TISD Fills Principal Vacancies
The TISD Board of Trustees completed a two-month effort to fill and refill principal vacancies in the district Monday with three new hires.

Norma Marquardt was hired to serve as principal at Legacy Early College High School and Patricia Calhoun was named principal at the Opportunity Center. Both had previously served as assistant principals at Taylor High School.

The lone newcomer in the list of principal hirings was Donald Snook who most recently served as an assistant principal in Mansfield and has 22 years of teaching experience.

“In all of these cases we wanted individuals who had experience as administrators,” Superintendent Bruce Scott said. “We wanted individuals with experience at the secondary level and wanted individuals that were good classroom teachers themselves and demonstrated they were looked upon by their colleagues as good teachers first.”

The principal carousel began in May when THS principal Kimberly Mason accepted a job as director of secondary education for the district. The board then hired Taylor Middle School principal Danny Ward to replace Mason, and Richard Kolek stepped in at the middle school, creating the vacancy on the Legacy campus.

The board established the principal position at the Opportunity Center in June in an effort to address shortcomings with the District Alternative Education Placement program. To fund the position, the administration will look at not filling other vacancies in the district.

Scott was proud of the fact that most of the top candidates for these positions came from within the district, but said all openings were advertised statewide and got a sizeable response from across Texas.

“We feel like the last few years our administrative pool here in Taylor has improved,” he said. “We do place a lot of stock in loyalty to the district and both of the in-house candidates we hired last night have expressed an interest in staying in this district and help us improve.”

The interview process included screening of resumes and qualifications, followed by selective interviews by a committee of parents, teachers and administrators. The final step for candidates was a committee chaired by Scott that included members of the administration management team.

“We have tried the past five years to go through this two-step process and really put the candidates through the mill to have the best one come to the top,” he said. “They went through that process and we really felt like the candidates who were hired not only impressed the parents and teachers, but we all agreed with their findings.”