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CVHS parents voice concerns in wake of principal’s departure

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Just days after Crescenta Valley High Principal Michele Doll announced her promotion to an administrative position at Glendale Unified, parents at the high-performing school responded with a litany of concerns, including lack of communication, poor student support and bullying.

The concerns came from some of the 40 parents who gathered at the campus Wednesday night to give their input to Supt. Dick Sheehan on what they’d like to see in the replacement for Doll, who will become senior director of human resources for the district.

Doll’s departure from Crescenta Valley High comes three years after she took the helm in 2010 following a two-year stint as principal of Rosemont Middle School and several years at Glendale High.

“I love [Crescenta Valley High School] and I am excited about the new opportunity to go to the district office,” Doll said in an email. “So the move is bittersweet for me.”

Sheehan moderated Wednesday’s meeting in the school’s auditorium to gain input as district officials prepare to weigh resumes.

“It’s not always great to be a Falcon,” one parent said.

“A lot of kids are being bullied,” said another. “It seems like no one is doing anything about it.”

The next principal, parents said, would need to embrace the school’s diversity and its lesbian/gay/bisexual/transsexual community, serve as an inspirational and personable leader, have ties to La Crescenta, and maintain the school’s reputation for high academic achievement.

Others expressed a need for a leader who can build a nurturing campus.

One of those expressing that need was Monna Johnson, president of the school’s Parent Teacher Student Assn.

“The climate right now, from what we hear from the students, is that they still have nobody to advocate for them,” she said.

“I know [Doll] cares a lot about the students,” Johnson added. “I don’t know that the students knew they could come to her — that she would be very accepting, that she would help.”

Sheehan said the principal position — open to internal and outside candidates — is posted on edjoin.org, a public education job search website, and would remain open through Friday.

Resumes will then be screened down to 10 to 20, and then screened further into the applicants who will be invited for interviews.

While Sheehan said he hopes to fill the position by July 1, he told parents that district officials will not “settle for anybody” if no candidate appears to fit the job in the coming weeks.

“If I had to, I would bring in an interim principal to run the school for six to twelve months while we go after a top-notch principal,” he said.

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Follow Kelly Corrigan on Twitter: @kellymcorrigan.

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