Morse High School Principal Peter Kahl, left, talks in his office on Wednesday with senior Spencer Ryan of West Bath. Kahl announced recently that he will resign at the end of the 2012-13 school year. (Donald Jamison / The Times Record)
High School, Principal Peter Kahl will leave that post at the end of the 2012-13 school year.
In a letter to Regional School Unit 1 Superintendent Patrick Manuel, Kahl wrote that he will “leave with a heavy heart,” but that recent events in his personal life diminished his desire to remain in Maine.
In February, Kahl’s partner of 20 years, Martin William Cole, died of hepatitis C at age 58. For eight years, the couple lived in and renovated a 162-year-old house across High Street from Morse High School.
“It was our dream to live in Maine together,” Kahl said Wednesday. “It was not my dream to necessarily stay here if he should die. I gave myself a year to grieve and get the house ready … it’s my goal to start traveling, and to get into the international school system.”
The years before Cole died were turbulent for Kahl. In 2005, he donated two-thirds of his liver to his partner, and the couple hoped that the transplant might cure the disease. But six months later, what Kahl called “the silent epidemic” returned, and with Cole already taking immunosuppressant drugs, the disease quickly attacked the new liver tissue.
“A year ago in May — actually right around now — he was told he needed a second liver transplant because his liver was failing,” Kahl said. “Unfortunately, the East Coast does not do many second liver transplants, because … too many people need first livers.”
So Cole relocated to Indianapolis University Health last August, and received a new liver within two-and-a-half weeks. But it was too late, and after six months in intensive care, Cole died in February.
“It was very hard,” Kahl said of his partner’s illness. “I missed the entire beginning of school. Then I was flying out every two to three weeks for weeks at a time, until he passed in February.”
The Morse community — students, faculty and staff — were “very supportive,” Kahl said Wednesday.
But “as soon as Martin died, my connection to Maine was severed,” he said. “It’s not that the house is painful to be in — quite the opposite, actually. It’s just not a place I wanted to be for retirement. We talked about traveling a lot prior to Martin having the first transplant, and those dreams sort of got put on hold because we didn’t want to leave the country when his health was failing.”
But Kahl hopes to work in international education, he said, and at 47, he said, “If I’m going to do it, now’s the time.”
He’s already interviewed for one position in Bahrain, he said, although he hopes to eventually work in Europe.
His time at Morse, Kahl said, was full of successes — and challenges.
The biggest challenge was navigating “the most turbulent budget cuts I think the school has seen in years” and “contentious” contract negotiations with teachers while maintaining morale and trust.
The budget cuts, he said, “were a huge challenge. The staff looks to me as a leader and expects me to protect them, but when I’m forced to make these cuts, it can breed distrust.”
Many successes
Among many successes, he pointed to improved SAT scores, progress implementing literacy back into the classroom and maintaining morale.
“I think by having me there for five years as a consistent principal, I was able to really boost staff morale and create a consistent, welcoming environment for the students,” he said.
“It’s been a pleasure working with Peter,” Manuel said Wednesday. “He’s done a lot of good things at Morse. It was a difficult year for him, personally. We certainly appreciate all that he’s done for Morse High School.”
Manuel said he plans to wait until January to begin advertising for Kahl’s replacement, because “that’s when all the best searches really begin. You don’t want to do it too early because people aren’t looking, and you don’t want to wait until it’s too late with other ads running.”
He said a search committee would lead the process with staff and school board input.
Kahl said he’ll miss Bath, and the Morse community.
“The time I have spent at Morse has been very special,” he wrote in his letter of resignation. “Morse High School is a school full of tradition, and to have played a small part in that tradition is incredibly moving … (RSU 1) is a community that cares deeply about its roots and its children, and that caring is reflected in their dedication to Morse High School.”
But Kahl still has family in Maine, and he plans to return to his camp in Denmark during the summers.
Students’ reaction
As word gets out that Kahl will leave at the end of next year, students are beginning to approach him, Kahl said.
“One kid said, ‘Aren’t you going to be my principal my senior year? That sucks,’” Kahl said. One of my advisees said, “‘Thank god we’re leaving before you leave.’”
The students, Kahl said, are “the best part of my job.”
He recalled one girl — a student in the culinary arts program at Bath Regional Career and Technical Center — who, upon learning of Cole’s death last February, asked Kahl what his favorite dessert was.
“I said, ‘Coconut cream pie,’” he said Wednesday. “She said, ‘I’m going to make you that because I’m so sorry you lost him.’ It took her six attempts, and I gave her a hard time about it, but she made it.’”
Other students sent notes and quietly told him how sorry they were.
“The kids are the ones to break my heart,” he said.
bbrogan@timesrecord.com
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