Hamburg Area School District Superintendent Dr. Richard Mextorf proposed to the School Board that the district eliminate the co-principal model.
Mextorf acknowledged the resignation of Middle School Principal Dr. Shawn Fitzpatrick at the school directors’ meeting on April 10.
Mextorf thanked Fitzpatrick for his years of service to the district and wished him success in his new position as superintendent in the Schuylkill Haven School District, effective with the 2017-18 school year.
Mextorf elaborated on plans to make administrative changes for the next school year.
“(Middle School Principal) Dr. (Gene) McGorry plans to retire in the fall,” Mextorf said. “My intentions are to name Dr. (Shawn) Gravish as Middle School Principal.”
The Hamburg Area School District currently implements co-principals in the high school and middle school. Gravish would move from his current position as high school principal (Chris Spohn is the other). This would establish one principal at both buildings for the 2017-18 school year.
Mextorf said that he hopes to create a Dean of Students position at the middle school.
“This would allow us to look at internal candidates for the position,” Mextorf said. “There are not a lot of ‘tweener’ positions, those between teacher and administrator.”
“It will be a 10-month position with the understanding of asking for more if needed. I’d like to make it a one-year position and can go from there.”
Mextorf also said that his intentions are to add an assistant principal at the high school.
“The assistant principal would be a 12-month position,” Mextorf said. “That person would handle staff and student management, be out at the buses, lunches, handle student disputes. It’s a lot of blocking and tackling.
“Communicate with the kids, support the kids and teachers. (They) can’t solve all the problems, but are there to support them and get them headed in the right direction.”
Mextorf noted that the co-principal system may have kept the operation from running at its best.
“To address a strategic idea, one of them is out of the loop a little,” Mextorf said. “(I) can’t do them justice. The (co-principal) model is okay, but I can do a better job with a principal and assistant principal.”
Mextorf plans to have both job descriptions on the April 24 agenda.
