Schools
MHS Principal Is Finalist for Belmont High Principal Job
Dan Richards, finishing up his first year as Melrose High School principal, is a candidate to return to the school from whence he came.
After only one year as principal of , Dan Richards might be leaving.
Richards is one of two finalists to become the next Belmont High School principal, along with Purnima Vadhera, the interim principal of the Arthur D. Healey School in Somerville.
Belmont Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston, who selected the finalists with Assistant Superintendent Janice Darias, said in the past week that he hopes to name a successor to Dr. Michael Harvey—the current high school principal who was named superintendent of the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District—by Thursday, June 14, the last day of school in Belmont.
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Richards, , had previously been Belmont High School's assistant principal of instruction for six years, working closely with Harvey, before coming to Melrose High School. Before then, he was a classroom teacher and then Business and Technology Department chair and Class Master at Newton South, where he worked for eight years.
Reached by phone on Monday, Superintendent Joe Casey said, "I was informed this morning by Principal Richards that he was a candidate and we won’t know anything else for some time." A message was left by Melrose Patch for Richards on his voicemail at the school.
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Last May, . In his first year as principal, he has been lauded by city and school officials for his work in tackling Melrose High School's warning status from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). The school has been , but remains on warning status for the building's condition.
Richards has two master’s degrees in education: one from Salem State College, a master's degree in education leadership from Salem State College and a master's from Cambridge College in management, negotiation, and conflict resolution.
Belmont residents will get their chance to meet, greet and question the principal finalists tomorrow, June 12, at the Belmont High School auditorium. Vadhera will be greeted from 7 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. and Richards from 8 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.
Melrose Patch editor Daniel DeMaina contributed to this report.
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