Fenwick officials said they have started a search for a new principal after this week’s abrupt departure of principal Mark Rasar, six months after he joined the private high school.
His last day was Tuesday, Dec. 5, according to a news release sent out by Georgi Presecky, digital content manager at Fenwick, the day before.
Rasar could not be reached for comment.
According to the release, Rasar accepted an offer as the Chief Executive Officer of Northern Kane Educational Corporation, an educational development and management firm that offers educational choices for learning at the Cambridge Lakes Learning Center in Pingree Grove, Illinois.
“This unexpected opportunity aligns closely with my interest in charter schools and the challenges they present,” Rasar said in the release. “And it is much closer to my home in Arlington Heights. I couldn’t pass it up.”
Rasar was welcomed to the Dominican Catholic College Preparatory School in Oak Park in July.
Rasar came to the school with extensive experience in education, including having served as an AP economics teacher, associate principal at H.D Jacobs High School in Algonquin, principal at Lincoln Junior High School in Skokie and principal at Holmes Junior High School in Mount Prospect. He was also named the Illinois Principals Association’s 2022 North Cook Region-Middle School Principal of the Year.
“We are going to miss Mark,” said Fr. Richard Peddicord, Fenwick president. “The energy and fresh eye he brought to Fenwick made immediate, positive impacts on many fronts. However, we fully understand his desire to pursue this unique, new opportunity, and we wish him great success.”
Peddicord said that Rasar played a key role in various important innovations as the high school worked to foster communal and spiritual growth, including adding another mass per month and having a Fenwick Spirit Day, where students were allowed to wear their spiritwear every other Friday of the month.
For those reasons and more, Peddicord said the school is feeling “disappointed” in seeing Rasar leave but they understand that his new role was a great opportunity for him.
“This opportunity to be the CEO of a charter school in his own right was an opportunity he couldn’t let go,” Peddicord said, adding that Rasar was sought out personally for the role. “He is starting as I speak so there really wasn’t enough time. The calendar didn’t work in terms of him staying the whole rest of the year.”
Peddicord told Wednesday Journal that a search committee was already in place to find a new principal and his hope would be that one would be ready to go for the start of the 2024-25 school year.
“It is doable,” Peddicord said. “The search that brought Mr. Rasar to the front was a couple of months, not a very long time.”
As the committee looks through potential candidates, Peddicord said he hopes to see someone new step into the role who also embodies the great traditions at Fenwick and help keep the legacy strong.
“We want somebody who has a strategic vision for the future, that can help advance the mission of Fenwick going forward, and someone who understands the uniqueness of our school, our student body, and the families who make up Fenwick,” Peddicord said. “Clearly focusing on each and every student, their flourishing, well being, advancement, that is really what we are looking for in a principal.”
In light of Rasar’s departure, Peddicord added that the school has confidence in the academic leadership team at Fenwick, saying they have the know-how to keep Fenwick thriving for students and families while a new principal is named.
