District Seeks Replacement for Assistant Principal to HHS Freshman Class

Throughout the month of August, WHAV provides a daily report counting down to the first day of school in Greater Haverhill.

This year’s Haverhill High School freshman class will start the year with someone missing. Assistant Principal Daniel Faircloth, who for the last several years led the Freshman Academy, has taken a job in the Wilmington School District.

Faircloth, who spent 17 years in the Haverhill schools, will start this school year as one of two assistant principals at Wilmington Middle School.

For the bulk of his career, Faircloth was a special education teacher at the middle school level in Haverhill, spending a dozen years in that role.

While at Haverhill High School, Faircloth spent four years running the YES program, a drop-out prevention initiative that provided intensive support for at-risk students.

The district is interviewing for a replacement.

Freshman orientation is Aug. 17 from 6 to 7 p.m. in the HHS gym. The school is at 137 Monument St.

Haverhill school administrators have spent the summer dealing with the logistics of combining nine grades (kindergarten through eighth) at Hunking School, with more than 1,000 students. Among the questions they grappled with: What is the best way to handle starting times in the Hunking’s two-schools-in-one design?

Principal Shannon Nolan said the decision was made to have students in both the lower (k-4) and upper (5 through 8) start school at the same time. Hunking’s school day will be 8:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., which coincides with the school day in the city’s other middle schools. Haverhill’s elementary school day is normally 9 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.

Silver Hill School plans an open house for new students in grades 1 through 5 and their families in on Aug. 21 from 4 to 5 p.m. Parents are invited to bring questions about how students will be affected by the failure of the school to gain approval for renewal of its Horace Mann charter. The 2017-2018 school year is the final year that the school will operate under that charter. Silver Hill is at 675 Washington St.

Haverhill Public Schools open their doors to students in grades 1 through 12 on Tuesday, Aug. 29. Kindergarten begins Sept. 5. All Haverhill students will attend for a half-day on Friday, Sept. 1, and enjoy a day off for Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 4.

Regional first days are:

Pentucket: Aug. 31

Timberlane: Sept. 5

Methuen: Aug. 29

Do you have a submission for the Back-to-School Countdown? Email information to [email protected]. Tune in tomorrow for more back-to-school information.