
{"id":5538,"date":"2009-04-16T08:47:31","date_gmt":"2009-04-16T16:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=5538"},"modified":"2009-04-16T08:47:31","modified_gmt":"2009-04-16T16:47:31","slug":"east-principal-dave-thaden-announces-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/04\/16\/east-principal-dave-thaden-announces-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"East principal Dave Thaden announces retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kirk Ross<br \/>\nStaff Writer<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter three decades as an educator in Chapel Hill, much of that as the first and only principal at East Chapel Hill High, Dave Thaden announced this week that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stepping down.<\/p>\n<p>Thaden cited his 30-year mark and a need to focus on his health as the reasons for this decision.<\/p>\n<p>He attributed both his longevity as an educator and his success as a principal to a love for his students and sincere interest in seeing them learn and develop as people.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what gets me out of bed in the morning,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. He called being a high school principal engaging and demanding, but at times downright silly.<\/p>\n<p>School board chair Lisa Stuckey, whose three children attended East, said the district is sorry to see him go.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We certainly wish him well,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He is a great person and we appreciate his service to the school community.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Superintendent Neil Pedersen said Thaden has had a long and illustrious career with the district.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153East Chapel Hill High School\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success is a testament to Mr. Thaden\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leadership,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Pedersen said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I believe that the high school principalship is the most challenging position in the district, and Mr. Thaden has performed admirably in this capacity for\u00c2\u00a0thirteen years. I think that his decision to retire at this time after 30 years of service to the district is the right decision, so he can attend to his personal needs. He deserves a respite and then I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure that he will pop up in another capacity to serve educators locally or across the state.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Thaden, a native of East Lansing, Mich., started his career as an English teacher at Phillips Middle School in 1979. He worked in the district office and served in administrative roles, including four years as an assistant principal at Chapel Hill High. He moved to East Chapel Hill High in 1995 to prepare it for its 1996 opening.<\/p>\n<p>Even as an administrator, Thaden continued to teach English. Four years ago, when East grew to 1,400 students, he finally had to stop. <\/p>\n<p>He has declined to talk specifics about his health issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m working with some good folks and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re pleased that things appear to be moving in the right direction,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He also expects that after some downtime he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find a new role in the community. He said working with Habitat for Humanity last summer was particularly rewarding and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interested in the Interfaith Council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll do something to give back to my community,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<br \/>\nThaden also hinted he may get back into teaching at some point and cited his success in hiring former McDougle Middle School principal Charley Stewart after his retirement.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see what happens,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not closing any doors. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just going to stay at home and paint.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kirk Ross Staff Writer After three decades as an educator in Chapel Hill, much of that as the first and only principal at East Chapel Hill High, Dave Thaden announced this week that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stepping down. Thaden cited his 30-year mark and a need to focus on his health as the reasons for this&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-schools","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5539,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5538\/revisions\/5539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}