July 20, 2017 – West Bend, WI – There’s a special meeting of the West Bend School Board tonight as it appears it is preparing to take steps to return to a two principal system at the West Bend High Schools.
The agenda is below. The meeting starts at 5 p.m.
According to an email from West Bend School Board president Tiffany Larson, “It is a discussion pertaining to the benefit of returning to the traditional 2 principal arrangement or maintaining the current model of 1 principal for 2 high schools.”
On a history note: The West Bend High Schools had two principals for a good long time. Remember Pat Gardon and Cassandra Shug? What other principal do you remember at East and West.
I have worked in WBSD since 2001. I worked the high schools from 2001-2013. Two principals were running the high schools at the time and the system worked much better than the current single principal idea. Two high schools with 1,200 students each; separate sports teams; large departments sizes; many regular, honors, and AP classes; and large special needs and other other populations should have two principals. The principal jobs are a heavy enough responsibility for two people let alone one. The high schools were built in 1970, and one principal was tried somewhere between 1970 and 2001. So many issues occured that the school board went to two principals. This history was not examined when a recent school board (not the current one) and the former superintendent decided to go to one principal to save money. When there were two principals, turnover was low for the principals and the assistant principals. I’m quite sure when there was an administrative opening in the two principal high schools, the number and quality of applications were much greater in number. I glad the new board is revisiting this issue. I believe a lot of negative issues, negative criticism, and families reconsidering the district for their children would not have occured if two principals had been retained in the first place. It is good to see the new board doing the research and discussion before making a major decision with significant consequences for the students and the community.