McGuire wraps up interim role in QPS

Published 9:12 am Friday, June 12, 2026

QUINCY — Lanty McGuire stops in Teresa McDowell’s classroom, checking on junior high students busy with a summer school team-building activity.

The sixth-graders turned spaghetti noodles and marshmallows into structures strong enough to support a potato, honing science, conversation and teamwork skills at the same time.

The classroom visit was one of McGuire’s last while wrapping up a stint this week as interim superintendent in Quincy Public Schools.

The retired Moline superintendent filled the role for second semester, following Cal Lee, another retired Moline superintendent, who did the same thing in first semester of the 2025-26 year while the School Board searched for a new district leader.

After six months on the job, McGuire sees QPS as an important part of the community.

“It’s something to be proud of. It’s a strong district,” he said. “It’s got a lot of solid traditions, a lot of really hard-working people that really care about the kids in this district.”

But McGuire worries about district finances, especially teacher salaries, as a dwindling number of people going into education make it hard to find good applicants for teaching jobs.

“When you have 30 teaching openings that aren’t filled, that puts a lot of burden on everybody else. It makes your class sizes bigger and all the things that go with that,” McGuire said. “So whatever Quincy does, they need to really pay attention to what compensation is for teachers.”

Quincy salaries fall far short of what Moline pays and what Chicago-area districts pay.

“I’m not saying Quincy needs to have salaries like Moline, but you’ve got to be competitive,” McGuire said. “When you have smaller districts around you paying more and their class sizes are smaller, they’ve got less things to worry about. If I can still live in Quincy and work at one of the smaller districts outside, why not do it.”

In decades in education, McGuire taught special education before moving into administrative roles in the Rock Island and Moline districts. He retired in 2019, then served as interim superintendent in Rock Island before doing the same in Quincy.

McGuire sat in on the Quincy Together workshops offering community members an opportunity to learn more about district finances and weigh in on possible options for the future including asking voters to adopt a one cent school facilities sales tax and an increase in the district’s Education Fund which is unchanged since 1988.

Although not asked to weigh in on the options, “I’m going to keep my eye on the 1 cent sales tax or whatever it is they recommend and keep my fingers crossed,” McGuire said.

Districts across Illinois use the sales tax for improving school facilities, paying off facility debt, school resource officers and mental health professionals but not for other salaries, supplies, books, buses or other operating expenses. It’s made a significant difference in McGuire’s former district, he said, and could for all students in Quincy and the Adams County districts.

“Catholic schools need this 1 cent sales tax even though they don’t realize they need it because it’s going to make QPS stronger which makes them stronger,” McGuire said. “That’s what worries me the most about Quincy. They just need to do something as a community. They probably don’t want to hear it from an outsider, but I was here long enough to see some of that stuff.”

Other things he saw in his tenure in QPS included a strong School Board concerned with what’s best for kids, people across the community going out of their way to help others and students involved in a wide range of activities.

“I’ve always felt as a superintendent I should be out and about. Although 99 percent of the people didn’t know who I was, it was still important to me,” McGuire said. “I like to see success. I like to see kids doing what kids need to be doing.”

Next up for McGuire, who lives in Moline, is spending more time with family — his wife, a son in Chicago, a son and three grandchildren in New Hampshire and a son and three grandchildren in Lemont — and a camping trip for a grandson’s upcoming birthday.

“I like to stay busy,” McGuire said. “I walked 250 miles of the Appalachian Trail the last time I retired. I’d like to go back and finish parts of that again.”

McGuire also will be available to provide any help needed for the incoming superintendent. The School Board in April hired Larry Gray, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning in Decatur Public Schools, for the job. Gray starts work July 1.

“He’s come in, met with various people here. He’s going to have to get his feet wet, watch and learn,” McGuire said. “I would say to any superintendent don’t be making any rash moves. See what’s going on. I would talk to people before I made any changes. Everything you do has ramifications down the line even though you may not realize it.”