Casey Manzella
Editor-in-Chief
Emilia Savini
Features Editor
Griffin Patterson
Reporter
On Wednesday, March 17, a press release from the New Canaan Board of Education (Superintendent’s Office) announced the next principal of NCHS: William D. Egan, the current principal at Wamogo Regional High School in Litchfield, CT. “New Canaan has a reputation of being one of the finest school systems in the state, if not the country,” Mr. Egan said. “Every principal in the state knows New Canaan High School and New Canaan Public Schools particularly. The draw was an easy one for me, a no-brainer really.”
The search for the new principal began when Dr. Bryn Luizzi resigned last year to become superintendent, and Dr. Veronica LeDuc took over as interim principal. When searching for a new principal, the hiring committee, composed of district administrators, building administrators, teachers, parents and Board of Education members, paid special attention to community members’ opinions. “In their deliberations the hiring committee used the feedback from students, parents and community members to help inform their decisions,” Dr. Luizzi said. “When hiring somebody who is going to be working with over 1,000 students and over 2,000 parents every year the feedback from those groups, those stakeholders, is really important for any committee to consider.”
One of the ways the hiring committee incorporated the opinions of the aforementioned parties was through The NCHS Leadership Profile Assessment survey, which asked for participants to rank the top five professional characteristics they would like to see in a new principal. “All survey information was collected, analyzed and shared with all members of the committee so they could understand the results and try their best to match the qualities to the candidates,” Director of Human Resources Gary Kass said.
Mr. Kass also led a meeting for students to anonymously voice their opinions, which were then shared with the hiring committee. One of the anonymous opinions passed on to the committee was, “I think getting to know kids personally and understanding when kids are struggling are really important. It would be super helpful if a principal would take notice of that.”
To accommodate the larger community, Dr. Luizzi felt it was important for the new principal to have strong values. “It is very important for the principal to share his values with the community he serves,” Dr. Luizzi said. “Therefore, we were looking for someone who was committed to excellence in all that he does, who believes in continuous improvement and growth, who truly respects and values the entire school community, who is a strong communicator and who is a positive leader for all stakeholders.”
Experience, which Mr. Egan has, having served as principal of Wamogo Regional High School for six years, was also a factor the hiring committee considered. “We were looking for candidates with teaching and administrative experience at the high school level,” Dr. Luizzi said. “We really wanted a great communicator who has a strong background in all aspects of running an outstanding high school, such as NCHS.”
The changes Mr. Egan made at Wamogo Regional High School as principal caught Dr. Luizzi’s attention. “At Wamogo Regional High School he created an environment where there are high academic standards for all students, where there are opportunities for students to do really cool, interesting and creative things, like online learning for advanced classes that maybe only two or three students are interested in taking,” Dr. Luizzi said.
More specifically, the hiring committee saw Mr. Egan’s experience incorporating technology into education at Wamogo Regional High School as especially beneficial. “Mr. Egan created a one-to-one program at Wamogo using Chromebooks. That was pretty much innovative at the time,” Dr. Luizzi said. “I think the experience he has had with technology at Wamogo will help us as we continue to think and shape where we are going as we move forwards with one-to-one technology initiatives in New Canaan.”
Not only does Mr. Egan have experience serving as a principal, but he also has experience working with Dr. Luizzi at Brookfield High School, who he will begin working with again in June. “We worked together for three years and did some really cool things together and our beliefs about schools are very close: schools exist for the students so our focus has to be on them,” Dr. Luizzi said. “When Mr. Egan applied for the position I was excited. I thought that if it were to work out, it would be a great match. After he went to the committee and met with them, they felt the same way.”
While there are many opportunities for Mr. Egan at the high school, he hopes to first immerse himself in the school system to fully understand what life is like at NCHS. “I really want to spend the time to get to know the school before I give any focus to changing or adjusting the school,” he said. “I really want to get to know every aspect of the school; I want to get to know the curriculum better, all of the academic programs and arts programs. I want to really get to know and celebrate the entire community.”
Mr. Egan is eager to start his new position, which will begin July 1, 2015. “It’s just such a wonderful school system. I am so excited for July 1 to come,” he said. “I can’t wait to get down there and start working with everyone and getting to know everyone. Those are definitely the first things I want to do.”
