Two candidates were hired on Tuesday afternoon to fill the top academic leadership posts at Palisades Charter High School, ending months of uncertainty and anxiety among parents, teachers and school officials. On an interim basis, Marcia Haskin will fill the post of principal that was left vacant by Gloria Martinez in June. And Nichole Williams will become the school’s first director of instruction’a position recently created to deal with day-to-day instruction at the 2,700-student school. The PaliHi board unanimously approved the recommendations of its hiring committee to hire the two, longtime educators. That 14-member committee met for months and poured over dozens of applications, sometimes with conflicting views. After one of its top candidates for director of instruction turned down the position in June, some members worried that finding the best qualified candidates before the school year began would not be possible. ‘Before, one side of the room disagreed with the other side of the room,’ said Board member Eileen Savage, describing the committee’s deliberations. ‘But these candidates [Haskin and Williams] brought everyone together.’ Visibly elated members of the board and committee described their decision and praised the two final candidates. ‘I’m very pleased,’ Executive Director Amy Held said on Tuesday at the board’s special meeting. ‘The decision [of the committee] was nearly unanimous.’ Savage said the school wanted to hire candidates that ‘could hit the ground running.’ These candidates fit that description, she said. Haskin is a recently retired administrator from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). She has been principal of International Studies Learning Center in South Gate, Fremont High School and Palms Middle School. Haskin also worked as district director supporting and supervising secondary administrators. She will serve as principal until a permanent candidate is selected. Committee members say they chose Haskin, in part, because of her role training school administrators. ‘She had a great experience moving people up higher and grooming them,’ said Marci Crestani. Held hopes that Haskin will serve as a ‘mentor to aspiring administrators.’ Before joining PaliHi, Williams will relocate from New York where she has worked as an administrator at Long Island’s Uniondale High School. She also trained new teachers at Hofstra University. ‘She has worked as a generalist, which is good because she knows how to do everything,’ Held said. ‘She has a lot of energy. And she’s very humble.’ According to a school statement, ‘At Uniondale, [Williams] followed the ninth-grade class through their four years of high school overseeing academics, counseling, discipline and student activities. She also instituted a number of creative initiatives including a partnership with local colleges to offer dual-credit courses. And she implemented college-placement testing for all juniors to identify gaps in instruction and adjust the curriculum accordingly.’ Both candidates were offered one-year contracts. The salaries for principal and director of instruction were not known when the Post went to print. This summer, the school also hired Colleen McCarthy as the director of human resources. School Approves Teachers’ Contract On Tuesday, PaliHi’s board also ratified a contract with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), ending negotiations that began in October. As part of the contract that ends in June 2008, teachers’ salaries will increase by six percent, retroactive to July 1, 2006. Also, the high school will ‘cover any increased costs in health benefit premiums per its current plan.’ Disagreement over the school’s proposed revisions to disciplinary procedure (Article 10) stalled negotiations for months. Union officials had said it would remove important workplace protections. As part of the agreement, the school will replace Article 10 with new teacher dismissal procedures. But those procedures will lapse after this contract unless made permanent. —– To contact Staff Writer Max Taves, e-mail reporter@palipost.com or call (310) 454-1321 ext. 28.
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