that the federal government has acquired, since 1938, real property worth at least 10 percent of the assessed value of all real property in the district at the time of acquisition. The other NAFIS subgroups are the Military Impacted Schools Association (MISA), National Indian Impacted Schools Association (NIISA) and Mid-to-Low LOT Schools (MTLLS).

Schneider has been active on the NAFIS Board for over a fifteen years, and has served as that organization’s President in 2021-2023. He also served as President of FLISA from 2014 to 2016.

We look forward to continuing to work with Schneider and FLISA to strengthen and protect Impact Aid.