"We know our school is small, but we need a full-time principal on site at the elementary to help with consistency in leadership for students and the teachers," said Carmen Neatsey, a parent at Dugway schools for the last 10 years. Neatsey described the variety of leadership types the district has tried since doing away with the full-time position around 2002.
"We've had an administrator that split his time between teaching and administrating, a lead teacher, and an intern," she said.
Matt Jackson served as an administrative intern this year at Dugway Elementary under the supervision of the full-time principal assigned to both Dugway High School and Elementary, Karen Swenson. After Swenson retired in early February, the principal assigned was Robin Nielson.
The parents who spoke at the meeting were very appreciative of Jackson's work. However, he has now completed his internship and has been hired to be one of the new assistant principals at Tooele High School for next year. Parents are concerned that this may be the start of a one-year revolving door for administrators at the elementary school.
"I have been happy with our principals, but if we could look beyond bodies a full-time principal would help retain teachers," said Amy Mason, a parent and faculty member at the school. Mason and others at the meeting also expressed concern at the turnover of teachers at the school.
Dugway Elementary has an enrollment of 130 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Anna Smith Elementary in Wendover, the smallest school in the district that has a full-time principal, has an enrollment of 226 students.
"I support the parents in their request for consistent leadership at the school," said Col. Robert Jones, commander of Dugway Proving Ground who also has children who attend Dugway schools. "The schools here are good, but we want them to be the best. If it is a matter of money maybe we need to think outside the box."
Tooele County School District Superintendent Mike Johnsen indicated that the full-time position was eliminated due to low enrollment figures. He went on to explain several things the district has done to help with the unique needs of Dugway, including maintaining the smallest class sizes in the district, avoiding combining grade levels when numbers are low, and making special efforts to recruit teachers for Dugway that prefer a remote rural lifestyle.
"Even if we hired a full-time principal there is no guarantee that they would stay at Dugway," Johnsen said. "The students and teachers at Dugway are important to us, we appreciate hearing their opinions, and will involve them in the dialogue as we consider how the district can address their concerns."
tgillie@tooeletranscript.com
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