Politics & Government

School Board Moves to Replace Vacant Dixon High School Principal Position

Last night, the school board met at Dixon High's theater to discuss what to do about the vacant principal position at DHS.

The search for a new principal at Dixon High School is underway and last night, the Dixon Unified School District’s Board of Education met in closed-session to discuss how to proceed.

On Friday, the district announced that it would not re-hire Principal John Barsotti to return for the 2012-2013 school year. Although no official announcement has been made, board president Irina Okhremtchouk said that District Superintendent Brian Dolan and herself discussed a possible candidate.

The school board discussed last night what options it had to replace the outgoing principal. The district essentially has two options. It can either appoint an acting principal for a year at DHS or open the hiring process similar to the way it did when Principal Ivan Chaidez left his position in Dixon for one in Napa.

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If the district chooses the latter it would need to do so before the start of the school year, possibly using a pool of candidates that it screened during the last hiring process that led to the hiring of Barsotti.

The hiring of the new principal is up to Superintendent Brian Dolan, whose decision is ratified by the board. Last night the board did not report any action from its closed-session meeting.

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During a telephone interview with Board President Irina Okhremtchouk, she said that the board would need to ratify Dolan’s pick for principal within two weeks in order for that candidate to be ready for the start of the school year in August.

She said that if the board and Dolan decide to appoint an acting principal, it would buy some time, at least a year, for the board to decide who would be the permanent replacement for Barsotti at Dixon High School.

The Dixon Unified School District will meet once again on Thursday, in closed session, to decide what to do about the vacant principal position. The meeting will be held within the chambers of the Dixon City Council, with the closed session meeting beginning at 6:30 p.m., and the regular meeting to being at 7 p.m.

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