District 4 appoints two new principals
Staff and students in Addison School District 4 will meet two new faces this fall, after the school board voted Wednesday, Feb. 25, to appoint new principals at Wesley and Fullerton elementary schools for the 2009-10 school year.
Bill Bicker, who is currently an assistant principal at Bristol Bay Elementary School in Yorkville Community School District 115, will be the new principal for Fullerton.
His experience includes elementary and high school posts in West Chicago as a sixth-grade teacher, and in an educational support program for at-risk students.
This fall Bicker will replace retiring Principal Mary Ellen Reeves, who joined District 4 in 1996 as Lake Park Elementary's principal. In 2001, she and took the helm at Fullerton.
Most recently under her leadership, the school's 557 students met Adequate Yearly Progress under the No Child Left Behind mandate in 2008.
At Wesley, the board appointed new Principal Robert Langman, who is currently assistant principal at Evergreen Elementary in Carol Stream, part of Benjamin School District 25. Langman previously served six years in Glen Ellyn Community Consolidated District 89, where he taught fourth and fifth grades and held several leadership posts.
Langman will fill the spot that opened when current Wesley Principal Chuck Wartman was appointed as assistant superintendent for administrative services for the 2009-10 school year. And the staff shifts will continue in District 4, as Wartman replaces the post held by John Langton. In July, Langton will become the district's superintendent, once current Superintendent Donald Hendricks retires.
Wartman said the new post will provide new challenges he welcomes, although he will miss working among students.
"It's a little bittersweet because I love working at the school level with the kids and I have wonderful staff," Wartman said.
Wartman said he hopes his successor will continue cultivating the "neighborhood feel" he, his staff and parents have created at Wesley.
"I know it sounds corny, but it really is a close-knit community," Wartman said. "We are very academically-based, but we don't forget that these are kids as well. We have high standards but we also have fun."