Marblehead super to choose new principal

MARBLEHEAD – Incoming Superintendent of Schools Greg Maass, who formally begins his duties July 1, is scheduled to choose the next principal of the Marblehead Veterans Middle School this week – and he will have two strong candidates to interview.Principal Elizabeth Moore, the highest-paid female employee in town, will retire from her $105,255 post June 30. After the middle school principal vacancy was posted, Interim Superintendent of Schools Brian Salzer headed the screening committee, which included staff and parents.The two finalists for the position are Matthew Fox, principal of the Grade 6-12 Hamilton-Wenham regional middle and high schools, and Renata McFarland, principal of Haverhill?s Grade 6-8 Nettle Middle School.In a report to the School Committee Thursday Salzer referred to them as “two outstanding finalists”Fox was named principal of the Hamilton-Wenham middle school in 2007. He was named high school principal in February, 2009 as a cost-saving measure. He previously served as principal of a combined middle and high school in Georgetown from 2003-2007.The month that Fox was named high school principal the New England Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges placed Hamilton-Wenham High?s accreditation on warning, where it remains pending capital improvementsFox has been quoted as saying that being principal of Grades 7 and 8 at the Marblehead Veterans Middle School will give him a chance to focus on his true passion, middle school.McFarland spent 18 years teaching physical education in Haverhill and five years as an adjunct professor at Endicott College, Beverly. Certified as a preschool-to-Grade 9 principal/assistant principal, she was named principal of the Nettle Middle School in 2006.