River Forest
Schools chiefto leave District 90
Thomas Hagerman will be leaving the job as superintendent of River Forest School District 90 to take a similar post in Winnetka, school officials have announced.
Hagerman, who has been at District 90 for three years, accepted the superintendent job at District 36 in Winnetka. He will continue in his position in River Forest until July 1.
The District 90 board has instructed its search team, School Exec Connect, to start looking for a new superintendent. The board plans to have a new superintendent announced at the April 5 board meeting.
Before joining District 90, Hagerman was a teacher in the Portland, Ore., public school system; a vice principal and principal in Beaverton, Ore.; and a superintendent of a K-12 district in Portland for four years.
— Jim Jaworski
Downers Grove
Principal named for Downers North
Former Barrington High School Associate Principal Scott Kasik has been named Downers Grove North High School’s next principal and will assume his new duties once the school year winds down in July, District 99 officials announced.
Kasik will be taking over for current Principal Maria Ward, who has been with the district since 2005 and will retire. While Kasik will not officially leave Barrington High School until the end of the school year, he will begin his transition next month.
Kasik started teaching in 1979 and has worked as a school administrator for the last 16 years. He has been at Barrington High School since 2005. Before that, he held various administrative roles at Glenbard North High School and Lake Zurich High School, among others.
— Brian Slodysko
Wheaton
Voters to get a say on theater rehab
Voters in Wheaton will have a say in whether the city should publicly fund improvements to the Wheaton Grand Theatre in an advisory referendum in April.
The nonbinding proposition, which will ask voters if the city should use up to $150,000 per year for the restoration and operation of the theater, was approved by the Wheaton City Council.
It does not specify how long the funding should continue or what type of funds the city would use if the measure passes.
The advisory referendum proposal drew a somewhat heated debate among officials who argued that past studies and input have shown the theater cannot be financially viable.
Councilman Phil Suess said a $150,000 annual contribution would be a drop in the bucket compared with the large amount of private funding that would have to be pumped into the Wheaton Grand to make it operational. Meanwhile, the ownership of the theater remains in the hands of a bank.
— Jenn Zimmerman
