District Won’t Renew Principal’s Contract

The Moorpark Unified School District has informed Moorpark High School Principal Max Friedman that it would not renew his employment contract for the next school year, according to Friedman and a school board official.

District Supt. Tom Duffy could not be reached for comment Thursday. School board President David Pollock declined to comment, but said that educators with fewer than two years of tenure in the district can be removed at the end of each school year without cause.

“It’s like being hit in the stomach,” Friedman said. “I’ve been in education for 23 years, and this is the weirdest thing.”

Friedman said that Duffy first informed him a couple months ago that this year could be his last as principal.

“At the end of March they gave me a letter saying that I might not be asked to come back. He wasn’t sure about his confidence level in me as principal,” Friedman said.

Friedman said that Duffy would not elaborate to him on the reasons for his dismissal, but that Duffy had said the principal wasn’t a good match for the high school.

Though Moorpark High was applauded in April when its team won the national Academic Decathlon, Friedman was also heavily criticized earlier this year by parents for holding an AIDS awareness assembly without seeking parental consent.

Friedman said he hopes this recent setback will not affect his search for a new position during the summer.

“I’m hoping my other 22 years of successful education will suffice,” he said. “I thought maybe I’d want to get out of education, but I like what I do because I like having so many activities. As a high school administrator there’s never two days that are the same.”