BUCKLAND — Former Amherst Regional Middle School principal Marisa Mendonsa is one of two finalists for the new co-principal position at the Mohawk Trail Regional School.
Mendosa, of Northampton, and Mike Duprey of Winchester, N.H., the former acting principal at Pioneer Valley Regional School, were to meet with the Mohawk Trail Regional School District community this week so that school officials would get feedback from the public before making a hiring decision.
They were selected out of a pool of 22 applicants.
Mendonsa recently resigned as principal of the Amherst Regional Middle School, a position she held for two years, through June 30. From 2012 to 2014, she was principal of the John J. Duggan Middle School in Springfield. She received her Master of Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2005 and her Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study from UMass in 2011. She also taught at the Springfield Renaissance School and at the Melican Middle School in Northborough and at Amherst Regional Middle School.
Duprey worked in the Pioneer Valley Regional School District for 26 years as a teacher, athletic director, assistant principal and interim principal. He announced his resignation in May. Before going to Pioneer in 1990, Duprey was a special education teacher in Greenfield Public Schools and taught physical education for Mohawk schools. In 1982, Duprey founded the Body Shoppe Health and Fitness Centre in Greenfield. He was head football coach for Greenfield High School from 1982 to 2004, and went on to become head football coach for Pioneer Valley Regional School in 2005.
School Superintendent Michael Buoniconti told the School Committee Wednesday night that Mohawk received several good applicants for the position. “We’re in a good position of having to make a tough choice,” he said.
Instead of filling a vacant assistant principal position, Mohawk officials are adopting a co-principal team with the new hire and Principal Lynn Dole.
“The principal and assistant principal job descriptions will be combined and re-shaped into a co-principal job description,” Buoniconti explained. “I will work with Principal Dole and the new co-principal to divide these responsibilities, which we will communicate to the school community prior to the start of the new school year. As part of this process, we will consult with neighboring Mahar Regional (School), which recently implemented a co-principal model with an apparent great deal of success.”