Joseph Mangiaracina announced his impending departure to the high school faculty Monday
By John Tredrea
Hopewell Valley Central High School Principal Joseph Mangiaracina has submitted his resignation.
The principal will leave at the end of the school year to pursue "new and exciting career opportunities," he said.
"I’m going back to my professional roots. I want to focus my attention more on what I really love doing, working directly with teachers and students. And that’s a real challenge when you’re also running a building."
Mr. Mangiaracina said Wednesday that he has not accepted another job yet. "I’ve been presented with several good options that I’m considering." He said his intent is to work as a consultant for several districts simultaneously.
The outgoing principal said he feels progress was made on a number of fronts while he was principal of Central High School. "We expanded the role of the student council to give it a greater voice in school affairs," he said. "We restructured our decision-making model to make it more broad-based. We revamped our school’s budget process to make it more targeted."
Mr. Mangiaracina, 54, announced his impending departure to the high school faculty at its regular monthly meeting Monday. He has been principal of the high school since July 1, 2004, when he replaced John Bach, who is now the district’s assistant superintendent in charge of curriculum and instruction. Central High now has 1,160 students. When Mr. Mangiaracina came on board, the student population was close to 1,075.
Prior to his arrival in Hopewell Valley, Mr. Mangiaracina was principal of John Jay Senior High School in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., a 1,953-student school in suburban New York. Before that, he was at the helm of Davis Senior High School, a 1,851-student school in Davis, Calif.
Superintendent Judith A. Ferguson said Mr. Mangiaracina has been "a valued member of our administrative team who will be missed for the intellectual challenge he brought to our thinking, his sense of humor, and his creativity. During his brief tenure here, Joe has introduced new ideas and new thinking about the future direction of the high school. His impact is likely to be felt for many years to come."
The superintendent said she hopes Mr. Mangiaracina’s successor will be in place before the opening of school in September. Dr. Ferguson said the search for a new principal would be conducted by district staff. When district officials were looking for a new high school principal two years ago, 41 candidates were considered for the post. Mr. Mangiaracina’s salary this year is $128,795.
A former high school social studies teacher, Mr. Mangiaracina holds two master’s degrees, one in history from Rutgers University and another in educational administration from St. Mary’s College of California. He is a graduate of the California School Leadership Academy and has studied at Harvard University’s Principals’ Center in the Graduate School of Education. He was awarded a Woodrow Wilson/DeWitt Wallace Fellowship from Princeton University in 1991and from 1992 through 1994 conducted summer workshops for educators throughout the country on conceptual and instructional aspects of World History.

