EDGEWATER — The community will get a look at who could be hired as the next principal at Senn High School on Monday.
The three contenders — interim principal Mary Beck, Kevin Gallick, principal at George Washington High School in South Deering, and Jason Siegellak, assistant principal at Hammond Elementary School in Little Village — will meet for a public forum from 6-8 p.m. Monday at the school, 5900 N. Glenwood Ave.
Community members are allowed to submit questions, which will then be whittled down into seven questions per candidate.
Starting at 6:30 p.m., each potential principal will get 30 minutes to give an opening statement, answer questions, and make closing remarks — starting with Siegellak, and following with Gallick and Beck, respectively.
The search for a new principal at Senn comes after former principal Susan Lofton was ousted last year after an investigation by the Chicago Public Schools district's inspector general.
A report from the watchdog found Lofton and two other Senn employees conspired to keep 15 special needs students out of the school's fine arts program by lowering admission scores.
For the 2015 school year, Mary Beck, a former Von Steuben High School assistant principal, was selected as interim Principal.
Now, a Principal Selection Committee must choose who will take over the school.
Gallick, who has been principal at Washington for four years, decided not to renew his contract with CPS in December after some new members of the Local School Council began acting "hostile" toward him and threatened to end his contract.
Though students and faculty rallied around Gallick, his Dec. 2 letter to staff said he felt he wasn't being "treated as a professional" and that the "principal evaluation process has been used as a political tool."
"Moreover, I think it’s important to realize that when trusted public officials do not act in the best interests of the students ... then the public trust can be broken, opening the doors for abuse of power, and a decision-making process which is driven by personal desires rather than professional responsibilities," Gallick wrote.
Gallick was also a teacher at Senn from 2003-2006.
In addition to Hammond, Siegellak was also an administrator and teacher at Farragut High School in Little Village.
In a 2010 article from Medill Reports Chicago, Siegellak recalled a time when he learned a former student of his had been shot and killed.
"My heart just dropped," Siegellak said. "He was such a friendly kid — always had a smile on his face. It was surreal … I’ll never forget that moment."
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