Goal of June for selection of new high school leadership team

  A new Revere High School principal and deputy principal should be in place by the middle of June, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Dianne Kelly. In March, current Principal Dr. John Perella and Deputy Principal Leah Tuckman submitted letters of resignation to Kelly. At Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting, Kelly gave an update on the search process to find a new leadership team for the high school.

  The administration is undertaking the search with the assistance of UMass-Boston’s Collins Center, and will also include a screening committee comprised of parents and staff members. There have already been several public forums held with staff and parents where there has been input on what qualities parents and staff would like to see in new school leaders. Kelly said there will be additional forums and surveys to narrow down those qualities as the screening committee works to select finalists to interview by the end of May. Kelly said the goal is to have a principal candidate identified in time to help with interviews for the deputy principal position in early June.

  During the initial forums with parents and staff, Kelly said, there were some key characteristics that were mentioned across the board. “They were looking for someone whose characteristics include empathy and flexibility, somebody who has experience in competency-based learning, detracking and performance assessments,” said Kelly. “They want somebody who is a good communicator and responds to emails in a timely manner, who is hardworking and has good organizational skills, who understands the social and emotional needs of students and adults and knows the difference between a small issue and a big issue.”

  Some of the things mentioned specifically by parents include finding candidates who will enforce the dress code and a code of conduct, who will plan more community events and engage families and students in decision-making.

  “We have also engaged the Collins Center to help us with this search, and they are going to do a second round of surveys and focus groups with teachers, students and parents,” said Kelly.

  Kelly said those forums and surveys will take the feedback the administration has already received to help bring the search into focus. “Rather than just starting with the universe of options and characteristics and things like that, we’re starting with what people had already identified as important, and then asking people to help us narrow that down,” said Kelly, “so when it gets to be time to do the search, we will know exactly what we are looking for.”

  Kelly said there have been several parent volunteers to serve on the search committee. She said the administration is looking for additional parent volunteers, as well as high school staff, to serve on the committee.

  “This is a very dense process that we are going through, but we are hoping when we make corrections for some of the time delays we have right now, that we would be finished with both appointments by the middle of June,” said Kelly.