Wenker served for the past five years as the principal of Thomaston High School. He was hired by Newington July 31 to replace Dr. William Collins who will be stepping into Perlini's shoes as interim superintendent as of Sept. 1.
"I think this was an outstanding choice based on his background and it is a diverse background," said Board of Education Chairman Dan Carson about the decision to hire Wenker. "The high school is such a key building for any district but to have someone with Mr. Wenker's background, we're not going to skip a beat."
Wenker, who graduated from Hand High School in Madison, received a bachelor of science degree, majoring in physical education, at Southern Connecticut State University. He received a masters degree in education from East Stroudsburg University, majoring in health and physical education, and a masters of divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary.
He completed his administration certification requirements at Sacred Heart University and served as a senior pastor at two different churches. He has taught in the Branford and Windsor school systems and served for one year as Assistant Principal at Thomaston High School.
Wenker spent one year as the chairman of the Department of Physical Education at East Stroudsburg University where he also served as the administrative assistant to the Department of Athletics and as a administrative teaching assistant.
He is scheduled to start work at Newington High School Aug. 24.
"We're very fortunate we found a principal of the quality of Mr. Wenker," Carson said. "We have a very strong assistant principal team at the high school that does the actual management of the day to day running of the school. Mr. Wenker needs to wrap up what he needs to in his current position and then he will dive into this community in a big way."
The Board of Education conducted an extensive search for a new superintendent after Perlini announced his retirement but was unable to come to terms with their selected candidate, Carson said.
The board then decided to suspend the search and give Collins a one-year contract as interim Superintendant.
"The board is very comfortable with Mr. Collins in the position," Carson said. "He's been working closely with Dr. Perlini and the torch has already been passed. We are willing to wait and see what happens before we decide what to do next."
Perlini is expected to help with the transition until Sept. 30.
"This will be the first time in 20 years that we won't have Dr. Perlini as our superintendent and that is a loss," Carson said. "During any transition there will be unexpected glitches but overall we have a great team in place and expect it to go smoothly."