March 8, 2018
Dear DePaul College Prep families and friends,
I am writing to give you some important news about DePaul College Prep. In late February, Dr. Quaid informed me that after 5 transformative years as our Principal and academic leader, he has decided that it is time for him to move to the next phase of his long and respected career in Catholic education. At the end of this academic year, we will reluctantly say farewell to Dr. Quaid and wish him well as he returns to Fenwick High School where he previously spent 21 years as a teacher, Dean and Principal and is a member of the Fenwick Hall of Fame. In his return to Fenwick, he will be teaching and providing assistance to the school’s admissions and student services departments.
As Dr. Quaid has said, the transformation of a struggling school into a successful academic operation is a 3 to 5 year process. Having succeeded in turning DePaul Prep into an academically strong school with a promising future over the past 5 years, he now believes the time is right for a new Principal to continue the next phase of this work.
The Board of Directors and I have already begun the search for our next Principal. I am happy to tell you that Dr. Quaid has accepted my invitation to be part of our search committee. He and I and the Board want to ensure that his successor will continue the accomplishments of the last 5 years. Our intent is to have our next Principal hired before the end of this academic year in May. I will continue to update you on our progress. Please contact me directly if you have any questions.
Dr. Quaid leaves us with a remarkable legacy of accomplishment. As our academic leader, Dr. Quaid was the architect of turning a failing school into today’s DePaul College Prep. He revamped our curriculum, hired new faculty, expanded professional development, established our strong Catholic identity, implemented our academic partnership with DePaul University, secured our status as an International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme school, successfully completed the AdvancEd accreditation process, successfully completed the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) accreditation process, raised test scores and the overall academic profile of DePaul College Prep, and helped me to implement our five year strategic plan – Vision 2020: Faith in our Future. Thanks to his tireless efforts, DePaul Prep’s academic reputation has been firmly established within the City of Chicago. Our five straight years of increased enrollment are due in great measure to the school that Dr. Quaid helped to create here.
Any challenge that the Board of Directors and I asked Dr. Quaid to undertake for the betterment of DePaul College Prep and its families, he accomplished with intelligence, diligence and excellence. But this has been a very intensive process filled with many long days and nights. After 5 years of nonstop work on our behalf, Dr. Quaid feels that our foundation is strong and that it is time for a new academic leader to build on that base. He has more than earned the right to proudly acknowledge the enormous impact of his leadership, and to continue his good work with students at a measured pace that also allows him to spend more time with his family.
As a school community, we will come together this spring to thank Dr. Quaid for his tireless work on our behalf and to wish him well in his next role. DePaul College Prep is the academically challenging, welcoming Catholic high school it is today thanks to him. Our future is strong and our academic vision is secure thanks to him. With God’s grace, we will continue Dr. Quaid’s work. We are grateful to him for setting DePaul College Prep on the right path for success.
Please join us in wishing Dr. Quaid many blessings on his continued work in Catholic education.
St. Vincent dePaul, pray for us!
With every good wish,
Mary A. Dempsey
President of DePaul College Prep