Email Express

Special Edition

June 2, 2010

Dear Lovejoy Community:

We have spent the last month working through the applications for the next principal of LovejoyHigh School. As of last week, the total number of applications was more than 200 and from that group, we screened 24 applicants. Our central office leadership team invested more than 130 cumulative hours in face-to-face interviews. At the Round 2 and Round 3 levels, we did in-depth interviews with five candidates—4 current principals and 1 high school associate principal. With that said, I am confident that our Board of Trustees approved the right candidate to lead LHS into the future. Gavan Goodrich, our principal at SloanCreekMiddle School, will assume the principalship of LovejoyHigh School.

Please allow me to tell you a little bit about Gavan that drove my decision to select him as the principal. Gavan came to the district in 2005 at the same time that we hired Mike Goddard. For the first twelve months in Lovejoy, Mike and Gavan collaborated to develop what has become known as the secondary program. Once the LHS building opened in 2006, both middle school and high school programs shared the same building and a good percentage of staff. Gavan understands our high school program and most of the staff there as well. In addition, all student groups including the Class of 2011 have had Gavan as their principal for at least one year. Gavan already knows many of our kids.

Gavan received his undergraduate degree in advertising from MichiganStateUniversity. While a student at MichiganState, he served as the president of his fraternity (Sig Ep), president of the president’s council, and a member of the Student Foundation who assisted the University Foundation with fund raising efforts. After college graduation, Gavan worked for eleven years in national advertising agencies in Chicago and San Francisco. During this phase of his working life, he was continually drawn into a career in education. He finally decided to follow his heart and return to college to receive his teaching credential and a master’s degree in education from the University of North Texas. This career change from a successful advertising career is evidence of his mission as an educator.

Gavan has 12 years of experience as a campus administrator. He has held administrative posts at Highland Park, McKinney, and Lovejoy. Gavan has held assistant and associate principal positions at the high school level in both Highland Park and McKinney; he has also served as a high school teacher and coach. Gavan has served as a coach in HP for both basketball and football. As a high school athlete, he was a 3-sport kid, football, basketball, and track and served as quarterback and captain of his high school football team. Gavan is an experienced principal who has a passion for both academics and extracurricular activities.

Gavan also brings the unique perspective of parent to the role of high school principal. His son, Chris, will be a junior at LHS next year. I have talked with Mike Goddard about his perspective on the best match for LHS and he has enthusiastically endorsed Gavan to fill the role of high school principal. I talked with the high school teachers who serve on the Instructional Leadership Team and they fully embrace Gavan as the new principal and wholeheartedly look forward to continuing the LovejoyHigh School legacy. I received an unsolicited email from Pam Brooks, Sloan Creek science teacher and LISD parent who said; “Gavan knows our beginnings and our expectations because he shares and helped to create the vision that our community and parents have for our students. Our LovejoyHigh School students would benefit tremendously with Gavan Goodrich as their principal. They deserve a principal who will take the baton of our Lovejoy Legacy and continue the race, knowing the journey of our beginnings and our future destination.” As I recommended Gavan to our Board of Trustees tonight, I did so with complete confidence that he is the right person for our kids, for our school, and for our future.

In addition, Gavan’s move to LHS will leave an opening at Sloan Creek. I am also announcing that Kent Messer will assume the role of interim principal at SloanCreekMiddle School as we fulfill our requirement to post the position. It will be our goal to permanently fill the Sloan Creek position at our June board meeting.

As always, I am honored to serve this community as the superintendent and look forward to a very bright future of partnering with you to make next year our best school year yet.

With Respect,

Ted Moore