The West Tisbury School has a new principal, Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss announced Wednesday.
Donna Lowell-Bettencourt, interim director of student support services at Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools, will take over the role before the start of the school year, Mr. Weiss said.
“We have chosen Donna Lowell-Bettencourt and she has agreed. We will work out the details of her moving from the present position to that one in the next week or so,” he said.
The 33 eighth graders at the West Tisbury School aren’t the only ones moving on to high school. Their principal, Michael Halt, an Island educator and administrator since 1997, is gearing up for a major transition of his own. Mr. Halt’s last day is June 28. Then he will pack up his truck and head for California, where, in the fall, he will start as principal of the San Clemente High School.
At a meeting Tuesday Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss said he would like to avoid appointing an interim principal to replace outgoing principal Michael Halt, and hire a permanent principal in time for the start of the school year next September.
West Tisbury school principal Michael Halt will leave the Vineyard at the end of the school year to take a job as a high school principal in California.
Mr. Halt, who has served as principal at the West Tisbury school since 2004, has accepted a job as principal of San Clemente High School in San Clemente, Calif., superintendent of schools James H. Weiss confirmed Thursday.
He said Mr. Halt planned to announce his departure to his staff at the end of the day Thursday.
Madeline Way tapped on an iPad in her Project Headway classroom at the West Tisbury School.
“The kids who use this program cannot talk,” she explained. “But they can go like this in a fury.”
Tap, tap, tap. The iPad speaks: “I — want — puzzles.”
The Up-Island Regional School District committee voted on Monday to part ways with food service provider Chartwells at the end of the school year and instead will opt for its own meals program based at the West Tisbury school.
