GLENDALE : Leader for Evening High School Named

Don Duncan, principal of Hoover High School, was selected Friday to head the new Evening High School that will open next September.

The Glendale School Board voted unanimously to appoint Duncan, who expressed early interest in the innovative program that offers comprehensive classes for regular high school students in the late afternoon and evening.

Fewer than a dozen such programs exist in the country, and Glendale is one of the first among California school districts to test the idea.

Evening High School will be based at Glendale High School, but will have an entirely separate identity. Administrators, staff members and students will share Glendale High’s facilities and supplies, but will attend school just as others are ending their day.

“The challenges are, one, getting enough students to get it started and working with the daytime school,” said Duncan, 60. “Putting all those things together and starting a school from scratch will be something frustrating but a real challenge.”

The Glendale Unified School District is hoping to alleviate overcrowding, while avoiding unpopular year-round schedules and the addition of portable classrooms on already crammed campuses.

Evening High School needs a minimum of 200 to 250 students to open the first year, district officials have said. One of Duncan’s first duties is to help recruit them.

Duncan will leave Hoover High after 21 years as principal. He began his career with the district as a teacher in 1957 and moved his way up through the years.

His position at Hoover High is one of three openings that will be available for school principals in the district.

Ken Biermann, principal of Crescenta Valley High School, was named as the district’s director of student support services Friday. Lois Neil, principal of Rosemont Middle School, will become the district’s director of instructional support services.