WICKER PARK — The search is underway for a new principal to lead LaSalle II Magnet School.
In the meantime, Colette Unger-Teasley, a veteran educator who retired in the spring after 35 years with CPS, will be serving as an interim principal at the Wicker Park school at 1148 N. Honore St.
Unger-Teasley told a group of parents at a Local School Council meeting Monday that she'd done lunchroom duty earlier in the day to get acquainted with the staff and students.
"I'm very hands on," she said.
Unger-Teasley's appointment went into effect Friday. She follows the departure of LaSalle principal Suzanne Velasquez-Sheehy, who announced her resignation Jan. 8.
Unger-Teasley most recently served as the principal of Frazier International Magnet School at 4057 W. Grenshaw St. in the city's Lawndale neighborhood.
At the meeting, the council unanimously approved a motion to put up a job listing for the principal position on a CPS internal website as well as two other sites.
The LSC's next Principal Search Committee meeting will be 6 p.m. Feb. 7 in the school gymnasium, where the group hopes to have some candidate resumes to look over.
All meetings are open to the public, LSC chair Jen Turner said.
"We want to make sure the committee, parents, [and] staff are involved in the process. We are committed to finding the best candidate for LaSalle II," Turner said.
By CPS rules, in order for a candidate to get a contract offer, the winning candidate must capture a majority vote by the LSC.
After the meeting, Turner told DNAinfo.com Chicago that the council is looking for a principal with teaching experience "who also possess some history leading a world language program."
Turner said that the council is "hopeful we will be able hire a new principal well before the new school year, hopefully late spring, early summer."
She added: "In the meantime, we are in very capable hands with our interim principal, Mrs. Colette Unger-Teasley, and our assistant principal, Mrs. Bridget Malinowski."
The LSC kicked off their education on the candidate selection process during a special meeting on Jan. 17, which featured a presentation by Eduardo Camacho, a Senior Compliance Facilitator with CPS' Office of Local School Council Relations.
Camacho introduced the training procedure prepared by CPS for councils going through the candidate selection process.
According to Grant Drutchas, president of the Parent Teacher Organization, who was at the meeting, Camacho said the pool of principal candidates is relatively low at this point due to a large number of CPS principals retiring last year.
That, he said, "has put some stress on the selection process."
Drutchas said that Camacho assured those at the meeting that, "LaSalle II's mission, location, teachers and trajectory make our principal position very attractive."
