Crescenta Valley principal named

GLENDALE — Rosemont Middle School Principal Michele Doll was tapped Wednesday to take the helm of Crescenta Valley High School, which is less than a mile from her current campus.

Doll leaves Rosemont after two years as principal. Dick Sheehan, who will be district superintendent next school year, said Doll was the ideal candidate for her insider knowledge and outsider experience.

“You had a combination of parents and community members that wanted someone with internal knowledge of the community, and you had another faction who said we want someone with an outside perspective,” he said. “She’s been in that community for two years, she’s built relationships in that community, and yet, she hasn’t spent her whole career there.”

But at least some stakeholders remained skeptical, including Maggie O’Rourke, a Crescenta Valley High parent, who said the hiring seemed unnecessarily hurried.

“The whole thing makes me wonder, why is there a big rush?” she said. “It’s the process, and it speaks to the major concern a lot of people have about the district right now, and that is transparency.”

Doll’s career in public education spans 16 years, including positions in the Pasadena and Monrovia school districts, as well as being the associate principal at Glendale High School.

“I’m really looking forward to, in four years, handing my eighth-graders their diploma from high school,” Doll said. “Crescenta Valley High is a fabulous school, it’s high achieving academically, there’s a phenomenal athletic program, and wonderful extracurricular [activities]. The teachers are amazing, and I think it’s an opportunity I could not pass up.”

Doll was one of three district employees being considered, a number that didn’t surprise Sheehan, he said.

”We just went through another principal hiring at Hoover [High School], and so we had a strong pool of candidates,” he said. “It’s not like we didn’t know who our candidates might be. They had already applied for the Hoover position, and we actually picked up some additional candidates, one being Michele Doll, for the Crescenta Valley job.”

District officials said that all candidates went through several rounds of interviews, and that there was ample opportunity for community input.