BATH

More High School Principal John Pinkerton is retiring at the end of the school year.

The school leader informed Regional School Unit 1 of his plans last week, said Superintendent Patrick Manuel.

“When we hired him, he said he would give us at least five years, and this is his fifth year,” said Manuel.

Pinkerton said that the decision to retire was difficult.

“I love it here at Morse,” he said. “I love this community. I love this school. I’m really happy here, actually.”

Pinkerton gave a couple reasons for his decision: A combination of his wife retiring last year and a desire to make sure that leadership remains consistent with a transition to the new Morse High School building.

Looking ahead

“I think it’s important for the next person to be here and see it through for the first few years of opening as well. I wouldn’t want to retire in the middle of all of that,” he said. “It gives the new person a couple years to work out some more details with the building as things keep changing.”

Prior to coming on board as principal of Morse High School, Pinkerton worked at Lincoln Academy in Newcastle for 17 years; his final seven years there he served as headmaster.

Manuel said that the district will move quickly to find a replacement for Pinkerton before the start of school next year.

“So we’re going to start the process. We meet with Morse staff this week to talk about the process and the qualities they’d like to see in a new principal,” he said. “Then we’ll be probably advertising before the holiday break.

“We’re hoping to interview before the February break so we can kind of beat the rush, so to speak, of other school systems that may be looking for a high school principal,” added Manuel.

nstrout@timesrecord.com

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