Elizabeth Kilbride
News Editor
A focus group comprised of students met with members of the Search Committee looking for Principal Tony Pavia’s replacement, on Tuesday, January 25, from roughly 1:30 to 2:30 in the Wagner Room. They discussed the qualities they would look for in a principal, what students enjoy about the school, and improvements that could be made to school environment.
“I asked Mr. Pavia to identify a diverse group of students for us to speak with,” Dr. Steven Swerdlick, Assistant Superintendent of Schools and Chairman of the Search Committee, said. “We wanted to hear from various constituencies how they perceive New Canaan High School, how it runs and how they want it to be run.”
The meeting was attended by 25 students, Superintendent of Schools Dr. David Abbey, Dr. Swerdlick, and Senior Search Consultant Eliza Holcomb, from the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. This is the first time the New Canaan public school system has hired someone to aid in a search committee. “[Ms. Holcomb] is one of the best in state, if not the best,” Dr. Swerdlick said. “That’s why we’re working with her. We know how difficult it is generally to find a good high school principal. In this case it is even harder, because Mr. Pavia has done such a good job.”
“A lot of the time students wanted to tell us how good Mr. Pavia has been. He respects the students, and supports them by attending sports events, concerts and musicals. They were looking for someone who cares about them as whole human beings, and who would maintain the culture of respect. We all came away impressed,” Dr. Swerdlick said.
The opinions expressed in the focus group will be compiled into the Senior Leadership Assessment Profile, which will then be used to inform the Search Committee of what traits to look for during interviews with potential principals. According to Dr. Swerdlick, other focus groups have included parents, secretaries, School Resource Officer Ron Bentley and senior administrators.
Senior Julia Harvey, who attended the session, found the experience to be positive. “We talked the entire time,” she said. “Overall, we just described what we would like, what traits the new principal should have, what we felt was important to us as students. We talked about all these great things Mr. Pavia and school have done for us.”
“Pretty much everyone said they want a person like Mr. Pavia, who will be nice to them and know their names,” freshman Olivia Harkey, one of two freshmen in the focus group, said. “I really hope that there’s someone like him, that is strong but gentle, not strict, but enforces the rules. He’s not the normal principal you see on the TV shows that’s really strict. He’s just so fun to be around and I really hope it’s someone like that to be there for my next three years of high school.”
“I think that a lot of how the principal is with [students]is part of the school’s success,” junior Thomas Rochlin said. “Student input is really important, especially because it’ll be our senior year, if we’re not happy with the principal or he’s a pain in the butt and doesn’t know how the school works, then we’re the ones suffering.”
Both Julia and Thomas said the student body was well represented in the focus group. “There were so many different types of people there,” Thomas said. “There were a lot of seniors, a lot of juniors and some sprinkled in sophomores and freshmen. There were a lot of kids there from different social groups. There were kids from the arts department, talking how great [Mr.] Pavia had been for that, and kids talking about sports and academics.”
“I felt that the group of students there, although there were only 25, still represented the student body as a whole, because they weren’t from one specific sports team or group,” Julia said. “It was great to hear different opinions from kids in different grades talk about our principal and school. It was good that they talked to students, since we have daily contact with the principal, and he impacts our life as much as the other faculty members.”
“I think as seniors, we’ve had Mr. Pavia and we’ve been through the whole school for four years. Going through each grade gave a different perspective than what a freshmen who has been here only a year has,” Julia said. “It’ll give the consultant and their search for a new principal a new outlook.”
