Four out of the nine schools in Round Lake Area Schools Community Unit School District 116 opened its doors with new principals at the helm just a few weeks ago.
The nearly 50 percent turnover rate in school heads is not usual, but it was not entirely unexpected, said Superintendent Constance Collins.
“I’m hoping that it’s not normal,” Collins said of the turnover this year. “The stars aligned ... I’m just grateful that as we lost some really wonderful principals ... we were able to find some real stars to replace them. I would have been really saddened if we had not been able to find people of the caliber we have.”
Collins and district administrators knew Round Lake Village Elementary’s Elizabeth Sullivan planned to retire at the end of last school year, Collins said. She has been replaced by Ana Fuhrer, who last year was an associate principal at Woodland Middle School.
And students at Round Lake Middle School recognize the face of their new principal. Ryan Hawkins, who spent the last two of his four years at the middle school as associate principal, moved up the ladder after former principal Sharon Giless moved on to another district.
But two other schools have new faces, as well.
Bill Pritchard, former principal at Ellis Elementary School, recently took a new position as principal for Lincoln School in Rochelle. He has been replaced by Beth Kiewicz, who last worked for the Lake County Regional Office of Education.
Jodi Megerle and Kevin Nicholson have become principal and assistant principal, respectively, at John T. Magee Middle School. Former principal Eric Gallagher and former assistant principal Jason Cummins now head North Chicago High School in the same roles.
The best way for the new school heads to ease into the school year is to communicate with students, parents and teachers, Collins said.
Ellis’ Kiewicz said that is exactly what she has tried to do the last few weeks.
“Part of the job is for me to get to know the students, so I’ve tried to be really visible – I spend time in the lunchroom; when they arrive and leave, I’m out there ... I try to be actively involved in [their] daily life and to really get to know them,” she said.
It’s been an easier transition for Round Lake Middle School’s Hawkins because he already worked in the school building, he said. And of the nearly 1,000 students in the school, he knew about 800 the first week of classes.
However, taking on the role of principal means he has new responsibilities, which this year include taking the school’s special education model and making it all inclusive so that special education students are moved into general education classes, he said.
The middle school also is looking to implement an accelerated program for gifted students, as well, he said.
Support from staff members has helped him in his new position, Hawkins said.
"This is a staff that is incredibly motivated," he said. "I just get along really well with the staff, and I look forward to being successful with them as a team. It's just really nice – it's like a family here."
Gallagher, formerly of John T. Magee Middle School, left the family he helped build from the ground up when he took on the North Chicago High School principal position this fall.
Gallagher served as Magee’s first principal when he took the position three years ago, and he had planned to stay for a while, he said.
“That was my goal at John T. Magee, was to be there for the rest of my life,” he said. “And this opportunity [at North Chicago] came up and it seemed like it would be a good fit for me educationally.”
The transition he is going through at North Chicago – and which Megerle and Nicholson are going through at Magee – is the same for all principals, he said.
“It’s an adjustment phase, so you have to get out there as much as possible, and they’re seeing you and you’re seeing them … and you’re building relationships,” he said. “I will 100 percent miss John T. Magee very much and the teachers that are there, and the kids, and the school board was unbelievable. They were very supportive of us.”
What Gallagher is looking to do now is become the same rock at North Chicago that he was at Magee, he said, noting that North Chicago has gone through nearly 15 principals in the past 17 years.
“Any time you do a transition like that, it is difficult for kids, but kids are pretty resilient once they understand expectations and realize people really do care for them,” he said.