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Assistant superintendent and four new principals hired in District 59

A new assistant superintendent and four new principals will begin next school year in Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59, under hirings approved by the school board this week.

They will join new Superintendent Terri Bresnahan, who was hired by the board in January to take the helm from Art Fessler on July 1.

Susan Savage will be the new assistant superintendent of instruction after the retirement of Maureen McAbee. Savage, who has been principal of Robert Frost Elementary since 2017, will earn an annual salary of $158,000.

Michael Wheatley will be the new principal of Friendship Junior High School. He currently is principal of Creekside Middle School in Woodstock Community Unit District 200, where he's worked for the last five years. He was previously an assistant principal at Cooper Middle School in Wheeling Township Elementary District 21 and director of curriculum and instruction in Huntley Community Unit District 158. He will be paid $128,500 a year.

Larry Ganan, assistant principal for the last four years at Clearmont Elementary in District 59, will become the new principal of Admiral Byrd Elementary. He was assistant principal at Salt Creek Elementary for three years and started in the district as a math teacher at Friendship Junior High in 2007. Ganan will be paid $115,250 per year.

Lily Smith will be the new principal of Juliette Low Elementary. She has been assistant principal at Coventry Elementary School in Crystal Lake Elementary District 47 since 2015. Before that, she was assistant principal across town at Mead Junior High in Elk Grove Village, which is part of Schaumburg Elementary District 54.

Samantha Stone will become the new principal of the Ridge Family Center for Learning. She has been assistant principal at Robert Crown Elementary in Wauconda Community Unit District 118 since 2017. She was a reading specialist at Chauncey H. Duker School in McHenry Elementary District 15 for 10 years and an eighth-grade teacher at Antioch Upper Grade School in Antioch Elementary District 34 for seven years.

Smith and Stone each will be paid $107,500 per year.

Citing work on curriculum, District 59 board hires new superintendent

Michael Wheatley
Larry Ganan
Lily Smith
Samantha Stone
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