U-46 names four new principals

Four Fox Valley schools will have new principals this fall.

New principals were assigned to three Elgin schools - Creekside, Hilltop and Huff elementary schools - and Willard Elementary School in South Elgin.

Elgin Area School District U-46 announced the changes Tuesday.

Randall Verticchio will serve as the interim principal of Creekside for one year while district administrators search for a permanent replacement.

Verticchio has served as principal of two downstate Jacksonville schools: Lincoln Elementary School and most recently, Routt Catholic High School.

Before he became a principal, Verticchio taught math at Rock Island High School. He earned his bachelor's in math from Eastern Illinois University and received his master's in education from Western Illinois University.

Dena Farrell, who has taught in the district's elementary and middle schools since 1987, has been named the new principal of Hilltop.

Farrell most recently served as assistant principal of Fox Meadow Elementary School in South Elgin.

She has also taken an active role in staff development, training summer school teachers, leading educational programs for area teachers and helping schools develop curriculum.

Farrell earned her bachelor's at Cornell College and received her master's at St. Xavier University.

Angelica Ernst, formerly a bilingual teacher at Parkwood Elementary School in Hanover Park, will be the new principal at Huff Elementary.

At Parkwood, where she worked since 2004, Ernst led teaching workshops and served on the school improvement committee.

Before coming to District U-46, Ernst was a bilingual teacher in Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59.

Ernst received her bachelor's in elementary education from DePaul University, a master's in curriculum and instruction from National Lewis University and a master's in educational leadership from Aurora University.

Shawn Schleizer has been named the new principal of Willard.

Schleizer has held assistant principal posts at Elmwood Park Community School District 401 and most recently at Martin Luther King Junior Laboratory Schools in Evanston.

Before becoming a school administrator, Schleizer taught in Vernon Hills High School District 128.

Schleizer earned his bachelor's at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and received his master's in education from Harvard University.