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Date: 12/6/2022
NORTHAMPTON – In a letter sent out to the community, Northampton interim Superintendent Janelle Pearson-Campbell announced that William Wehrli is the sole finalist for the Northampton High School (NHS) principal job.
Background
An interim principal has helmed NHS since March after a 267-page records request filed by former School Committee member Susan Voss found that former principal Lori Vaillancourt referred to members of the Student Union as “asshats.”
The comment, as well as a couple of others, came after the Student Union raised concerns about a change within the Math Department at the time.
During that period, former NHS principal Nancy Athas served as the interim principal when former Superintendent John Provost placed Vaillancourt on administrative leave. The school has been helmed under the interim moniker since then.
On Oct. 24, a letter was sent out to parents stating that a new permanent principal could be hired as early as mid-November.
“Our future principal will embrace the district’s core educational values and will work with our community to create a shared vision for a successful high school experience for students in Northampton,” said interim Superintendent Dr. Jannell Pearson-Campbell, in her letter to Northampton Public Schools parents. “The right candidate will be committed to diversity and equity issues, have a high degree of autonomy and trust within the school and collaborate with educators, students, administrators and community members to cultivate lifelong learning in all of our students, ensuring success for college and career readiness.”
In a statement to Reminder Publishing, Pearson-Campbell said that a “number of things” had to be put on hold since NHS did not have a permanent principal. “Northampton is a unique place, and we needed to start early,” she said, of the process.
The finalist
Wehrli, who was chosen as a finalist out of 14 candidates, has over 30 years of experience in education, 19 of those as an administrator in Western Massachusetts. He has served as a principal intern and interim co-principal/assistant principal for a school with 1,380 students, as well as a principal for a school with 460 students.
He has lived in Northampton and Amherst for the past 25 years and has also spent the last six years working for schools across New England. He began his education career as an English and World Civilization teacher.
Wehrli spent most of the day on Nov. 30 meeting with faculty, staff, administration and students in order to get acclimated with the school. He also participated in two forums: a faculty and staff forum and a community forum.
The community forum
During the community forum, Wehrli said that building a positive school culture starts with developing trust. “Schools are sites of unlimited need and limited resources,” said Wehrli. “So, we have to be really thoughtful about what are we going to focus on.”
Wehrli described a lot of the students at NHS as “self-advocates,” which to him was a good attribute of the school. “I think a lot about the role of schools in a democratic society,” said Wehrli. “How do we model democratic norms, which seem to somehow be broken nationally, at the local level.”
When it comes to recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, Wehrli said he would seek help from others and collaborate on finding answers. “I think there’s some really smart people who think deeply about how to recover from traumatic experiences,” said Wehrli, adding that collaboration in general is key to his leadership. “I would turn to those folks…and decide what we do to build strength individually but also as a community.”
From an individual leadership perspective, Wehrli said his goal as a principal is to find ways to inspire students beyond just the procedural aspects of college admissions and SAT scores. “[Students] have a heavy lift as the next generation and we need to inspire them,” said Wehrli. “They can build the muscle to make that lift.”
When asked about student involvement in policymaking, Wehrli said that NHS students would play a “very important” role in providing input for any policymaking or policy changes that occur at the school. “There will be some things I get to decide, but ideally I would like that to then be a collaborative process with students, staff and educators working together,” said Wehrli, adding that the student union will be an important existing body for future decision-making.
Lastly, Wehrli spoke about how he would support non-white students, and cited a prior organization he was a part of called the Minority Student Achievement Network, where he and another faculty member co-facilitated a group of students to create opportunity for historically marginalized students in a predominantly white school.
“I certainly want to elevate the importance of identifying and supporting students of color and other students from historically marginalized communities,” said Wehrli.
The hiring is expected to be finalized in early December.