Ehren Jarrett hired to lead Hononegah School District starting in 2026

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKTON — Rockford Public Schools Superintendent Ehren Jarrett has been picked to lead the Hononegah School District as its next superintendent starting in 2026.

Jarrett, who has led Rockford Public Schools since 2013, will succeed Superintendent Michael Dugan after he retires. Dugan has led Hononegah for eight years. Jarrett will close out his contract with Rockford on June 30, 2026, before taking over Hononegah’s top job on July 1, 2026.

The Hononegah Community High School Board voted 5-0 with one abstention Wednesday night to hire Jarrett, who previously spent 9 years with Hononegah as a teacher, assistant basketball coach, associate principal and principal.

“As someone who taught at Hononegah and was a principal at Hononegah, it really is a culture that values excellence,” Jarrett told the Rock River Current. “I am going to be deeply committed to working with the community, the faculty and the staff to set really significant performance targets and let the community help set the direction for what we want to collectively accomplish together.”

The district approved a five-year contract with Jarrett with a starting salary of $210,000.

The contract sets out performance measures on graduation rates, test scores and other metrics. School Board President Dave Kurlinkus said he expects Jarrett will continue the positive momentum of academic success Hononegah has had with Dugan at the helm.

“We want Hononegah to be the best school possible. We don’t just talk about being the best in the area, we want to talk about being one of the best schools in the state,” Kurlinkus said. “That has nothing to do with scores, but it’s the impact it has on our students. We expect him to continue the upward trend.”

Kurlinkus said when the board learned in March that Jarrett would not seek an extension of his contract in Rockford, and the timeline lined up with Dugan’s retirement, they reached out to him about the job.

He said Jarrett was excited about the possibility of “returning home” to Hononegah.

Jarrett had a connection to Hononegah before his time working at the school. His father was a former team physician, and Jarrett said he can remember watching games from the sideline as a kid.

“You need to have somebody as superintendent who wants to be at Hononegah as badly as Hononegah wants them to be there,” Kurlinkus said. “It’s kind of a simple concept but it’s extremely important. I felt that way when we hired Mike eight years ago, and I feel exactly the same way now that we’ve got Ehren coming in to be the next superintendent.”

Jarrett is moving from a district with 44 schools and an enrollment of more than 27,000 to a single-school district with about 1,800 students. In Rockford, Jarrett was tasked with trying to bolster the district’s graduation rate, among other academic metrics. It now stands at 74%, up from about 65% in 2021. Hononegah has a graduation rate of 93%, beating the state average of nearly 88%.

Hononegah also faces fewer economic challenges than Rockford, with about 25% of its student coming from low-income households. In Rockford, by comparison, 74% of students are from low-income households, according to data from the Illinois State Report Card.

“I don’t have a fixed plan other than to come in and be really ready to listen,” Jarrett said. “It’s not about what I want to accomplish: It’s going to be about listening to the faculty, the staff, the community, students and the board and really hearing what the urgent issues are and being ready to support the community as those emerge.”

Jarrett said his focus will remain on Rockford until his contract is up next year.

“I’m also really excited about what we’re going to accomplish in my last year in Rockford. I do expect continued improvement with graduation rate in Rockford,” he said. “Our preliminary data looks very encouraging for this fiscal year as well as next year.”

What’s next for Rockford

Jarrett, 51, is the longest-serving Rockford Public Schools superintendent since W.R. McIntosh held the role from 1950-65. McIntosh now has a school named in his honor.

The Rockford School Board hired executive search firm BWP & Associates a month ago to assist with its search for the district’s next superintendent.

“The board looks forward to working with BWP & Associates to seek input from all stakeholders and interested members of the community, as we define the qualities we need in a successful superintendent for RPS, and to locate and recruit candidates with those qualities,” Rockford School Board President Paul Carpenter said in a statement last month.

BWP & Associates was selected from a pool of 13 companies that submitted proposals.

“My focus will be fully on Rockford and helping with the RPS superintendent transition,” Jarrett said. “I want to do everything I can to be ready to hit the ground running in Hononegah on Day 1, but also really leave Rockford better than we found it.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas