June 23, 2004

Back to the Table of Contents Page

Back to The Almanac Home Page

Classifieds

Publication Date: Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Portola Valley picks Corte Madera principal

By Marjorie Mader
Almanac Staff Writer

The Portola Valley School District has chosen the principal of a large and ethnically and economically diverse middle school in Houston, Texas, to be the next principal of Corte Madera, a grades 4-8 middle school.

Joel L. Willen, 61, who has been principal of John J. Pershing Middle School in Houston for the past seven years, was the first choice of the Portola Valley district's interview team after an extensive search process that involved 24 parents and staff.

He and his wife, Ruth Willen, also a school principal, said they wanted to return to California and the Bay Area, which they consider "home and where they have family." Ms. Willen recently was appointed principal of Bubb Elementary School in the Mountain View-Whisman School District.

Mr. Willen has spent 26 years as a middle school principal, vice principal, and teacher in grades 1-12, primarily in the Sierra foothills.

"Absolutely, Joel Willen is the person I wanted to get," said Portola Valley Superintendent Anne Campbell. She said he brings a wide spectrum of experience, a "collaborative leadership style" and enthusiasm for working with students, teachers, parents and the community. "He's very congenial in a nice, friendly, quiet way."

Mr. Willen matched the profile of the desired candidate, developed after extensive interviews and input from students, teachers, staff, parents and community members, said Ms. Campbell.

"Joel Willen had the whole package," said Trustee Teresa Godfrey, a member of the interview committee. "He met all our wishes, and he was willing to come. We have every expectation that he will be a perfect principal for Corte Madera School."

Principal Willen will start work at Corte Madera on August 2. His salary will be $114,063 for the 210-day work year. Superintendent Campbell and school board President Deborah Rappaport are negotiating his contract, which is expected to be a multi-year one. The board has agreed that the district will reimburse him for up to $10,000 in direct moving expenses.

Mr. Willen told the interview committee that he expected to stay long enough at Corte Madera to see the incoming fourth-graders graduate as eighth-graders. That would be at least a five-year commitment, said Trustee Godfrey.

The new principal is expected to bring stability to Corte Madera after a series of principal changes and different leadership models that go back 16 years. Only one principal during that time was an experienced principal, and she resigned due to illness.

Principal Ed Winchester, who was hired in February 2003, resigned in March 2004, effective June 30. His leadership style resulted in controversy and divisiveness in the community. One of his first decisions was to cancel the traditional eighth-grade field trip to Washington, D.C., and replace it with "Sojourn to the Past," which traces the American Civil Rights movement in the South.

"I think he (Mr. Willen) will bring a sense of unity to the community that hasn't been here recently," said Ellen Moran, a parent and member of the interview team.

Dick Boyce, another parent on the interview committee, said, "there's ample evidence that Mr. Willen has a great capability to take high-achieving kids to the next level" and work successfully with a wide spectrum of students.

Although no one from Portola Valley visited Mr. Willen's school in Houston, Superintendent Campbell said, "We talked to lots of people in Texas," and the responses were all positive.

Mr. Willen also has a connection to Ken Ranella, now superintendent of the Menlo Park City School District, that goes back to the 1980s. Mr. Willen was an administrative intern to Mr. Ranella when he was principal in the Black Oak Mine Unified School District in Georgetown, California, in the Gold Country. Mr. Willen taught in the district from 1980 to 1987 in grades 7-8 and in the alternative high school.

"Joel was an educator who was fully committed to his students, and he lived and breathed his work with the children and their families," recalled Mr. Ranella. "We also were a great double-play combination on the softball team," said Mr. Ranella, who played shortstop, with Mr. Willen at second base.

While living in Georgetown, Mr. Willen was a vice principal of a grade 5-8 school in the Grass Valley School District and later principal of an intermediate school in El Dorado Hills. He has a master's degree in education administration from the University of San Francisco, and a master's in elementary education and a bachelor's degree in physical education from Adelphi University in Garden City, New York.

After the Willens' first granddaughter was born, the couple said, they moved to Houston in 1997 to see her grow up.

Mr. Willen became principal of Pershing Middle School, considered a premier school in Texas, with 1,670 students in grades 6-8. Students are grouped by ability in smaller clusters. Students from the Houston district compete for slots in the Pershing School's fine arts/performing arts magnet school and also its gifted and talented magnet program.

"My boss was Superintendent Rod Paige, now secretary of education," said Mr. Willen during a telephone interview.

Now, Mr. Willen said, he wants to be back in a smaller school, where "I will know all the kids by name, their brothers and sisters and their parents. I'm a hands-on administrator and I like being in the classroom."

The Willens also wanted to return to the Bay Area to be closer to their daughter Beth and grandchildren in Santa Cruz, and their son Jonathan in Folsom.

During the selection process, Mr. Willen and the other finalist were asked to share with the committee what each would do in the first six months at Corte Madera. First on his list is to "build relationships" with students, teachers, parents and the community and get to know them. He said he plans to sit down with teachers and listen to their ideas of what's working at Corte Madera and what isn't. He also wants to talk with the students, especially the eighth-graders, because they've been at the school the longest time and "kids are honest," he said.

E-mail Marjorie Mader at mmader@AlmanacNews.com

E-mail a friend a link to this story.