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New interim principal named for Bessie Rhodes in Evanston-Skokie District 65
Updated: July 2, 2012 9:50AM
Carlos Mendez, assistant principal at Haven Middle School, will step into the top job at Bessie Rhodes Magnet School for the 2012-13 school year with the news that Principal Adrian Harries Jr. is leaving at the end of June.
The District 65 School Board Monday approved the appointment of Mendez as interim principal. Mendez has been a school administrator since 2006. Prior to joining the district, he served as assistant principal at the Albany Park Multicultural Academy in Chicago from 2007 to 2011. He also served as the Area One Math and Science Coach for the Chicago Public Schools from 2006 to 2007. He holds a master of arts degree in urban teaching from Columbia College, and received his bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Florida International University.
“Mr. Mendez has demonstrated leadership as part of the Haven Middle School team,” said Superintendent Hardy Murphy. “He is a man who is willing to listen and I am confident that the families of the Bessie Rhodes Magnet School can rest assured that as they lose one fine leader, they are gaining another.”
Harries was a principal and assistant principal in Joliet before joining School District 65 in 2010.
Bessie Rhodes school took on a global studies focus in 2011 in an effort to differentiate the magnet schools from the attendance-area schools. The Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies is a districtwide magnet school for pupils in kindergarten through eighth grade. The school strives to emphasize connections to the global community, using technology to develop partnerships and interact with schools throughout the world.
