With Gloucester High Principal James Cook announcing plans Thursday to leave his position after nine years at the end of this school year to return to teaching English at the high school, Superintendent Ben Lummis emailed families Friday outlining the search for a new school leader over the coming weeks.
Right off the bat, families that want to get involved in identifying Gloucester High’s next principal can weigh in at a Family Forum scheduled for Monday, April 14, at 6 p.m. in the high school’s library.
A reminder and more information about the forum will be emailed over the coming week, Lummis said in his email, noting that while he fully supports Cook’s plans to renew his teaching career at Gloucester High, “this is a big transition for any high school.”
“For nine years,” he said, “James Cook has been our high school’s leader and an even better person during some of the most difficult times Gloucester High has faced.”
“His breadth of knowledge,” Lummis said, “and expertise on all parts of the high school principal job is unmatched in my experience and is only exceeded by his heart. His devotion to and belief in all of our students is an example for all of us. The Gloucester High School community will miss him as our principal. I will miss working side by side with him. And I am very glad that our high school students will get to work with Mr. Cook as he continues as an English teacher.”
He noted that changing the principal of a high school is a big transition and the district is moving quickly to start the process.
Some basics of the search are:
Posting the position Friday, April 4, on the SchoolSpring and Indeed job sites, with a starting date for the position of July 1.
Gathering input from staff and families in the coming days, and conducting an online survey.
Using staff and family input to develop a leadership profile that the search and finalist committees will use to assess the candidates.
Including Gloucester High staff, parent, student and community representatives, and Gloucester Public Schools’ administrators on the search and finalist committees.
The principal search process summary and timeline states that the survey will be released to families to get input on a leadership profile on April 16; search committee members would be selected April 15; the application deadline would be April 23; and the search committee would select candidates to interview and finalize interview questions on April 28.
From April 30 to May 5, the Search Committee would conduct initial interviews and identify finalists to move to a second round of interviews with the district leadership team.
From May 7 to 12, the finalists would take part in a visit to Gloucester High, meet staff and families and interview with the finalist interview committee.
On May 14 or 28, the superintendent would recommend preferred candidates to the School Committee.
There are other ways families can get involved in identifying the high school’s next principal:
Complete the GHS Principal Profile Survey, which will be released after the Family Forum.
Let the district know if you are interested in joining the search committee. Two parents or guardians will be on the committee, which will review all applications, select candidates to be interviewed and conduct first-round interviews. If you would like to be considered, please email Assistant to the Superintendent Kelley Coye at kcoye@gloucesterschools.com.
Help recruit excellent candidates. Tell your friends, family and networks that Gloucester High is looking for a new principal. You may do so by forwarding the link to the job posting: https://tinyurl.com/yanwv283.
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714, or at eforman@northofboston.com.