Students, parents and staff at Bioscience High School are awaiting the decision of whom the new principal of the school will be after learning that the current principal is being transferred to another high school and three candidates for the position were rejected.
Quintin Boyce, current principal at Bioscience, has been at the high school for five years and in the principal position for two of those years.
Beginning on July 1, Boyce will be transferred to Camelback High School where he will act as their new principal.
At a meeting last week at Bioscience High School, staff, students, parents and Phoenix Union High School District members gathered together to question candidates for the Bioscience principal position.
But officials decided against hiring any of the three candidates after receiving reviews from stakeholders, reopening the position in order to fit the needs of the school, said Craig Pletenik, community relations manager for the Phoenix Union High School District.
Jose Arenas, assistant superintendent of human resources for the district, said that hiring a new principal for Bioscience is an uplifting opportunity to move in the right direction.
The three candidates reviewed at the June 19 meeting — Brian Reynoso, Michelle Reis Delgado and Phillip Wooley – all have worked in the school system for various years and had said they were excited to become a part of the Bioscience community.
Reynoso has worked in administration as the assistant principal of registration at Metro Tech High School and North High School for the past six years. Before working in administration he taught math for 20 years and has been a part of the district for 30 years. He said that as principal he would “get to the heart of educating kids.”
Delgado has been the assistant principal of registration at Carl Hayden High School, created Pre-advanced Placement English classes as Cesar Chavez High School and worked as a seventh-grade science teacher. She also brought the AVID college-readiness program to the district and said that as principal she wanted to “be a problem-solver and create opportunities.”
Wooley has been in administration as the assistant principal of registration at Betty Fairfax High School before applying to be the principal at Bioscience. He also taught social studies and was a football coach for 22 years. He said that he is a community man and that making connections with the Bioscience community and the public would be his main focus as principal.
Boyce could not be reached for comment after multiple attempts to reach him.
Students at Bioscience said the school’s community is very complex and they feel the decision to find a principal was rushed. Originally, the new principal for the 2014-2015 school year was to begin work on July 1. Students said they wanted school officials to take more consideration into what was best for their school.
“The culture within the school is a place where everyone knows everyone … we are one unit, a family,” said Jacob Chevalier, who will be a senior at Bioscience in the fall.
Helena Silva-Nichols, who will also be a senior at Bioscience in the fall, wrote in a Change.org petition sent to district Superintendent Kent P. Scribner that the filling of the principal position was rushed and did not provide equal opportunities to all.
“This having been said, the Bioscience High School community feels that a great injustice has been committed in regards to the selection of our new administrator,” Silva-Nichols said in the petition.
She added: “We were assured the position would be opened to the public, however the candidates were all from within the district and were in fact individuals who had initially applied to other principal positions.”
Beth McClure-Shimel, whose daughter is going to be a junior at BioScience, said that the new principal should continue the school’s mission and increase community involvement at BioScience.
“We expect (candidates) to be much more familiar with the culture and dynamic of our school,” said Lindsey Wilson, a recent graduate from Bioscience High School, at the meeting last week. “Someone who is the controller of the curriculum should look at student feedback and make decisions on how to change from there.”
According to Pletenik, the principal position will be filled temporarily by DeeDee Falls, a teacher at Bioscience and former principal. He added that he is unsure how long Falls will be in the temporary principal position.
“It could be two months or longer,” Pletenik said.
Stephanie Grijalva, art teacher at Bioscience for eight years, said that whatever choice is made will impact their community, and the new principal should help build the Bioscience family.
Contact the reporter at Brittani.Gomez@asu.edu
