Breaking News - West Seattle High

Thanks to Yumpers for alerting us to this news: now all of the leadership of West Seattle High are leaving. This from the West Seattle blog.

It had previously been announced that the principal, Bruce Bivens, was leaving for a job in California. Now both the assistant principals are leaving as well, one to the Highline district while the other one has just resigned.

That a lot of leadership gone at once. Look for a lot of juggling of existing principals/vice-principals to WSHS and/or bring some out of retirement (I'm looking at you, Chuck Chin - Mr. Chin has come out of retirement at least once to take over a school.) That this comes so soon before school ends means we may not know for sure until school starts.

Comments

seattle said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
6/11/10, 2:25 PM
seattle said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
6/11/10, 2:27 PM
seattle said…
Hale is also in need of 2 assistant principals for next year. The current assistant principal is retiring. For the second assistant principal position, Hale has always gotten a waiver from the district to have a Dean of students instead of assistant principal. This year, however, Dr. Enfield did not grant the waiver. Nor did the district move the current Dean of students into one of the two open assistant principal positions.
6/11/10, 2:29 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Interesting, Janice. That's a lot of open spots. I wonder what's up.
6/11/10, 4:00 PM
Unknown said…
Perhaps this is why they are using recruiters to find candidates, as we discussed here a few weeks back. Maybe the well has run dry in terms of people already in the District who want to move into these kinds of positions and who are also well suited to hold them.
6/11/10, 5:25 PM
grousefinder said…
Perhaps it is because the principals spend so much time in irrelevant district meetings; you know the ones where they listen for hours to mindless ideology from coaches and wonks speaking ad nauseum about topics with little relevance to real-world education problems. Or, maybe it's the loss of decentralized policy making or the lack of trust between downtown and building sites.

Maybe these folks just don't want to be drones...they have too much pride and self-esteem for that.

There are far more cynical answers as to why we have this current principal crisis, but it is better discussed over a beer in a loud pub on a Friday night. Any takers?
6/11/10, 8:15 PM
mirmac1 said…
Make sure to post your discontent on the petition to vote no-confidence in Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson's poor performance.

go to this link http://www.petitiononline.com/S3B62010/petition.html

And join the Parents rally June 16 in support of our teachers.
6/11/10, 11:06 PM
gavroche said…
Coe Elementary and Lawton Elementary, both in the Queen Anne/Magnolia cluster, are still principal-less for 2010/11. (Coe's principal was tapped for QA Elementary, and Lawton's has retired, after having been moved against her will from Brighton to Lawton.) Neither has been replaced yet.

Center School might not have a principal assigned for next year yet either.
6/12/10, 12:28 AM
dan dempsey said…
Hey I heard a rumor that Anitra Pinchback-Jones was going to be the new principal as West Seattle Elementary ... any truth to that?
6/12/10, 1:45 AM
wsnorth said…
This is just what WSHS doesn't need! The NSAP stacks the deck against this school in terms of feeder students, and there has been years of churn and turmoil. It is almost like the district has a vendetta against this school - I've heard it is not a "fun" place to work, but it should be. Hopefully, it will get a strong leader and good staff to help rejuvenate it.
6/12/10, 11:39 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
I wonder if they might take Marni Campbell off of Special Ed and make her a principal. They need good ones and she was pretty good.
6/13/10, 3:22 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
I wonder if they might take Marni Campbell off of Special Ed and make her a principal. They need good ones and she was pretty good.
6/13/10, 3:22 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
I wonder if they might take Marni Campbell off of Special Ed and make her a principal. They need good ones and she was pretty good.
6/13/10, 3:22 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
I wonder if they might take Marni Campbell off of Special Ed and make her a principal. They need good ones and she was pretty good.
6/13/10, 3:22 PM
reader said…
What and take a demotion? I'm sure there are union rules against any sort of demotion for anybody.
6/13/10, 10:35 PM
dan dempsey said…
Reader,

Remember that Phil Brockman was acting Secondary Education head a while back before Michael Tolley.

I have a suspicion that Phil was more than happy to escape the JSCEE.

Dan
6/14/10, 2:17 AM
dan dempsey said…
Hopefully WSHS is not looking at a return of Susan Durse.... YIKES!!
6/14/10, 2:19 AM
seattle citizen said…
Phil Brockman has accepted a position at JSCEE (likely as Cluster Director) and June 30th is his last day as Principal of Ballard HS.
By all accounts, Mr. Brockman is well-loved by most staff and students at Ballard, and will be sorely missed.
Keven Wynkoop, one of the APs, will become Interim Principal. He, by the same accounts, is an up-and-comer who is a competent administrator who is quickly learning the many ropes.
6/14/10, 7:45 AM
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