Several Naperville-area schools will be seeing a change in leadership in the next academic year, as nine new principals have been hired at Naperville School District 203 and Indian Prairie School District 204.
D203 new principals
Traci Furbee will be the next principal at Kingsley Elementary School. She has been a part of D203 since 2005 and is currently at Ellsworth Elementary School. Furbee will take over for Erin Marker, who is set to become the principal of Ann Reid Early Childhood Center.
Dawn Malatia and Traci Furbee (left to right)
At Steeple Run Elementary School, Dawn Malatia will be taking over as the new principal. Malatia is currently at Naper Elementary School and has been with D203 for the last six years. She’ll succeed Josh Louis, who was hired as the new principal at Sandberg Middle School in Elmhurst.
Julie Scott
Furbee and Malatia both currently serve in similar positions as supervisors of student services coordinators and special education at their respective schools.
Over at Madison Junior High School, Julie Scott will serve as the new principal. She has been an assistant principal at Belvedere North High School since 2018.
Scott will replace Nancy Voise, who is retiring after 14 years at D203, having served as principal at Madison since 2020.
IPSD204 new elementary school principals
Five IPSD204 elementary schools will have new principals for the 2023/24 academic year.
Tarah Fowler will become White Eagle Elementary School’s new principal. She has been IPSD204’s Director of Middle School Curriculum since 2017. Fowler will succeed Mary Howicz, who is retiring after 25 years of service in the district.
Howicz had been White Eagle’s principa
l since 2020, and had also previously served as principal at Brookdale Elementary.
Only minutes away at Georgetown Elementary School in Aurora, Jill Keller will assume the principal role. She’s coming to Naperville from Chicago charter school Sandra Cisneros Elementary School, where she was principal.
Keller will replace Janan Szurek, who will retire at the end of the year after a 33-year career in the world of education, with the last decade as Georgetown Elementary School’s principal.
Over at Graham Elementary School, Rachel Witkowski is slated to become the new principal. She has worked with IPSD204 for the last 20 years in various capacities. Most recently she was with Peterson Elementary School as student services coordinator.
Witkowski will take over for Claudette Walton, who is retiring after a 32-year career in education, with the last 15 being with IPSD204 in various roles. Prior to becoming principal at Graham, Walton had served as principal at Mary Lou Cowlishaw Elementary School.
Across the city at May Watts Elementary School, Kate Kempski was approved as the school’s new principal. She has spent the last 16 years with IPSD204 and currently works as the student services coordinator at Brooks Elementary School in Aurora.
Toya Pryor
Kempski will replace Brian LeCrone, who will retire at the end of the year after 16 years of service in IPSD204. LeCrone began as principal of Brookdale Elementary School in 2007 and has spent the last 11 years as principal at May Watts Elementary School.
Principal of Edina, Minnesota’s Valley View Middle School Toya Prior will become the new principal of Hill Middle School.
Pryor will take over the role from the current principal Mike Dutdut, who is retiring after 18 years with IPSD204, the last nine of which were spent in his role as principal at Hill.
New principal for Metea Valley High School
And at the high school level, Daniel R. DeBruycker is set to become the principal of Metea Valley High School. He spent time as the school’s athletic director before assuming his current role as assistant principal.
DeBruycker is succeeding Dr. Darrell Echols, who will retire at the end of the year after more than three decades in education. Echols has been Metea’s principal since 2014 and had previously served as dean at Waubonsie Valley High School.
The new principals in both districts will begin their tenures on July 1.
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