After seven years on the job, Hooksett Cawley School Principal Ron Pedro has decided to take the open principal’s position at Auburn Village School. Hooksett Memorial School Assistant Principal Steve Harrises will take over as Cawley principal, effective July 1. With some administrative shuffling within SAU 15, the assistant principal posts at both Cawley and Memorial are open as well.

“I’m very excited about the elementary piece,” Pedro said of his new job at the K-8 school in Auburn, adding he would dearly miss the Hooksett students and frequent interactions with the community.

The Auburn position came up at the end of March, when Principal Anita Johnson announced she would be retiring at the end of the school year. Pedro, interested in getting involved with the elementary levels and particularly the kindergarten implementation, applied and was selected from about 10 candidates. The Auburn School Board appointed Pedro to the position at their meeting Tuesday, April 8.

“Auburn is right on the cusp of change right now,” Pedro said, referencing their space and programming issues as well as the Auburn School Board’s interest in building a new school.

Hooksett School Board Chairman Maura Ouellette said while they will miss Pedro at Cawley, she is happy to see him pursue his interests.

“Ron Pedro had expressed an interest in working with younger students. This is a great opportunity for him and we wish him all the best and thank him for his years of dedicated service to Hooksett,” said Ouellette. The Auburn School Board expressed similar wishes for Johnson in her retirement, but members are excited to have Pedro on board.

“We’re just really going to miss (Johnson), but we wish her the best,” said Auburn School Board Vice Chairman Kathi Porter, adding that the board is excited to have a “fresh set of eyes” on the Village School’s issues.

She added the timing is perfect to get Pedro into the Village School in time to set up kindergarten for the coming school year.

“My goal is to pretty much follow on all those great things that Ron Pedro and Becky Wing have gotten rolling over the years,” Harrises said, adding he is excited at the idea of knowing the Cawley student body from his first day on the job, having seen the great majority of them come through Memorial.

“It excites me so much that I’ll carry these kids from their third-grade year to their eighthgrade year,” Harrises said. “I enjoy seeing kids growing an going through different situations and questioning.”

With Cawley’s current Assistant Principal Becky Wing having been officially approved as the Hooksett School District’s math coordinator for next year, that leaves two assistant principal positions open, one at Memorial and one at Cawley. Wing said she’s excited to spearhead the math coordinator position and shape it to fit the needs of Hooksett schools, adding one of the main goals is to improve math scores both in the classroom and on standardized testing.

“I want to see kids leave our district with a good solid math background and a love of math,” said Wing, whose educational and instructional background is in math.

“When you’re the first person to go into a position, I think that makes it all that more exciting, really,” Wing said.

Superintendent Phil Littlefield said the assistant principal job openings have been posted in newspapers and online, and that two separate committees will be formed to screen applications and narrow down candidates before turning the process over to the SAU administration. Littlefield said the openings were just posted Friday, April 11, so no applications had come in as of press time.

Each committee will include the principal – Harrises for Cawley’s committee and Principal Carol Soucy for Memorial’s – plus five teachers, one support staff member and three parents.

Of the five teachers on each screening team, one would come from each grade level, one would be a unified arts staff member and the remaining teacher spot would be filled by someone from special education or guidance. The Hooksett Education Association, the teacher’s union, will select all five of them, Littlefield said.

Out of the three parents on each committee, one will be the principal’s choice, one will be the PTA/PTO’s choice and the third will be the school district volunteer coordinator’s choice.

The candidates filtered by that process will go into interviews with the SAU staff, including Littlefield, Assistant Superintendent Gail Kushner and Business Administrator Karen Lessard, among others.

From that group of interviewees, the SAU staff will settle on one candidate to bring before the School Board for consideration. “We’re hoping on or about June 10 to bring a candidate for each position to the Hooksett School Board so that they can conduct the final interview,” Littlefield said.