Hale's New Principal

It was announced today that Marni Campbell, currently principal at Eckstein, will be Hale's new principal. Eckstein's loss is Hale's gain. My son graduated from Hale last year and I believe it was a good place for him and has many wonderful teachers and staff. I personally thought, however, that the principal was not good in many areas. I find Marni to be friendly but not cloying, firm but not rigid. Of course, this now leaves Eckstein without a principal.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Does anyone know if the district or Marni have any plans to make Hale more rigorous? Bring it back to being a college prep school? Increase enrollment to it's capacity?

Or, will she support their current philosophy, and work with the academy /small school theme, and a weak AP program?

If anyone has info I'd love to hear it.

Also, who will replace her at Eckstein?
5/24/07, 6:35 AM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Eckstein is also a member of the national group that Hale belongs to - the Coalition of Essential Schools. (Hale is further along in its following of the CES mission.) I think she definitely picked being there so I'd think she goes along with it.

Hale has held the line on enrollment saying it would fundamentally change how they do things like the mentorship program. But, they can't for long because between their renovation (I doubt the district is spending over $90M for a 1,000 seat school) and the district's new thoughts on assignment (which I'll post in a separate piece), I doubt they can continue as a smaller high school.

Also, the Board and Carla Santorno are quite clear in their vision that all schools have to have AP and Honors. Whether they mean schools have to have separate classes or offer AP help (as they do for most AP offerings at Hale), I don't know.

Who will replace Marni Campbell? Well, it's pretty late in the year to convene a committee (you have to do training and get members from different parts of the school community). I suspect they'll get an interim and start getting a committee together in the fall. Or, the district has someone in the wings already.
5/24/07, 7:48 AM
Anonymous said…
What I really want to know is will Marni strenghthen Hale? Make it more rigorous, add more and stronger AP classes etc?

Anyone know??
5/24/07, 4:00 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, gr...
Read more

Education News Roundup

From the ever-amusing Washington Policy Center : Vouchers are Pell Grants for students under 18.  Vouchers are no different than Pell Grants or GI benefits, except the money goes to the families of students younger than age 18.  Except they are. Pell Grants were created to help needy students and that's not really the goal of the voucher program.  The Pell grant website does have a couple of great studies on why low-income students drop out before finishing their higher ed and what makes a difference.
Read more