The headmaster of a prestigious Westchester private school resigned last week just days after his successor at a renowned Chicago prep school announced his shock resignation — as a probe into their connection to a Jewish student’s suicide wraps up.
Randall Dunn resigned from his $960,000 post as headmaster of posh Rye Country Day School, on Jan. 22, just eight days after his successor at the elite Latin School of Chicago, Thomas Hagerman, abruptly announced he was calling it quits.
“It is highly unusual for heads of private schools to announce their resignation in January,” a source familiar with the private school industry told The Post.
Dunn was embroiled in a growing scandal surrounding the tragic suicide of Nate Bronstein, 15, at the Windy City school in 2022. Hagerman joined Latin School of Chicago in June 2022, after Bronstein’s death, but the school has faced persistent antisemitism problems in his tenure.
Two independent probes launched after the boy’s suicide — which came after relentless bullying from classmates — are set to conclude, and the educators may be rushing to the exits before their results come to light, a source told The Post.
Dunn denied that his resignation was connected to Hagerman’s in an email to The Post.
“My stepping down has nothing to do with Mr. Hagerman’s announced departure from the Chicago Latin School,” Dunn told The Post.
Bronstein was the subject of constant harassment at the $47,000 per year Latin School after another student spread a rumor that he was unvaccinated.
The harassment eventually became too much for him to bear, his family’s lawyers have said.
Lawyers representing parents of the school claimed both headmasters “failed to discharge their fiduciary duties, causing serious physical and mental harm, and in one case fatal harm,” at the prestigious private school.
Dunn left The Latin School for Rye Country Day School in 2022, after Bronstein’s suicide.
The famed Chicago school — where Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker sent his children — failed to properly address persistent antisemitism issues during Hagerman’s reign, critics alleged.
Members of the school band were caught playing a Nazi marching tune two years in a row.
Rye Country Day also faced an antisemitic incident in December, near Hannukkah, when a swastika was found drawn in a hallway, Lohud reported.
Hagerman announced his resignation from his $657,714-a-year job on Jan. 14 in an email to the Latin School community, citing health issues. Just eight days later Dunn announced he was stepping down, without providing a reason.
Hagerman joined the Latin School after resigning as superintendent in the Scarsdale school district in 2022 amid a scandal where his administration failed to notify the school board of $1.7 million fines levied against the district by the IRS.
“Dunn doesn’t even say why he is leaving and with Hagerman, there is no successor plan in place.”
The probes are being conducted by the law firms Quinn Emmanuel Urquart & Sullivan, which was hired by The Latin School to conduct an investigation, and by Boies Schiller Flexner, who was retained by parents at the school.
Hagerman did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.