Corona del Mar principal search to continue

Danette Goulet

CORONA DEL MAR -- School district officials will not settle for second

best after the front runner for the principal position at Corona del Mar

High School suddenly backed out last week.

Instead, they will replace the current interim principal, Gary Norton,

with yet another interim principal next year and take applications all

over again, said Jaime Castellanos, assistant superintendent of secondary

education for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

“We’re going to go with an interim again,” he said. “We were set to

make a site visit on the No. 1 candidate, and he pulled out for personal

reasons. The second, basically, I interviewed this week, and we decided

to open it up again.”

The Sea Kings have been without a permanent principal since January,

when after seven years at Corona del Mar High, Don Martin took a trial

job at the district office.

Fewer than two months later, Martin left the district and took a

position in the St. Helena Unified School District in Northern California

as the director of curriculum and instruction.

Martin was the last in a run of principals who left or retired from

their jobs during the past couple of years.

During that span, 10 principals left their posts.

Since his departure from Corona del Mar High, retired principal Norton

has run the show. Students have grumbled that Norton was strict and

gruff, but parents lauded the interim principal’s administrative style as

no-nonsense.

But Norton has another assignment for several months in the fall, so

while the district would like to keep him on, they will need to find yet

another temporary leader, Castellanos said.

“We’ll be looking at getting an interim principal on board again this

summer,” Castellanos said. “We’ll open the position again in October,

November and see what quality we find. If we don’t find the quality we’re

looking for, we’ll open it again in the spring.”