Parents to help find successor to retiring Lake Zurich High Principal Kim Kolze

Lake Zurich Unit District 95 is seeking parent volunteers to be on an interview committee that’ll help select the high school’s next principal.

Such an effort will be undertaken because Kim Kolze is retiring as Lake Zurich High’s principal at the end of the 2012-13 academic year. She’s been at the high school for the past 11 years and served as an assistant principal before being elevated to the building’s top post for 2008-09.

Human Resources Director Julia Becich said she’ll be looking for parent volunteers to include on the interview committee through Dec. 31, which is the cutoff date for the principal applicants. She said the goal is to have three to five parents in the group with administrators, teachers and a couple of high school students.

“We’ll try not to make the committee too large,” Becich said.

After District 95 administrators narrow the initial field, a maximum of four principal candidates will go before the interview committee in a private setting. The district also has asked the community to provide feedback on what qualities the new principal should possess.

It’s hoped the school board will hire the new principal by mid-February, Becich said.

Kolze, 60, said she believes the time is right to retire. She said her husband retired four years ago from a job at Highland Park High School.

“I have no definite future plans other than some traveling,” Kolze said in an email Friday. “We have a daughter in Colorado and other places we want to visit. I have also been looking into possibly mentoring new principals or teaching at the collegiate level.”