Effective May 17, Jessica Clark no longer serves as Board of Education Director due to moving out of the district.

The district began accepting applications for the position in late April and reviewed candidates during the May 30 board meeting.

With 10 total applicants, the Board unanimously voted for Mara Vorachek-Warren to fill the position of Director. She will be sworn into the board at the June 6 meeting at the Rockwood Administrative Annex.

As there is a Board election in April of 2025, Vorachek-Warren’s position as Director will only last for eight months, though she intends to run for the position in the spring election.

Although she has never previously run for a position on the board, Vorachek-Warren said it has always been something that interested her.

“I had been interested in running over the years, but just the thought of putting together, essentially, a campaign seemed kind of daunting. Then I saw that Director Clark was moving out of the district, so her position was opening. [ I saw] it was an application process for the intro eight-month position and I thought this is a great way for me to still serve for the board and also get a feel for what this service looks like,” Vorachek-Warren said. “I’d always wanted to serve in this capacity and this just seemed like a good way to get my foot in the door and see the process.”

With twins who have attended Rockwood schools since kindergarten, Vorachek-Warren said she was given the opportunity to meet and get to know several Rockwood students and parents.

While this is her first employed position in the district, Vorachek-Warren said she has volunteered for various school and extracurricular activities her children were involved with.

“I did some classroom volunteering. I was a den leader and helped with Girl Scouts for my son and daughter over the years, and that brought us very close to Rockwood,” she said.

Currently, Vorachek-Warren works as the Dean of Mathematics and Sciences at St. Charles Community College, although she also has experience teaching in middle school to college classrooms.

“Before I was an administrator, I was faculty. So I often put myself in the shoes of a faculty member whenever I make administrative decisions,” she said. “I think that is really important for this position because the faculty and staff have the day-to-day experience with the students and know exactly what’s going on. Being able to recognize that their voices are extremely important when decisions are being made — I feel that is an important piece of my background.”

Working as an administrator, Vorachek-Warren said the framework for budgeting and operations displays similarities between the post-secondary and secondary levels, though she is ready to adapt and learn about any differences she observes.

“I’ve seen some of how a public entity operates behind the scenes and I think that will hopefully help in many ways. But I also have to be careful because there will be differences, so I need to make sure I appreciate those differences and look at this as a new experience. There’s going to be a lot of learning for me in these next couple months,” Vorachek-Warren said.

Vorachek-Warren’s application is available on Rockwood BoardDocs with information about her professional background, Rockwood involvement and goals.