Haverhill Expects to Name New Hunking, Silver Hill Principals For Next School Year

Hunking School (Jay Saulnier file photograph for WHAV News.)

Click image above for Haverhill School Committee agenda.

Two new principals are expected at Haverhill schools next school year, pending final negotiations.

Shannon Gilligan, who currently works at a Woburn-based school coaching and leadership training organization is slated to become principal of Caleb Dustin Hunking School. Gilligan replaces Shannon Nolan, who is leaving the school district to become principal at Amesbury Elementary School. Mary Ellen Lucas is also expected to be promoted to principal at Silver Hill Elementary School. She currently serves as assistant principal there.

A salary in the range of $122,000 is being discussed for Gilligan, who is program director at Teaching and Learning Alliance. School Committee member Richard J. Rosa, who served on the selection committee advising Superintendent Margaret Marotta, lauded the finalist.

“Ms. Gilligan brings experience as a principal, as an educational consultant, and in the area of literacy. Her diverse background as an educator will serve our students well at Haverhill’s largest school.”

According to those who were consulted on Gilligan’s selection, the educator has experience with both elementary and middle schools—an attribute fitting for Hunking’s lower and upper schools. Hunking serves students in grades kindergarten through eighth.

Lucas replaces retiring Silver Hill Principal Margaret Shepherd. Shepherd reluctantly led the school from its transition as a Horace Mann charter school in 2017 to a standard public elementary school reporting to the Haverhill School Committee.

Comments are closed.