CHATHAM — Glenwood High School’s principal has given notice that he will resign June 30 after one year on the job.
Russell Tepen, 50, whose resignation was approved Thursday night by the Ball-Chatham School District board, said he is quitting to devote more time to family responsibilities in the Jerseyville area.
Tepen, who replaced Jim Lee, Glenwood High principal for nine years, said an increase in family-related responsibilities in the past year influenced his decision.
Tepen said he first began discussing his quandary with the district’s superintendent, Douglas Wood, in January, so his resignation shouldn’t have been a surprise to the district’s leaders.
Tepen, who is single, said he needs to spend more time at his family’s farm in Jersey County, where he grew up. He said he also needs to spend more time with an 8-year-old boy in Jerseyville for whom he is legal guardian, and he needs to assist his ailing mother, also in Jerseyville.
A brother of Tepen's who lived in the area and had helped shoulder some of those responsibilities moved away over the past year, he said.
“I’ve got to support my family a little more,” he said.
Tepen, whose base salary as principal is $110,000 per year, leads a school of about 1,470 students.
Before accepting the Glenwood High job, he was an administrator in the Alton school district for five years, including a stint as principal of Alton High School.
He said he has job prospects closer to Jerseyville in the works but isn’t ready to announce anything.
Wood and officers on the school board couldn’t be reached for comment.
When asked to react to Tepen’s resignation, Kari Kath, president of the district’s teachers union, the Ball-Chatham Education Association, didn't address Tepen’s situation directly.