Ruth Vail, a Woodrow Wilson High School alumna and principal of the school since 2004, says she is resigning to pursue a doctoral degree at the University of Texas at Austin.
Vail sent a letter, addressed to the “Woodrow Family”, today.
I have enjoyed working for DISD for the past 15 years serving the district as teacher, administrator and campus principal. Most importantly, it has been great to work with a great group of teachers who are devoted to making public education work. It’s been a pleasure to have worked with the Woodrow community to help Woodrow become an IB World School.
Vail has not returned a call seeking comment. She spearheaded the effort to make Woodrow an International Baccalaureate World School, the first DISD school to do so.
“She’s had an excellent tenure over there,” DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander says. “She did a marvelous job pulling everyone together, especially with the IB program.”
Vail’s salary as principal was $102,241, according to the Texas Tribune, which tracks public salaries. Now the school must find a new principal.
DISD’s “request for principal” process goes like this: DISD administrators appoint a committee of representatives from DISD, the school and the community. That committee develops criteria for the new principal. Then DISD administrators post the job and use those criteria to find three or four candidates. Finally, the committee decides which candidate to hire.
It’s not a perfect process, says District 2 school board trustee Mike Morath, but it is “pretty effective”.
“Running a school is a very, very difficult job,” Morath says. “It’s probably the toughest job I’ve ever been exposed to in the educational realm.”
An effective principal must be creative and flexible, and he or she must constantly collaborate and be a good leader, Morath says.
“Ruth was a great addition to the school, and personally, I will miss her,” says PTA member Vince Murchison. “We’ve got to get to work right now and find the best principal we can.
