Dist. 79 chief earns Superintendent of Year honors

As his educational career comes to a close, Fremont School District 79 Superintendent Rick Taylor has one more award to add to his shelf: Lake County's Superintendent of the Year.

Taylor was given the honor this month by the Lake County Superintendents Association, officials announced last week.

He earned the prize, which came with a plaque, for the leadership he's shown and guidance he's given through the years, said Catherine Finger, president-elect of the group and superintendent of Grayslake High School District 127.

"Rick has been there to mentor so very many of us over the years, and we are grateful for his impact in our lives and in our profession," Finger said in a news release.

Taylor called the award special.

"Any time you're acknowledged by your peers, it really means a lot," he said in a telephone interview. "We all know the tough business that it is to be a superintendent, and some of the decisions we have to make."

Taylor has led the Mundelein area's District 79 since 2002, coming to the area from a district near Springfield.

He oversaw an era of student population growth and facility expansion at Fremont. The district now has an estimated 2,175 students - kindergartners through eighth-graders - in three buildings.

The news release announcing the award praised Taylor for working with Lake County Partners, a local business-minded organization, and for participating in development negotiations that led to more tax dollars and other revenue for the school district.

Just this year, Taylor helped negotiate a land swap with the Lake County Forest Preserve District that brought Fremont property it could use for a new school campus, in exchange for undeveloped land prized by the forest district.

"He put his heart and soul into this school and the community," District 79 board President Sandra Bickley said in the news release.

Taylor announced his retirement nearly a year ago. It's effective in June.

He will be replaced by Jill Gildea, who now leads Harrison School District 36 in Wonder Lake.