A few months back, OCHSA officials announced that principal Sue Vaughn would retire after 12 years. I don’t know Ms. Vaughn that well but she seemed dedicated and smart and caring, and anytime there is change, you can’t help but wonder what the future holds.
I guess we will see! Recently Dr. Opacic sent out an announcement introducing OCHSA’s new principal beginning with the 2012-2013 school year, Dr. Benjamin Wolf.
Dr. Ben Wolf
A quick Google search turned up few interesting factoids, but even better, I have friend who worked with Dr. Wolf for three years while he was principal at Buena Park High School. We all know it’s the ‘reviews’ that count today, right?
Well, good news. He got rave reviews! According to my friend, “he did a great job” and was a lot of fun too. While she did say he was a “no-nonsense kind of guy who says what he means and does what he says he’s going to do,” apparently he has quite a sense of humor and maintained an easy rapport with his colleagues. Hummm, she didn’t mention how the students felt about him??
Here is how OCHSA introduced Dr. Wolf in its announcement:
It is with great excitement that I introduce Dr. Benjamin Wolf, who has been officially approved by the school’s Board of Trustees and will join us as principal when the 2012-2013 school year launches in August.
With more than 20 years’ experience in public education and administration, Dr. Wolf is one of Southern California’s top educational leaders.
Dr. Wolf currently serves as assistant superintendent of educational services for Centinela Valley Union High School District, where he has increased student achievement results (API and AYP) at all district schools, leading to the largest district API increase in Los Angeles County. He is the only principal in Los Angeles and Orange Counties to lead two high schools out of Program Improvement. During his tenure at the district, he has also led staff, site administrators and teachers in a complete reorganization of the district’s curricular offerings with a focus on raising student achievement. He has also developed innovative marketing strategies to compete with the area’s premier public charter schools.
Previously, Dr. Wolf served as principal at Buena Park High School, where he increased AYP proficiency by 400%, created the district’s first pre-CAHSEE courses for tenth graders, implemented the first ninth grade pre-CAHSEE assessment, and opened access to AP courses, leading the school to recognition as one of Newsweek’s Top 1000 High Schools and earning the prestigious Golden Bell Award.
As principal of Santiago High School in Garden Grove, Dr. Wolf directed standards-based restructuring that led to Santiago’s API improvement being the largest in the district, second largest in Orange County and in the top three percent of all high schools in California. He also organized staff development in the area of research-based instructional strategies focusing on student engagement, and implemented the district’s first technology-based reading intervention program through the use of a Digital High School grant. Dr. Wolf has also served as assistant principal of curriculum and instruction at Irvine High School where he was in charge of course creation, master scheduling and counseling.
Dr. Wolf’s teaching background includes positions with Whittier Union High School District and Santa Ana Unified School District.
Additionally, he has taught as an instructor for the Princeton Review Corporation and as an adjunct professor at Argosy University in Los Angeles and California State University, Long Beach, Dominguez Hills and Fullerton. Dr. Wolf also has an extensive background in public administration, including positions as assistant to the city manager in Peoria, Illinois and management assistant with the City of Anaheim.
Dr. Wolf holds a doctorate in education from the University of Southern California, a master’s degree in business and public administration from the University of California, Irvine (UCI), a bachelor of arts in political science from UCI, an administrative services credential from Chapman University and UCI, and a professional clear teaching credential from California State University, Fullerton.
Dr. Wolf resides in Irvine with his wife and two teenage children. He is highly recommended by his colleagues and the Southern California education community, and I am confident he will be a great asset to the Orange County High School of the Arts administrative team.Please join me in giving Dr. Wolf a warm welcome to the Orange County High School of the Arts!
I'm a mom, a writer, and apparently a blogger with two children who attend Orange County School of the Arts. I crave good information and LOVE to ask questions. But now I have all this stuff in my head. Oh well, it's okay because I love to chat and share. Go ahead and pick my brain.
We appreciate and value the feedback of Orange County High School of the Arts parents. We certainly understand your concerns and would like to assure you that the school’s administrative team remains committed to the mission of the Orange County High School of the Arts to provide a creative, challenging and nurturing environment for our bright and talented student artists.
