:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/5BKE2WKRSHH6FM5L7DJQTK2VWU.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/GHOFJ6WXVTUYINA32F72VR6M44.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/OC2T65ADYTJCHMJJ67SA2OKVGE.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/DS3THONUX7VFRRCABI7HUTF5LQ.jpg)
New superintendents are at the helm at four local school districts.
At Ashton-Franklin Center, Michael Lindy replaces the retired John Zick, superintendent since 2007.
Lindy, 52, was hired by AFC’s school board in December. He was principal at Canton High School for 3 years, and previously was superintendent at El Paso-Gridley, and has experience at Gibson City, Cicero, Romeoville, Bolingbrook and Aurora schools.
Lindy has visited the district for the last 6 months to prepare for the new role, he said in a letter posted to the AFC Facebook page.
“During my visits, I have met many of the AFC students, parents, community members and outstanding staff members,” Lindy wrote. “The people that I met during the interview process, and the quality of schools, were the biggest reasons why I wanted to be a part of the AFC family.”
In Erie, Kyle Ganson will be interim superintendent, replacing Marty Felesena.
Ganson, 62, retired from the Colona School District near the Quad Cities in 2017. He also has served in interim positions at Annawan, and most recently at Carbon Cliff-Barstow. He is on the Geneseo School District Board of Education.
Felesena came to Erie in 2018 from Serena; his tenure was been mired in conflict with school board members.
At Prophetstown-Lyndon-Tampico, John Petzke was hired in March to replace Chad Colmone, whose contract was not renewed in October amid losses in recent years of students, teachers and revenue.
Petzke, 50, was chief technology officer at North Shore School District in suburban Highland Park. Before that, he was executive director of technology for the Oswego School District in Kendall County, and a teacher and principal in Aurora.
Petzke takes over as a plan to configure the district's two elementary schools into attendance centers is being worked out, a move that would save about $251,000 a year.
At Polo, Kelly Mandrell replaces Christopher Rademacher, who retired.
Mandrell, 38, was hired in October. She recently was principal at Pearl City Junior-Senior High School for 7 years. Prior to that, she was a counselor at Forreston schools and taught kindergarten at Stillman Valley and Rochelle schools for 1 year each.
Each of the new superintendents began their new jobs Wednesday.