Grayslake District 46 ready to hire new principals

Grayslake Elementary District 46 is expected next week to hire replacements for two principals who recently resigned.

In all, three of seven building bosses will depart District 46 at the end of the 2010-11 academic year to take education jobs elsewhere.

Principals Jeff Knapp and Craig Keer are the latest to submit their resignations. Knapp has been leading Woodview School in Grayslake and Keer doing the same at Park Campus in Round Lake.

District 46 Superintendent Ellen Correll said Knapp and Keer were outstanding performers. School board members will be asked to hire new principals for Woodview and Park at a special meeting Tuesday night.

Correll credited Keer with overseeing a smooth opening of the $35 million Park Campus in 2007 and Knapp for his emphasis on professional development and staff retention.

“We will miss both of these principals and wish them the very best as they continue their careers,” Correll said.

Knapp was elevated to principal at the kindergarten-through-fourth grade Woodview six years ago. He’s leaving to become principal at Libertyville Elementary District 70’s Rockland School.

District 70 officials said Knapp will be the first man to lead Rockland School in more than 20 years.

Keer worked his way up in District 46 to principal four years ago at Park Campus, a K-8th grade building. He’s departing for Indian Trail Elementary School in Highland Park.

Highland Park District 112 Superintendent David Behlow said Keer can be expected to use a collaborative approach and create positive learning experiences for the Indian Trail children in kindergarten through fifth grade.

“His current district recognizes him as the go-to person for data,” Behlow said of Keer, “and he is particularly adept at using and presenting data in a friendly format for all stakeholders and using it to drive achievement.”

Earlier this year, District 46 accepted the resignation of Amanda Schoenberg principal at Prairieview School in Hainesville. Park Campus Assistant Principal Vince Murray was named as Schoenberg’s replacement.

Still open is the chief school business official job that David Tylavsky resigned from in March after not even a year on the job. District 46 is hunting for its fifth business chief in about three years.