About 40 people attended the official Meet & Greet reception for Malibu High/Middle school’s new principal, Michelle “Cheli” Nye, Ed.D and new assistant principal, Hillary Weissman, Ed.D in the school library last week. The event was organized by the PTSA.
Nye, who came on board the last week of September, is overseeing the education of approximately 1,100 students in grades six through 12 at Malibu Middle and High schools, as well as 55 teachers. She is the first female principal in the school’s history — not counting substitutes — and follows several tumultuous years at the school with high administrative turnover.
While Mark Kelly served as MHS principal for a relatively long time — from 2004 to 2012 — successor Jerry Block only stayed in the job from 2012-14. Dave Jackson came in as interim principal for 2014-15, and then new principal Brandon Gallagher resigned after just one year, 2015-16.
As far as the recent turnover among principals, Nye said, “Many schools have turnover,” indicating that Malibu’s experience isn’t necessarily unusual. As for herself, though, it seems she intends to stick around. She pointed out that she spent 14 years at North High School in Torrance, starting off as a math teacher, moving up to department chair and then assistant principal for seven years.
“I love getting to know the community in-depth and hope to have a long-term relationship,” Nye said.
Although only on the job for 23 days at the time of the interview, Nye said her priority was to “understand the school — the key players, students, staff and community members that keep the school running.”
She’s already getting her feet wet with the major modernization/construction project that will be taking place at the school, and has met with the construction company to get an idea of the overall scope of the project.
“The fences and portables are already up,” she laughed. “They’ll be digging a trench and redoing the parking lot first, but demolition won’t take place until summer [because of the noise, etc.].”
Nye has her work cut out for her, following a few tumultuous years at the school.
The school became embroiled in controversy in 2013 when caulk tested positive for PCBs, a known carcinogen. News trucks from LA descended on the school. Distraught parents and faculty, not happy with the school district’s handling of testing and clean-up of PCBs in the facilities, joined two advocacy group that filed lawsuits. Court rulings weren’t made until September 2016. In the meantime, a number of parents pulled their children out of MHS classrooms and enrollment remains down.
The Malibu Community Alliance group brought a lawsuit over MHS’s new, bright athletic field lights, and kept it in litigation from 2012 to 2016 before an appeals court denied the challenge. The lawsuit held up work on a major modernization project at MHS using Measure BB funds for several years.
Advocates for Malibu Public Schools (AMPS) was formed in 2010 by parents who wanted to break away from Santa Monica and form an independent Malibu school district, due to the fact that Malibu has essentially no say in board decisions. District separation is currently in a negotiation phase and could happen as early as 2017-18.
“Every school has something, but at least this is a small community that you can work with,” Nye told The Malibu Times in response to being asked about the school’s problems and changes. She also felt that the worst of the problems were already over. Nye will also not be going it alone.
Assistant Principal Hillary Weissman taught AP English for 13 years in South Central LA and various “inner-city” and turnaround schools; she also taught many English-as a-second-language learners.
Weissman recounted that she had been also considering an offer from Inglewood, when her mother, also an educator, advised her that, “you’ve been in the inner-city for so long, maybe you need to see the other end of the education spectrum.”
Weissman has been doing a lot of listening and observing, and tries to get in classrooms twice a day.
“I love the job,” Weissman said. “Nye is very calm and a good listener. Her vision is grounded in students, and that’s unique.”
The new administration already has support from parents.
“I have high hopes. I’m happy to have Dr. Nye on board and she seems happy to be here. I like that she’s been a math teacher,” Karen Farrer, parliamentarian/former president of the PTSA, 2012 candidate for school board and past president of AMPS, said.
“It’s a fresh start having a new principal and a new assistant principal at the same time, so they can develop positions together,” Farrer added. “We hope it works out so they both stay — we need some continuity here.”
