Paul Bass Photo
Lonnie Garris.
Melinda Tuhus Photo
Rose Coggins.
Six months after the school board announced the retirements of principals at the city’s two biggest high schools, it has come up short in finding their replacements and placed new help-wanted ads.
The board announced on Dec. 14 that Cross Principal Rose Coggins and Hillhouse Principal Lonnie Garris will retire at the end of this school year. It immediately commenced a national search for their successors.
Superintendent of Schools Reggie Mayo said Thursday that he wasn’t satisfied with the pool of 50 applicants who have so far responded. So he had new ads placed recently in The New York Times and the Hartford Courant. (Click here to read one.)
The search resumes at a critical moment for not just the two schools, but for the school system at large, as it undertakes an ambitious reform campaign aimed at eliminating the achievement gap.
Their jobs are too important to rush into filling, Mayo said. Cross and Hillhouse are the system’s two largest schools. Cross has around 1,300 students and 135 teachers; Hillhouse, 950 students and 100 teachers. Garris is retiring after 20 years in the Hillhouse job, Coggins, after three running Cross. Each has worked in the city schools for well more than three decades.
“As Wilbur Cross and Hillhouse go, so goes the system. We have called all over the country. It’s just difficult finding top-notch” principals, Mayo said.
“I call these ‘super-principal’ jobs. They’re the most difficult after mine.”
With the school year ending, and school-reform changes pending, not having new leadership in place has caused “some anxiety” at Hillhouse and Cross, according to teachers union President David Cicarella. He also agreed with Mayo’s decision to be careful to find the right fit.
“The principal’s job is a big deal,” Cicarella said. “[Teachers] would like to get it settled. There’s no one to talk to about [upcoming changes]. At the same time, they understand you’ve got to get the right person in there.”
“We’re all concerned,” said Al Meadows, a teachers union steward at Cross. “It would be nice to know if you have someone in place to meet before summer. We’re all concerned. We know nothing.”
Mayo said almost all the 50 applicants for the two slots came from out of town. Three were internal candidates: Kermit Carolina from Hillhouse; Assistant Principals Michele Sherban-Kline and Sheila Williams from Cross.
“Most of what we saw” in the national search “was not good — people leaving jobs after a year,” Mayo said. He did interview three candidates, one from Los Angeles, one from North Carolina, and one from Norwalk, who is a retired Bridgeport principal. He said he hasn’t yet interviewed the three internal applicants, but they remain under consideration for the jobs.
A nationwide wave of teacher layoffs has given schools their picks of experienced applicants; Katherine Brennan School, for instance, received 300 applications for open slots recently.
However, there’s been a shortage of principals and bilingual and science and math teachers, Mayo said. He noted that state education officials have asked the legislature to approve an alternative certification route for principals in order to broaden the pool. Mayo endorsed that idea.
At one point earlier this year New Haven’s Board of Ed asked a headhunter firm to help find the two principals, Mayo said. “They said, ‘Never mind principals; we’re looking for superintendents,’” and didn’t have time.
Mayo said he plans on Monday to review any new applications sparked by the latest ads. If he doesn’t see enough new qualified people, “we’ll come up with a Plan B, which I didn’t want to do,” Mayo said. That could include asking Coggins to stay extra months, or appointing interim principals.
“We need a strong dynamic person at Cross who can commit to five years,” Mayo said. “A large large school like Cross can wear you out.” He noted that an average principal stays in the job about four years.
“We may be a little closer [to naming a principal] at Hillhouse,” Mayo added. “I just don’t want to say too much.”
In the meantime, Mayo has assigned some of his top administrators to oversee planning for the coming year at the two schools.