WESTFIELD – While he isn’t slated to set up shop on Montgomery Road until the first of July, recently hired Westfield High School Principal Jonathan Carter is already representing a changing of the guard.
In taking over for beloved WHS principal Ray Broderick, a man with whom Carter is looking forward to spending time with in the weeks leading up to his official start date, Carter will face the challenge of improving Westfield High’s Level 3 academic standing.
Carter’s arrival comes with a strong vote of confidence from several members of the school committee.
“I think he’s an excellent choice,” said Vice Chair Kevin Sullivan, while Superintendent Suzanne Scallion went one step further.
“We believe he brings a unique blend of skills to lead Westfield High School at this time and are excited to start working with him,” she said in a statement.
Carter’s hiring has also raised some eyebrows around the city, with skepticism stemming from his last stop as principal at William J. Dean Technical High School in Holyoke, a Level 4 underperforming school as designated by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
According to the Department of Education’s website, schools are classified as Level 3 for low subgroup performance and are then designated as “focus schools” if one or more subgroups in the school are among the lowest performing 20 percent of subgroups statewide.
Level 3 designations can also be given to any school where there is low participation in the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test, or if they have persistently low graduation rates.
According to the Department of Education, the lowest achieving and least improving Level 3 schools are candidates for Level 4 status.
In a 2012 accountability report by the DOE, Dean Tech fell into the 2nd percentile among public schools statewide, and was one of only six high schools in the Commonwealth to be dealt a Level 4 evaluation, along with Boston’s Jeremiah E. Burke and English High Schools, Lawrence High School’s International and Business & Finance campuses, and Springfield’s High School of Commerce, where Carter was principal in 2010.
Many education insiders chalk Dean Tech’s poor academic performance up to factors beyond Carter’s control, as almost three-quarters of the school’s student body speak English as a second language and many are in need of special education services. Since his hiring in early 2012, the troubled school has seen sharp declines in disciplinary and truancy problems, to go with a 33 percent decrease in the school’s dropout rate under.
Dean Tech’s continued academic anemia did not deter the Westfield High School search committee in choosing Carter to right their own ship.
A group composed of WHS students, senior Matt LaCroix and junior class president John Dolan, two parents, several WHS staff members and one school committee member as selected by Scallion and that committee itself, weeded through almost 40 applicants for the position.
After a credential check reduced the field to sixteen, the search committee narrowed the field to a final four, at which point Scallion created a second committee composed of academic supervisors to make the final decision, resulting in Jonathan Carter’s selection.
Mike Tirrell, a member of the school committee, believes the hiring to be a sound one given the circumstances surrounding Broderick’s departure.
“No one wanted Ray to leave, but he had reached retirement age and decided it was time,” Tirrell said of Broderick. “We begged him to stay for one more year. We were very happy with Ray.”
While not involved in the actual selection process, Tirrell, the director of integration software for a company based in Agawam, knows a thing or two about the importance of technology in the 21st century and believes it was Carter’s experience working with tech companies during the startup boom of the ’90s, prior to his career in education, as well as his vision for improving the science and technological base for WHS, which endeared him to the selection committee.
While not being very familiar with Carter personally, Tirrell thinks the new principal-elect has the chops to succeed on Montgomery Road.
“He’s a younger guy with local ties who is looking to make a career here (in Westfield),” Tirrell said of the West Springfield resident.
Ray Diaz, another member of the school committee, is keeping an open mind about the search committee’s decision.
“Time will tell,” said Diaz, himself a tech guru who works as a systems architect for MassMutual by day, “But I know the members of that committee and I trust their judgment. I’ve been involved in hiring processes many times over the years and I find that 95 percent of the time, you get it right.”
Kevin Sullivan, the committee member selected to sit on the initial search committee, believes that their choice for the job will do the Whip City’s largest high school proud as its newest leader.
“His experience at the high school level means that he can step in and hit the ground running,” Sullivan said.
Carter has a Bachelor of the Arts in English Language and Literature from Colgate University to go with a Master’s of Education from UMass-Amherst, but Sullivan believes it is Carter’s science background, both in the private sector and as principal at Vocational-Technical schools, such as Dean Tech and the High School of Science and Technology in Springfield before that, that will be his biggest asset as he accepts the challenge of improving Westfield High School’s Level 3 status due to its low participation in the MCAS.
“He can use his science and technological expertise to continue the progress we have made in that area.” Sullivan said.
Now that the ink is dry and the date is set, all eyes will be directed to the principal’s office door on Montgomery Road this fall, to see if Jonathan Carter can take Westfield High to the next level.
