With approximaely 40 people in attendance, on Sept. 15 a Superintendent’s Forum was held at the high school to allow members of the community a chance to offer their thoughts on the qualities they would like to see in the next Metuchen High School Principal. The selection process will go on over the course of this year, and a new principal is expected to be in place by July 1, 2010.
The Metuchen Board of Education (BOE) will next discuss the selection process at its Sept. 22 meeting at 8 p.m. at the high school. The current Acting Principal of MHS is Bruce Peragallo.
“I hope you will take time to help me and other members of the Board of Education to identify the qualifications that are so critical to what we want to see here at Metuchen High School,” said schools superintendent Terri Sinatra at the forum.
“What I hope to do as a result of the information we get from this evening and from other members of the community, staff, and students is to develop what we call a job model,” she said. “While the job description is a very specific listing of duties, the job model is what we want as our vision for the next principal. We will use that to develop a flier advertising the position.”
Participants at the forum then broke out into small groups of 8-10 people to offer their thoughts. Neither Sinatra nor members of the BOE offered their specific opinions, however.
Below are some of the comments made by members of the community at one such group.–
I would like to commend the superintendent for hosting these forums because you need to get the full community to weigh in. Given the election cycle, relatively few people turn out for school board elections, so I don’t think you get any kind of representation on the Board of Ed. that represents the broader community. But for them to succeed I think you need a broader-based committee to advocate for the person we decide to hire, as the next principal will then be hiring the next new crop of staff at the high school.
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There are some classes with up to 30 students, which I think is really not acceptable. I would like someone who can assess the class size and address those problems.
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I would like to see the most qualified candidates. We see principals who have PhDs… people with classroom experience. People who have made measurable inroads in improving scores and increasing the number of kids who take advanced placement classes. Someone motivated who is open to new ideas… a principal who brings something that makes good teachers want to stay here, and who can also encourage certain teachers to retire.
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I would like to see a principal who develops new curriculum and ideas and who thinks out of the box. We need a fresh start with someone that is a change agent who can come in and shake things up. I’ve heard the last principal was too staid in that ‘It is the way it is and the way it has been.’
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One would think we can find someone who has experience in high level math and science. Let’s also bring in new subjects that have not been offered as there are other school systems in Middlesex County that offer many other classes. In this economy, it is too costly to waste a year in college wondering what you are going to do.
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I know in Europe and New York City they have [magnet] high schools that are focused in one main subject area. This way, you can take an area and offer it to kids to see if they gravitate to it. I’m not saying we could do this here exactly, but it is a concept we can look at more carefully. I would like to see someone who is knowledgeable and who is aware of what is going on in other parts of the county, and even other parts of the country. Someone who thinks ahead and knows what is coming in the future.
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I want us to be teaching not at the state level but above that. I want the principal to say, teachers, you make this school great, not just good. Exceed and not just meet the state standards.
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My understanding is that principals play a role in requesting a budget. I’m not an expert in this… but we need a principal with broader experiences who can be an effective manager that can deal with limited resources, especially given how the economy looks going forward. Also, if you are going to spend a larger share on extra-curriculars, then you have less of a share to spend on art, music, or other classes. I don’t know if it is true or not, but there is a perception that the former high school principal was very interested in extracurricular performance, in that if the teams had a good year, then we had a good year. Extracurriculars are important, but we need to move away from this kind of thinking.
