Mundelein High Principal Lauren Fagel quits, effective June 30
Mundelein High School Principal Lauren Fagel has announced her resignation, effective June 30.
She’s in line for a high-level administrative job at an unspecified Lake County school district, officials said. Fagel and Mundelein High officials declined to name the district because that board hasn’t approved the deal yet.
Mundelein High board President Karen Havlik praised Fagel’s efforts to develop the school’s curriculum. She also called Fagel’s positive outlook “infectious.”
“She will be missed,” Havlik said.
Fagel said she has grown very fond of the students and employees at the school. She described the families she’s met at Mundelein as “very genuine.”
The teaching staff, she said, pushed her to grow.
“It was a really good fit,” Fagel said. “It still is.”
Mundelein district spokesman Ron Girard sent the news release to the Daily Herald after Tuesday’s school board meeting.
Fagel’s resignation was not mentioned on the agenda. It was included under the general personnel report, however, and discussed before the board voted to end Fagel’s contract, Superintendent Jody Ware said Wednesday.
Fagel inked a new, three-year contract this past spring.
The move leaves Mundelein High without a principal less than three months before the start of the 2013-14 term. Fagel has been Mundelein’s principal since 2008.
Officials will delay hiring a new principal for a year, which will allow the district’s next superintendent the ability to participate in the search. Ware is set to retire after the 2013-14 term.
Anthony Kroll, the school’s director of curriculum and instruction, will serve as interim principal for the next year, Girard announced in a second news release sent Wednesday.
Stacey Gorman, who leads the school’s social studies and world languages department, will serve as interim curriculum and instruction director. Assistant Principal James Ongtengco will remain in that post.
Those changes in responsibility did not require board votes, Ware said.