Mundelein High gets new leader

An educator from northwest Illinois will become Mundelein High School's next superintendent, the school board decided Tuesday.

Jody Ware, now the superintendent of Morrison Community Unit District 6, will take over at Mundelein's top administrator on July 1. She'll earn $179,000 a year in her new post, District 120 officials said.

The board approved Ware's three-year contract without opposition. Board President Edwin Specht said he was ecstatic to bring Ware aboard.

"I think she will bring a lot of skills to the school and help us go into the future," he said.

Ware wasn't able to attend Tuesday night's meeting because of the poor weather. In a telephone interview earlier in the day, Ware said she hopes to sign the contract today and meet the Mundelein High staff Thursday.

She's eager to hear what local residents have to say about the school, too.

Mundelein High hasn't had a full-time superintendent since Stan Fields left in 2006. Ware will replace a pair of co-superintendents, Linda Hanson and John Barbini, who followed Fields on an interim basis.

Ware, 50, has led the Morrison district, which is based in the city of the same name, since 2002. The district has about 1,200 students in two elementary schools, a junior high school and a high school.

Mundelein has more than 2,000 students, and Ware is excited about working in a district with a much bigger student population.

"I was intrigued by the size of the school and the programs, opportunities and courses they offer students," she said.

Ware began her career as a special education teacher in Freeport District 145, also in northwest Illinois, and later served as a counselor, principal and early childhood director there, as well as a member of the superintendent's central office cabinet.

Ware's no stranger to Lake County schools. While a junior at Illinois State University, she spent a semester working for the Special Education District of Lake County at Laremont School in Gages Lake.