Kaneland High School principal to take job in Spring Valley

MAPLE PARK – Kaneland High School has begun a search for its next principal.

Tony Valente, who has served as principal at Kaneland for the last two years, will step down from that post to accept a job as principal at Hall High School in Spring Valley in north central Illinois.

According to a release posted on the Hall High School Web site, that district’s board of education approved an employment agreement with Valente on Wednesday night.

Valente is expected to begin work at Hall on July 1.

Valente did not return messages left for him Thursday at Kaneland High School.

However, Valente’s departure was confirmed by Charles McCormick, superintendent at Kaneland Community Unit School District 302.

McCormick said Valente had kept district administrators apprised of his status throughout the interview process at Hall High School, as well as at several other school districts with job openings for which Valente made himself a candidate.

“He’s been a finalist (for jobs at other districts) on several occasions,” McCormick said. “And we knew Tony had a good, strong lead on this job (at Hall).”

McCormick said he was notified about a week ago by administrators at the Hall district that Valente would be recommended to that district’s school board as the choice to fill their open principal position.

In hiring Valente, Hall superintendent Mike Struna said Valente’s “extensive experience” as a teacher and school administrator made him “a very good choice to be our principal.”

Valente came to Kaneland three years ago, serving first as assistant principal before being promoted to principal a year later. Previously, he served as assistant principal in the West Aurora School District 129 for five years and as a history teacher at Proviso East High School for six years.

He is currently a doctoral student at Northern Illinois University, the release from Hall said.

A formal search to replace Valente at Kaneland will likely begin next week, and it will be headed by Jeff Schuler, assistant superintendent for human resources at Kaneland, who has already been selected by the Kaneland School Board to replace McCormick in 2010.

McCormick said he does not know if administrators will choose to hire a permanent replacement for Valente or name an interim principal for the 2009-2010 school year. He also said administrators must decide whether to promote from within or conduct a search outside the district.

“My initial impression now is that it is too late to hire permanently for next year,” McCormick said.

McCormick also stressed that Valente’s departure had no connection to the recent dismissal of former teacher and coach Dennis Hansen.

Hansen’s contract was terminated earlier this month after he and the district reached a settlement to end an investigation into unspecified allegations of “inappropriate behavior.”