High school seeks new assistant principal
By Janet Hefler
Published: April 1, 2010
The Martha's Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) is advertising for a new assistant principal to start on July 1.
MVRHS has two assistant principals, Neal Weaver and Carlin Hart. In a phone call last week, Mr. Weaver confirmed that the advertised position is his, because he recently made the decision to explore other options when his three-year contract ends on June 30.
"It has been a good three years, and it has been a good experience for me, both professionally and personally, living on Martha's Vineyard," Mr. Weaver said in a phone call last week.
Although he wanted to tell people he knew about his plans before any public announcement was made, Mr. Weaver said it was necessary for principal Steve Nixon to start advertising the position. Consequently, some in the community who saw the ad guessed it was Mr. Weaver, and called him to express their regrets. "The response has been overwhelming, and very humbling," he said.
Mr. Weaver joined the MVRHS staff in July 2007 after working as an assistant principal of curriculum at Sandalwood High School in Jacksonville, Fla.
As assistant principal at MVRHS, Mr. Weaver also served as the facilities manager. In looking back over the past three years, he said he came up with a list of over 130 things he did that were facility-related.
Among his bigger projects, Mr. Weaver oversaw the installation of new bleachers at the athletic field and renovations to the Performing Arts Center, including improved fire doors, lighting, and railing.
"Time has flown by, and I think I've done a good job growing into the position," Mr. Weaver said.
In addition to advertisements for the assistant principal job in both Island newspapers, Mr. Nixon placed ads in the Boston Globe, Cape Cod Times, Education Week's online and print editions, and SchoolSpring.com, an online employment source for educators.
The ads will run for three weeks. A committee made up of students, parents, community members, teachers, staff, and Island organizations will review applications received and narrow them down to a pool of candidates to invite for interviews.
"We are going to get as much of a cross-section of the community involved in the process as possible," Mr. Nixon said.
Candidates will be invited to the high school for a day-long visit in which they will tour the school, undergo interviews, and rotate through designated meeting points during the day to give students, faculty, and parents an opportunity to meet them and ask questions.
"We'll have feedback forms people can fill out which we will give to the committee, to get as much input as we can," Mr. Nixon said. "Then we will narrow the candidates down to a pool of finalists to invite back for one more round of interviews."
"Hopefully, we can get this all done by May," he added. "We have to be cognizant of the fact this is a widespread posting. The potential exists that if someone is selected that doesn't live here, this is a complicated process, and in fairness, we need to get it wrapped up quickly. Of course, we also have to do what works best for us, too, and the students."
Since the high school starts a new fiscal year on July 1, Mr. Nixon said it would be helpful to have a new assistant principal hired by that date and trained as soon as possible to get a jump on work that must be done over the summer before school opens in September.
