Schools ask for principal input

A series of public community forums have unfolded in the past two weeks in Newport-Mesa Unified School District, where parents and residents have been asked about what kind of characteristics they’d like to see in the hiring of new principals.

There are three openings — at Andersen, Wilson and Adams elementary schools — the most recent occurring at Wilson Elementary, with the retirement of Principal Candy Sperling less than two weeks ago.

Parents who showed up at forums, a tradition at the district, said they’d like to see a wide variety of personalities in their principals, “accessibility,” “teaching experience” and a “sense of humor,” to name a few.

Other adjectives, as described by people at the forum, were “integrity” and somebody who would be willing to develop “a positive relationship with the staff” at the school sites while knowing how to “delegate leadership.”

According to Laura Boss, district spokeswoman, the input, which ended a couple of days ago, will be taken into consideration by district Supt. Jeffrey Hubbard, who will either reassign teachers to fill the openings or open a new hiring process.

“We should know more in the next couple months,” Boss said, adding that the district, in the meantime, plans to start a recruitment process that includes an application for the positions.

The salary ranges are determined by experience and are $50,000 to $80,000 and upward.

Because the district had to make $12 million in budget cuts due to a lack of state aid, there have been a series of retirements by school principals, although the district says there is no connection and that the retirements are just a coincidence.

The other principals who have retired include Mary Manos at Andersen and Candy Cloud at Adams.

At the Adams forum Tuesday night, parents said they’d like to see a principal who “connects with the community” and knows how to stand up to the district and govern the school properly.

At Andersen’s forum, parents said they’d like to a principal who “puts kids first” and is “diplomatic” and has a minimum of five years of experience as a principal.

Boss pointed out that none of the input reflected badly on the principals who were retiring.

Rather, it was more of a “brain-storming session” in which the district and the community worked together to find a common ground on what the duty of a principal should entail.

There is also an opening at Newport Coast Elementary School, but that’s due to a reassignment. The principal there, Rich Rodriguez, was reassigned to TeWinkle Intermediate, Boss said.