District trials new model for Waltham High principalship

Waltham Public Schools will test a principal-in-residence model at Waltham Senior High following the departure of its leader at the end of the school year.

Superintendent Marisa Mendonsa announced her decision to test the new model late last month after a previous unsuccessful search to find a new high school principal.

The hunt for the new principal had been ongoing for months after principal Darrell Braggs announced in December that he would step down from his position when the school year ended. 

Braggs is the third principal to leave Waltham High in the last five years.

The district announced three finalists for the position at the end of March, but Mendonsa announced less than a week later that she decided not to go with any of them and instead restarted the search. 

On May 29 Mendonsa sent out an update, saying she was hiring a principal-in-residence this summer. Mendonsa said the individual hired for this position will receive additional support from seasoned administrators inside and outside of WPS for the first three years, after which the district could extend an offer of a standard principal contract.

Mendonsa said that although the candidates WPS considered this spring had “great leadership qualities,” none had the traits and experience that her team sought from an experienced candidate. 

Mendonsa said her team wants a leader who’s able to understand and adapt to the culture of the school and can help raise its achievement scores, which rank in the state’s bottom 8th percentile.

Exodus of principals

When Waltham sought a replacement for Braggs this spring, the hiring team encountered a limited market for candidates. 

“There are far less folks willing to step into roles like that,” Mendonsa said.

Statistics support that assessment. A study from the National Center for Education Statistics found that 11% of the nation’s public school principals ended their careers as principals in 2021.  A 2019 policy paper from the National Association of Secondary School Principals pointed to a number of reasons principals leave their jobs, including insufficient pay and working conditions, a lack of professional training and support for their authority, and accountability systems that disincentivize principals to stay in low-performing schools.

A new model to move forward

Mendonsa said her team decided to go with a new model to try to attract candidates who have promise but lack experience as a principal or lack experience working at a large high school. 

The ongoing administrative support offered to the principal-in-residence, which will include on-site assistance throughout the school week from members of the district’s executive team, is designed to ramp up the individual’s skills as well as make the position more sustainable in the long term.

“[We’re] hoping this could lead to retention and stability in the role as well,” Mendonsa said. “Not just hiring someone and going ‘Okay, here’s 1,800 students and 200 staff members. Go for it!’ ”

Mendonsa clarified that the switch to a principal-in-residence will not change the prospective principal’s salary or decision-making authority; the individual in the role will be listed as Waltham High’s principal with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Some private charter school companies use similar principal residency models, and Chicago Public Schools tested out a residency for principals completing their graduate education during the 2010s with mixed success, according to a 2023 study published in the Journal of Labor Economics.

Mendonsa said she was inspired by her own experience as a teacher in Springfield Public Schools, where she participated in a two-year training program in school administration that culminated in a paid semester shadowing a current administrator.

Experts weigh in

Shaun Dougherty, a professor of education and policy at Boston College and a former principal who now studies how to evaluate educators, said he hasn’t encountered principal-in-residence models before. However, he said he understands the appeal, noting it could be a way to smooth the transition. “Anytime there’s going to be a big shift in either [new principals’] baseline experience or context, I could imagine [this model] being especially helpful.”

He said the additional support and training could make the hiring process a “lower-stakes” situation for both the district and the candidates and could help break through the difficulties that the school’s high turnover rates might be introducing in the search for a new WHS principal.

Susan Bingham, a biology teacher and parent of a current Waltham High student, said the program sounds like a “promising concept for the right candidate.”

“I hope the candidate is able to see and utilize the positive qualities of Waltham and Waltham High to help raise us up to better performance rather than just try to impose some cookie-cutter would-be ‘solution,’” she said in a message to The Waltham Times. “We need leadership that expands upon what’s already here.”