Meeting Minutes & More | The latest on school administrator hirings, openings

Danville’s in the market for a new superintendent.

Champaign has a pair of principal positions still to fill.

Oakwood needs one of each.

With April being the traditional kickoff to hiring season in the education business, here’s a look at local leadership positions already filled and the departures that led to hires still to come.

MOVING UP: Imani Carr, administrator, Urbana Sixth Grade Center

After two years as an assistant principal at Urbana Middle School, the District 116 mom and Champaign Central alumna was picked to lead the area’s first-of-its-kind new school. Also the lone sixth-grade school in the state of Illinois, it’s under construction on the grounds of the former Wiley Elementary.

MOVING ON: Erin Smith, principal, Oakwood High School

Mum’s the word on her next destination, which hasn’t yet been made public, but the search is on to find the successor to Smith, who arrived at Oakwood in 2023 after three years as principal at Iroquois West High School. Smith’s resignation was officially accepted by the school board this week.

MOVING: Amber Behrends, principal, Unity Junior High

After 18 years of service in Tolono, Laura Fitzgerald is retiring at the end of the school year. Enter Behrends, who was promoted from Arcola High assistant principal to Arcola Elementary principal at this time last year. She’ll join husband Bill Behrends, Unity High’s second-year principal, in Unit 7.

MOVING ON: Anthony Corapi, COO, St. Thomas More

The retired U.S. Navy captain’s departure to suburban Seattle for a job leading business development and strategy in Boeing’s anti-submarine warfare division has led STM to tweak its org chart. “We are shifting to a president-principal model,” says Sister Bridget Martin, who’ll remain principal.

MOVING UP: Melissa Wiegel, principal, Rantoul Eastlawn Elementary

The 24-year educator got an early jump on her new gig, taking over in March at the school where she’s been an assistant principal for three years. The opening came about when Principal Jayme Bajer left to become No. 2 to new Regional Office of Education Superintendent Jon Kelly following Gary Lewis’ retirement.

MOVING ON: Tracy Cherry, interim principal, Schlarman Academy

Expect an announcement on Schlarman’s next permanent principal soon, says Cherry, who agreed to take on this role on an interim basis last July. The retired Danville High School principal moved into the office previously occupied by Barb Rew, who opted to return to a teaching role.

MOVING: Sunny McMurry, principal, Schneider Elementary

These days, she’s the president of the Mahomet-Seymour school board and an instructional coach at Champaign’s Robeson Elementary. Come July, the former instructor in the UI’s College of Education will lead her first building — a 216-student K-3 elementary in Farmer City.

MOVING ON: Angie Schoonover, principal, Edison Middle School

Unit 4 is losing the area’s longest-tenured high school principal (Central retiree-to-be Joe Williams) and the district’s longest-tenured middle school principal (2014 hire Schoonover, who’s moving out of state) in the same summer. Her job is one of 14 current Unit 4 administrative openings.

MOVING UP: Montia Gardner, principal, Champaign Central High School

No newly named administrator got a more rousing reception at a board meeting than Gardner did on Feb. 24, when Central’s associate principal was appointed Joe Williams’ successor, becoming the first African American educator to head up the area school with the most students.

MOVING OVER: Jackie Teague, principal, Booker T. Washington STEM Academy

Calling it her “passion” and “my why,” Teague was installed as Unit 4’s new special education administrator last month after a year and change running BTW. Her departure means the elementary school that’s made headlines will start 2025-26 with a different principal for the third straight year.

MOVING: Lidiya Wang, principal, Urbana King Elementary

It’s a return to District 116 for the third-year principal at Champaign’s alternative Pavilion Foundation School, who got her start in education as a TA and teacher at Thomas Paine Elementary and Urbana High. The district is high on her “extensive experience working with a diverse student population.”

MOVING ON: Alicia Geddis, superintendent, Danville schools

The school board that selects Geddis’ successor will be different than the one that placed the 10-year superintendent on paid administrative leave, with four seats on Tuesday’s election ballot and three incumbents stepping aside. For $9,000, the Illinois Association of School Boards will assist in Danville’s search.

MOVING UP: Melissa Kearns, principal, Urbana Middle School

Derrick Cooper’s departure after three years opened up a spot for one of Urbana’s own. Kearns attended District 116 schools from kindergarten through high school and returned to her home district in 2023, by way of Jefferson Middle School, to become assistant principal at Urbana High.

MOVING ON: Bill Mulvaney, interim superintendent, Oakwood schools

The namesake of Armstrong Township High’s Bill Mulvaney Court took on the Oakwood superintendent role on an interim basis — for $600 for each day worked — after Larry Maynard called it a career last summer. With 51 days to go until graduation, no full-time superintendent has been named.

MOVING UP: Ryan Peyton, superintendent, Blue Ridge schools

This one’s been a long time coming: The Schneider Elementary principal, formerly of Heritage, was named superintendent-in-waiting on March 20, 2024. On July 1, he’ll move into the office being vacated by the retiring Hillary Stanifer, the district’s leader since 2020.