St. Edward names U46 veteran as principal

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RIch Thomas, new St. Edward High School principal

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Updated: September 29, 2011 12:52AM

ELGIN — The Rev. David Peck is leaving his post as principal and superintendent at St. Edward Central Catholic High School, to be replaced by a longtime veteran of the Elgin public schools who has been working at St. Ed’s for the past five years.

School authorities announced Friday that layman Rich Thomas, who has been assistant principal and dean of students at St. Edward for about five years, will succeed Peck in the top job as of July 1.

Peck, in turn, will return to be being pastor of a church. Bishop Thomas Doran has appointed him to be pastor of St. Rita Catholic Church in Rockford beginning July 1.

“It’s just a normal rotation for us” in an age when a shortage of priests has forced many clergymen to go back and forth between the school and the pulpit, the Rev. Edward Seisser said.

Seisser is pastor of St. Mary Catholic Church on Elgin’s east side and also president of the St. Edward school council. From 2006-2009, in fact, Seisser himself had doubled as St. Edward’s principal and St. Mary pastor.

Peck, then age 52, was named principal in 2009 after a career as a lay educator, a financier and a priest. In fact, his current term as principal was his third term of service at St. Edward, Seisser noted.

In his young adulthood, Peck worked at St. Edward as a teacher and coach from 1981-1983. He went on to try a career in finance on Wall Street. But feeling unfulfilled by that, Peck enrolled in a seminary while he was in his 30s, became a priest and spent four years as St. Ed’s assistant principal from 1994-1998.

The bishop then assigned Peck to be a church pastor for awhile, When the bishop named Peck principal in 2009, he was pastor at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Rochelle.

Though he never became a priest, Thomas followed an equally twisting path to the principal’s job. A spokeswoman for the human resources department at School District U46 said that district hired Thomas in 1970 and he worked there for 34 years as a teacher, a dean of students, an assistant principal and then a classroom teacher again. When Thomas retired from the public school system in 2004, he was teaching social studies at Elgin High School.

Apparently not ready to stay retired in his mid-50s, Thomas went to work a year or two later as St. Ed’s assistant principal and dean, and has been in that job ever since.

Seisser said the Rev. Matthew DeBlock, who is assistant pastor at St. Mary Church and has been teaching theology at the high school, will replace Thomas as assistant principal and will take charge of St. Edward’s religious studies. DeBlock, 31, will continue as assistant pastor at St. Mary’s.

“We’re very happy for Father Peck and very grateful for his two years of excellent leadership while the school’s mission has expanded,” Seisser said. “And we’re very happy to have Mr. Thomas to carry on in his footsteps.”

Seisser said St. Ed’s had 392 students last school year and expects about 400 in the fall.