All candidates for the principal position participated in an extensive application process including interviews with a panel of OCHSA students, parents, faculty, staff and community members. During this process, the lawsuit against Garden Grove Unified School District was brought to the interview panel’s attention. As you may know, the lawsuit against Garden Grove Unified School District was overturned and the Court ruled that the student’s rights under the Equal Protection Clause and the First Amendment were not violated, and also ruled that her privacy rights under the California Constitution were not violated. Dr. Wolf acted in accordance with school district policy and has assured us the same disciplinary actions are taken for any student in violation of district policy regardless of gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation.
The Orange County High School of the Arts remains committed to providing an equal and fair environment for all students. Thank you, once again, for your feedback. We look forward a successful 2012-2013 school year!
-Orange County High School of the Arts Administration
Posted by OCHSA Administration | June 5, 2012, 11:36 amI googled the new guy as well and to be honest I was not as thrilled with what I found. Statistics on paper for how things may have improved under his leadership at his previous places of employment just don’t tell the whole story. This is the man who outed a gay high school girl to her very conservative family and along with other school administrators helped to ruin this honor student’s academic career all because they were uncomfortable with her showing affection to her girlfriend. While I think PDAs between students should be against the rules for everyone, this girl and her girlfriend were punished while straight couples who exhibited the same behavior were not punished. Being an OCHSA parent yourself I’m sure you know about the large gay community within the school population and I can’t help but wonder why anyone felt this person would be a good fit for our kids? Granted, one mistake shouldn’t condemn a person BUT that particular mistake is something that could literally be a daily issue at OCHSA. I realize the law suit this girl filed ended up not going in her favor, but I really don’t think that’s the point. I’d like to know if this man really understands anything about the kids who attend OCHSA? Is this just another administrator who wants OCHSA on his resume or is he really interested in improving things?
Posted by janbe | June 3, 2012, 11:14 pmHi Janbe ~
Ouch. I know. I personally felt that there was some irony in the selection of Dr. Wolf. Thank you for bringing it up here as I do believe it is very relevant and I wrested with how to approach this knowledge.
Actually, I put off this blog post for a few weeks because I wasn’t sure how I should deal with it after learning about the incident to which you refer. I even talked it over with my OCHSA-student daughter; I was interested in her opinion. She said, and I ultimately agreed, that since the court ruled that Dr. Wolf had not violated the rights of the student under the Equal Protection Clause or her First Amendment rights, or her privacy rights under the California Constitution, that in my post, I should not mention his past history. Of course, as you quickly discovered, this information is public knowledge. My daughter wondered if it was unfair of me to introduce him in this way and possibly taint his reputation, prior to him ever starting as principal of OCHSA.
Two things I considered:
Other incidents before and after; This case began in 2005 — nearly seven years ago. I am not aware of any other similar issues ever and remain open to the possibility that this was an unfortunate and one-time set of circumstances.
Faith in OCHSA; in my experience over the past three years, I have witnessed a commitment to excellence by Ralph Opacic and other school administrators. Surely, they must be aware of this issue, and based on their assessment, Dr. Wolf was the best man for the job. I understand there were about 20 candidates (UPDATE 6/5: 80 candidates) for this position and his credentials and past experience were seen as the best fit for OCHSA. At this time, I have no reason to doubt that the decision to hire Dr. Wolf was in the best interest of the school.
So I decided to take a neutral position and keep an open mind. I went to a source, someone who I knew had first-hand experience working alongside Dr. Wolf recently and asked her opinion. This past issue wasn’t on her mind when she gave me her thoughts; when I asked her about it, she said she was aware of it but that “it hadn’t had a negative effect on her campus at all.”
I am an optimist so I am hopeful he will have the same positive effect on OCHSA’s campus. I also wonder whether or not this past experience will actually help him navigate with more sensitivity the intricacies that might be unique to our campus. I am hoping that something good can come from a bad experience that appears to be isolated to one incident.
Only time will tell. He starts in August. I suspect we will be hearing more about this in the coming weeks and months.
OCHSAmama
Posted by OCHSAmama | June 4, 2012, 10:45 am