VINALHAVEN — The Vinalhaven School is seeking to add a principal and an assistant principal to its administrative team, a move that would separate the recently combined superintendent and principal positions. 

Traditionally, the two positions have been separate roles.

For the current school year, however, Superintendent Tonya Arnold has also been serving as the school’s principal. 

When Vinalhaven’s school board hired Arnold in April 2019, the board opted to have Arnold hold both positions as the board contemplated the future of its administrative positions. The board also believed they would be hiring from a smaller pool of candidates had they sought to hire a principal at the end of the 2018-19 school year. 

At an April 2019 school board meeting, the school board decided Arnold will work at the school Tuesdays through Fridays and spend Mondays working remotely. 

The board also decided, at that time, she would only maintain full-time status for the upcoming school year and will move to part-time status for the 2020-2021 academic year. 

Arnold, in addition to her duties on Vinalhaven, serves as the superintendent on Monhegan Island, a position she held prior to being hired by Vinalhaven. 

In an April 2019 interview, Arnold noted her primary goals for during her first year on Vinalhaven included identifying a common vision for the future of the school's leadership structure and exploring creative possibilities for collaboration between the local island schools.

At the same April 2019 board meeting, the board established a pair of part-time assistant principal positions. One will serve lower school students in kindergarten through fifth grades, while the other will cater to upper school students in sixth through 12th grades. 

“These [assistant principal] positions will be filled by state certified leaders from our current teaching staff and will be for one year only pending the outcome of the leadership structure study,” said then-superintendent Roy Crawford, in April 2019. 

The assistant principal positions were filled by Vinalhaven teachers Bryan Feezor (upper school) and Blake Reidy (lower school). 

Looking at the upcoming 2020-21 school year, the school will have one assistant principal serving the entire school. 

During a February 2020 school board meeting, the board decided to seek a full-time principal to focus on academics and evaluations and a full-time equivalent assistant principal to focus on behavior and conflict mediation. 

In looking for the island’s principal and assistant principal, Arnold is working to ensure the selected candidates understand island life is different than living on the mainland. 

Candidates for both positions have to submit answers to three questions before they receive an application addressing why they are interested in living and teaching on the island, past experiences of living in a small remote rural community (if applicable) and what is critical to the candidate’s happiness and well-being. 

The Vinalhaven School, in the 2020-21 school year, will boast 175 students and nearly 50 staff members, according to administrative advertisements. 

Reach George Harvey at: sports@penbaypilot.com.