During the academic school year of 2023-24, Patrick Henry High School’s principal position has been passed from retired principal to retired principal after the previous administrator, Michelle Irwin, stepped into a new role as a Middle School Area Superintendent for the San Diego Unified School District in June (sdnews.com/irwin-steps-down-as-patrick-henry-high-school-principal-fields-new-job-with-susd/).

Originally, the Mission Times Courier reported that the school’s goal was to have the position filled by Aug. 21, the start of the academic school year; however, the search continues.

Izzy Ervin, a junior ASB student, said not having a principal hasn’t caused too many issues on campus for students, but she hopes to see improved communication.

“To most students on campus at Henry there honestly hasn’t been much of a difference,” Ervin said via email. “Henry has been very lucky with our interim principals. Our [associate] principals and office workers are more than qualified to make sure Henry is a safe and well-running campus. Yet as a student in ASB who has to work with our principal weekly, not having a permanent principal can slow down the pace of communication.”

Patrick Schoettler, a PHHS AP World History and College-Prep Avid teacher, said the leadership from the associate principals and administrative team has filled the gaps in leadership, but teachers are still feeling some level of concern.

“Luckily, we have a really strong team of administrators led by our associate principal, Bill Miller, who has taken the lead and filled the void of having no permanent leader,” Schoettler said. “Jen Pacofsky and John Bosselman have also really maintained a lot of the stability through the times because having an interim, they don’t have all the institutional knowledge our admin have.”

The job has been posted twice this year and will now head into its third posting in December.

“It is frustrating for sure because there’s something hanging over all of our heads, and whether it has caused instability or not, it definitely has created a little bit of anxiety among staff and really the whole school community,” Schoettler said. “It’s hard not to [feel a bit anxious] when you don’t know who it’s going to be.”

Erin Richison, senior executive director of the Office of Graduation, is leading the interviewing and hiring process and said it has been drawn out due to dwindling applicants.

“Our commitment was to find highly qualified candidates who would meet the vision and mission of Patrick Henry High School,” Richison said. “We had some very strong candidates at the beginning of the summer and just as we’ve continued to have it posted, there’s just not as many candidates [because] they’ve made commitments to schools already or other districts or in other positions. We just haven’t had the level of candidates that we were hoping to bring to [the] community panel.”

The hope in the new year, according to Richison, is to revamp the process, broadening the search for new candidates and also allowing applicants who perhaps didn’t make it through initially this year to have the opportunity to try again.

“The eligibility goes with the calendar year so if you pass level one, you are eligible to apply for a position as principal throughout the 2023 year. We start over in 2024,” Richison said. “[We] just were feeling like maybe we would have a wider net and be able to get more recruitees if we moved into a new year where people who, let’s say they went to level one last January or February and were [told] they weren’t quite ready for a principal position yet, they could be ready this time.”

This longer process has led parents like Mat Kostrinsky to feel some concern.

“Some people talk like three strikes, you’re out. We’ve tried posting three times, right? Why would someone choose now to join when they did not, you know, apply before?” Kostrinsky said. “And then there’s a point to where people may not want to go to school because of this. I hope that’s not the case. I think Henry’s a wonderful school. I mean, I’m glad my kids go there. I went there. I was glad that my family settled back in the neighborhood for the kids to go there. But, I think you need that strong leadership to direct the school.”

During this semester, the school has filled the principal role with two interim principals who came out of retirement to lead, Jeff Olivero, a retired principal from University City High School, and Ann Menna, a retired principal from Scripps Ranch High School. Olivero stepped up as interim principal through October and the role will now transition to Menna who will be in the position until Thanksgiving break, according to a community email sent on Oct. 20.

Kostrinsky said he appreciated the way the staff and the interim principals have risen to the challenge, but he said he is ready for the school to fill the role permanently. Kostrinsky serves on PHHS’ Foundation, which raises and distributes funds to be used by classes, clubs and staff projects, and has seen how this vacancy has affected programming like those funded by the Foundation.

“Not knowing who the principal will be has been very difficult,” Kostrinsky said. “We’ve had conversations about certain things like onsite budgeting, and it’s hard to make a decision when you don’t know who’s going to be the final decision maker and how that’s going to impact the rest of the year. There was a hope, I think, for the first time they did the committee that they would actually have someone in place before the school year started. And already, we’re in November, and we’re hearing that we will not have someone, if this thing goes according to plan, until basically the second semester.”

The community email sent on Oct. 20 stated the position will be posted again in December 2023 and will close on Jan. 10, 2024.

President of the Foundation, Donald Thomas, does not have a student at PHHS; his son graduated in 2020, but he believes in the mission of the school and hopes they land an applicant.

“The only thing I’m primarily concerned [with] is continuity: Let’s get someone in the place of leadership. Not just anyone, of course, they’re going to be best qualified,” Thomas said.

Schoettler said he would like the district, instead of widening the search, to look within Patrick Henry High School for a new leader.

“Personally, I would like to see them promote from within,” Schoettler said. “We have three capable leaders already at our school. I would like to see someone who is familiar with the school, familiar with the way we run things. I don’t know if there’s an outside person who meets that criteria.”

According to Richison’s office, there are no future Zoom webinars scheduled to discuss this process, but interest forms are available for the community panel interview that will happen in January. Richison’s confidential administrative assistant, Andrea Davis, said via email “Earlier in the year, there were multiple Zoom sessions held and offered to staff, families and students with the purpose being to collect input from the community on what they were looking for in the ideal candidate.”

Kostrinsky said his hope moving forward is to hire someone with goals for the future of PHHS.

“I want someone who’s going to really project a vision of where we go,” Kostrinsky said. “I’m here for four more years, as a parent. I’m an alumnus. Next year, I think it’ll be 35 years since I graduated from Henry. I have a great love for Henry. I want to see it do well also.”

Schoettler shared similar hopes for PHHS’ next principal.

“I’d like to see somebody who is committed to stay there a long time,” Schoettler said. “Finding somebody who is willing to be in it for the long haul would be my criteria.”

Any updates or new information has been communicated and will be communicated via letter and email, according to Davis.

(Courtesy photo)